osu @ M - Game Day, In Game, Post Game Discussion

[Hannibal]

Yup. Let's be satisfied with less. We're Minnesota now. Might as well accept it.

[hack]

So you're not giving me a number. You insist that I'm a pessimistic curmudgeon but when I challenge your assertion that success is ahead you refuse to give me a schedule that defines what success is. How many years before we beat Ohio State? Two? Five? Ten? How many losses in a row are acceptable? What about MSU? Is losing at MSU next year acceptable? Is it okay for Harbaugh to start off 0-4 against our rivals? What about 0-6? 0-8? Remember how Beilien didn't beat MSU until year 4 and everyone was totally fine with it because expecting our sports teams to win is totally unreasonable? Will the same thing happenin football? Can Harbaugh fail to make the football CCG until Year 7 the way that Beilien failed to make the basketball CCG until year 7? Give me expectations. Numbers. And then stick with those numbers and don't move the goalposts forward. I'm sick of today's "pessimism" becoming tomorrow's "good".

Well I agreed with you that he's got to beat both of those teams next year. MSU loses Cook and possibly Burbridge, and OSU loses a ton. Michigan has to go beat those teams. I said that.

Overall, well, I'm not clairvoyant and can't tell you what's gonna happen. I will say though that I sure wish people would have the same expectations of the basketball program that they do of the football program. I'm certainly sick of the basketball program being considered an amusing little diversion, and I'm completely and utterly sick of hearing what an offensive genius Beilein is. If this is what you get with an offensive genius, give me any of several dozen run-of-the-mill defense-first guys. (Or man up and go pay an up-and-comer that hasn't spent three decades coaching underdogs and will struggle to adjust at a big-dog program. But this talk is premature. Beilein's earned the right to fix things.).

Beyond that, about football, what I know is that Harbaugh has had smashing success at every single stop in his career, and in a relative sense this year was a year of great progress. Things made sense again. I think it depends on some key recruiting battles. Gary is one. That's an immediate differencemaker. Kareem Walker could be, because RB looks like a huge issue right now. Linebackers? I don't know. That's a scary one. Pretty much job #1 is to get some athletic and speedy kids in here for that position group.

So my position is as follows: I expect wins over MSU and OSU next year, because those teams lose a ton and because WE JUST HAVE TO. How fast is Michigan really and truly ready? Well, that depends on building those pipelines. Right now it looks like we're probably set to maintain excellent play everywhere on the D but linebacker, and at QB. I think for the next few years, the big question is who Harbaugh can land at LB and at all offensive positions apart from QB, where it looks like he's going to have enough options to choose from. If those questions can be answered quickly then I think we'll be in great shape. Sorry I can't give you any more specifics, but then again I'm not the guy you should be asking.

Who is familiar enough with Taysom Hill to know what we could do with the guy? Could he be deployed in a multitool sort of way on offense?

[Niffla]

2010 11-2 (Lost to Alabama in Capital One Bowl)
2011 11-3 (Beat Georgia in Outback Bowl)
2012 7-6 (Beat TCU in BW3 Bowl)
2013 13-1 (Beat Stanford in Rose Bowl)
2014 11-2 (Beat Baylor in Cotton Bowl)
2015 11-1

Just off the top of my head, but Alabama and OSU might be the only two teams with a better record over that span

Yeah they're an elite program at this point. I can't take any credit away from them. And if they're not elite...I shudder to think what UM would be classified as.

[Mike]

He could become involved in shady recruiting practices for a quicker fix, but do we really want to see the program go in that direction for the sake of a few wins?

Yes. A million times yes. Give us Laquan Treadwell. Give us Deshawn Hand. Give us the D-lineman from NJ. Give those players to Harbaugh and we will win big. Continue to pretend we're West Point and we'll relive today for years to come. Oh. I'm sorry, relive the last 15 years.

Make no mistake. Our coaching is fine. We have HUGE talent disparities all over the field.

[Pasadena Blue]

Yup. Let's be satisfied with less. We're Minnesota now. Might as well accept it.

I am not saying that ... I am just asking what your proposal is. Fire Harbaugh after 1 season. Heckle the coaches and the team to express our displeasure.

Please do tell

[Pasadena Blue]

I shudder to think what UM would be classified as.

easy, NOT elite.

[Niffla]

easy, NOT elite.

Well yeah. Not even close.

[froot loops]

Like it or not this is part of program building. No team goes to elite without getting whipped a few times. For a Michigan fan it has to suck, the Buckeyes exploited a weakness and bludgeoned the team with it. I think once they got down in the second half they sunk down.

Losing it the way they did will help you in the long term than if they had a 2 TD loss. Watching Urbz celebrate the way he did will stick in their craw all year. But ultimately this is the price for for the decade of Hoke and Rodriguez.

[Pasadena Blue]

perhaps, but Talent has previously made a point that I agree with --- Harbaugh is entering the B1G at a time when Ohio and Sparty are established ELITE powers and have a big lead. This makes closing the gap harder and slower despite Hanni's expectations that we should be instantly successful.

[Detroit Dan]

Lack of explosive playmakers was supposed to be our weakness this year. But it turned out to be our strength. Chesson is looking NFL ready.

It has been a good year, with 4 more wins (and 4 fewer losses) than last year. We beat the teams worse than us, and lost to the teams better than us. We were 2-1 in close games.

I hope Harbaugh settles in for the long run. Danonio and Meyer are excellent coaches with top-notch programs. The most promising path to championship is to slowly but surely match them.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Worst day to have a boatload of recruits at the game

It hurts me to think what these kids were thinking.

[lineygoblue]

Couldn't have been all bad.

Elliott committed.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Couldn't have been all bad.

Elliott committed.

Yeah! I had no idea until after I wrote that. Was the commit before or after the game?

[WM Wolverine]

Very good season, were not elite. Next year is looking good as most all starters return.

[WM Wolverine]

To those who wondered why M's defense struggled mightily against the read-option vs both OSU and Indiana. The author (Steve Sharik) confirms exactly what a friend of mine (played B1G football & is a DC at high school level against many option/veer offenses) told me a few days after the loss to Indiana and told me it'd happen again to the Buckeyes without a major change in scheme...

http://mgoblog.com/diaries/steve-sharik