Michigan 56, Hawaii 10, Post Game Comments

[Jeff Buchanan]

Linesman has a fair point. Factors affecting Harbaugh's 2020 season are multiple and it's impossible to single out one being dominant. We've heard and discussed ad infitum most of them.

The reality is that winning is the salve that changes perceptions of reality and in some cases, reality itself. It's a great motivator. I think we're seeing that in the 2022 Harbaugh team and JH himself. We're also seeing diminishing BPONE among M fans as, first, recent memory of dong punches fades fast and, second, is replaced by optimism based on what the eyes see.

I do agree with talent that M has a ceiling but only right now and in the current CFB model. My take is that is irrelevant because what is going to happen with the combined impact of NIL, the portal and CFB expansion is likely to be a game changer for CFB teams in the 2nd tier, so to speak, that inludes blue blood teams like M, USC, Udub, ND among others who labor in the shadow of Alabama, UGA, maybe Clemson in the past (probably 2nd tier at this point) are going to be elevated by those factors as thier impact becomes realtiy. Likewise, the dominance of the elite teams will be diluted.

Of all those "second tier" teams, I like where Harbaugh's Michigan is positioned. We'll see going forward but it feels like JH's recruiting is ascending. He's proving his coaching and player deveopment chops (IMO). If M repeats as Big Champion, which talent is predicting, recruiting should improve and with that coupled with the factors I mentioned above, I like M's chances to at least be competitive with and among the so called elites of today's CFB game.

[Hannibal]

There is no excuse for Harbaugh’s abysmal 5-14 record in rivalry+bowl games. When it comes to the games that he needs to win the most, his team has been the Detroit Lions.

There is no excuse for 2020 either. Disgraceful. And Covid totally saved Harbaugh’s job. He would not have survived the 66-17 embarrassment that OSU would have delivered to us.

If we beat both MSU and OSU this year, it will be the first time that Harbaugh wins two rivalry+bowl games in a season. All is not forgotten for me. Nor is it forgiven. Yet. If Harbaugh wins the B1G this year and sweeps our rivalry games, I’ll consider it. If it plays out like 2015 or 2018, no way.

[Tom W]

Right. Covid is the perfect excuse for how bad the 2020 team was. If one were to peruse the 2020 threads there wasn't a lot of "it's ok, it's a covid season" talk. There was a lot, e.g., "Harbaugh needs to go after Ohio State beats him by 60" talk.

It's amazing what 2021 and the strong desire to forget and forgive will do. But, make no mistake, the 2020 team was not good. Covid or otherwise.

Of course, we'll never know for sure, but there were serious problems with whatever M brought out in 2020. Something other than the skill level of the players wasn't quite there and it seemed to be budding back as far as 2018 with that whole Patterson transfer portal experiment.

[iam416]

Correct. It was a really bad team. And, remember, they still had Don Brown. And decided to start Joe Milton. It was a really bad team and there's no real slicing it any other way. Nearly every contemporaneous post acknowledged that fact. No one was saying it's all ok because of covid.

[iam416]

We'll see going forward but it feels like JH's recruiting is ascending.

It's not.

The Portal is M's hope to compete against elite teams.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I just can't believe all the disparaging words about HARBAUGH!!!!!! I'm reading. Except from Talent. But he's a douche.

[iam416]

But, back to 2022, I don't even know when we find out what M has...probably when they play PSU and Sparty, both at home. Those are the only two games that could be competitive.

It'll be interesting to see how Sparty does in Seattle and how Penn State does at Auburn. Those are solid OoC games that would likely challenge most teams, including HARBAUGH!!!!

Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn remain an embarrassingly awful OoC slate.

[lineygoblue]

Sorry, I had a 9:00 doctor's appointment and I had to leave ..

One more point about 2020. I concede that the 2020 team was not good. Even had Covid not come along, OSU and others were going to smack that team around. Had they played a full uninterrupted season, they MIGHT have finished at 7-5 as a ceiling. Conceded. They were bad. I'm sure that the 87-3 scoreboard pictures from ohio stadium would have been a collectors item for hundreds of thousands of osu fans forever. Its what they do.

Now we have that out of the way ..

I'm still pumping the brakes on the 2022 team at least until we know what happens at Kinnick. Even after that, there are still at least two games where they'll face strong defenses and teams that hate their guts. If they tuck MSU and PSU into the win column, then I'll start believing they have a punchers chance in Columbus. Not until.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn remain an embarrassingly awful OoC slate.

...... or wisely chosen tune-ups and stepping stones for entry into the CFP. SOS isn't some kind of magic qualifier or disqualifier. It plays, no dooubt, but at least early, it doesn't seem to be a very strong determinant of who is occupying the top 4 positions for the CFP. http://www.espn.com/college-football/playoffPicture

Anticipating a response to this, M still has to get through it's toughest games, 2 at home (MSU, PSU)** and one away (osu). But, M, by a wide margin, at least it seems to me, has the easiest path to the CFP among likely contenders.

** Liney, I don't think Kinnick is going to be the factor you and others think it is, in winning there. Ferentz and his son.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think Michigan owes anyone an apology for the OOC schedule.

E.V.E.R.Y. team in CFB deliberately schedules soft spots in its schedule. They know who they are, no need to list them.

That being said, I hope that if anything, the new alignment(s) in CFB will bring scheduling where we get to see a full 12 weeks of the best teams playing the best teams. I'm not holding my breath. It will be tough for the big guys to eliminate those 70-3 wipeouts, but who knows .. maybe they'll grow some testicles and make it happen.

[lineygoblue]

** Liney, I don't think Kinnick is going to be the factor you and others think it is, in winning there. Ferentz and his son.

Nothing would make me happier than to find out that you are right on this, Jeff. I'd love to see a totally domination of Iowa at Kinnick, just like at Indy.

I still think that's going to be a tough test.

[Tom W]

I don't think Michigan owes anyone an apology for the OOC schedule.

I don't want an apology. I just want the athletic department to charge me a fair market value for the privilege of having to sit through some of these "games". You pay full price to see Hawaii or UConn, but you probably couldn't give them away.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Let's get back to the game ...... going against my better judgement and proving Froot right, I looked at several articles on the Hawaii offense. They are, indeed, not good for a lot of reasons. They do run what would be a challenging offense conceptually for M's D under new DC, Jessie Minter's version of the amoeba defense if Hawaii had the talent to run it competently. It does not so........

The Bows run something similar to CSU's offense. As it was put in one article at mgo, Hawaii runs an offense somewhere between June Jones' Run N' Shoot offense that head coach Timmy Chang played under while in college and Jay Norvell's Air Raid that Chang coached under last year at Nevada. It's definitely a hurry up, passing, spread offense. Hawaii ran about 80 plays each v. Vandy and WKU. What critics might want to look for is not how badly or not badly Michigan rails Hawaii or whether McNamarra holds serve or doesn't but whether or not Jesse Minter and his players learned from the CSU game.

Yes, I know McCarthy will start and has that advantage but so did Macnamara and he pretty much blew it. Let's see how JJ actually does playing whatever number of snaps JH wants to see before Cade is brought in from the bull-pen. No denying that will be interesting to watch but still, learning curves.

Being hypercritical from the stands, I saw some, not a lot, of successful crossing routes run by CSU v. Minter's scheme and some issues getting lined up when the Rams ran tempo. Not fatal issues but nonetheless something to look at wrt Minter's and his charge's learning curves. Hawaii's OL is, at least, seasoned and judged to be better than CSU's. WIll M's DL be as dominant and get as much pressure as it did v. CSU? Probably and the differences may not be meaningful. Something to watch though as I thought we got treated to a whacking of CSU's OL by M's DL that is not likely to repeat itself in conference play.

Ok, rain or moon, M 54, Hawaii 7** (M won't cover the 51,5 spread).

** Some may scoff at the Bows scoring a TD but against Vandy and WKU combined they ran 8, 4th down plays going 1/8. Chang likely had no choice but to go for it when playing from down bunches to either of those teams. I don't expect Chang to call for a FG when he's inside his kicker's range - whatever that is - and down bunches on the scoreboard.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[iam416]

54-7 is at least within a reasonable range of outcomes. It’s not an outlier. So, we’re already ahead of last week.