Terrible years under RR and Hoke made us believe Harbaugh was the second coming. And I think we were all justified in believing so. He was a winner in college and the NFL as a player. As a coach he was also a winner at all levels. A no nonsense, high wired guy and more importantly a Michigan Man of the highest pedigree and devotion. He was our quarterback when I was at Michigan and I closely followed his career in the NFL and as a coach. I was more than thrilled when we were able to get him as our coach.
All in all he has elevated our program, however at this point he is falling quite short of expectations given all the resources at his disposal. I'm still hopeful he can take Michigan to a higher level, probably not a consistent top-10 in the nation type, but he can turn Michigan into a very competitive program at both the B10 and at the national level.
As fans and people who care and will always care for this program, we need, I include myself, to become more objective in this matter. We have been too lenient with Harbaugh since the start. If you take all the romantic aspects away, we did hire a first rate professional, paid him accordingly, surrounded him with almost limitless resources in a tradition rich program with and incredibly loyal fan-base. We gave him the key to the car and let him drive as he witched. -- All of this is perfectly ok --
The problem has been that we also gave him our blind faith. There was nothing wrong Jimmy could do.
The first thing it should not have been permitted was to hire family. He hired his son and we applauded. That is not what first rate, well paid professionals do. And if he did, we were supposed to question it.
The second thing was creating all the hype, which now looks kind of ridiculous. Maybe he did't to help with recruiting, I can give him that, if it is the case.
The third thing that bothered me was the inability to match OSU in recruiting. With all the hype and all the resources available to him, I did expect better. I know many of you will disagree but when we hired the second coming in coaching and made him the highest paid college football coach in the country, I expected better. I could give him a pass on the first year, but not as a consistent trend.
Fourth, he has bloated personnel at all levels of the football program and has had a free hand at their recruitment. Something I don't have a problem with if it translate into exceptional results.
Finally the performance on the field, on recruiting (my opinion), player development and game strategy have all disappointed. And for the first time we begin to hear some complaints and criticism.
We have to remember this is a highly paid professional who is not delivering accordingly. I am the first to say that we still need to give him more time. It is only fair to see what he can do in a longer cycle. However, we do need to hold him accountable for his responsibilities and we should be asking for explanations and a clear plan for the short-term and long-term future. If you meet or exceed expectations you may require the fan base to treat you as a God, but when you are underachieving and disappointing you have to come down to earth and behave like all other mere mortals.
All in all he has elevated our program, however at this point he is falling quite short of expectations given all the resources at his disposal. I'm still hopeful he can take Michigan to a higher level, probably not a consistent top-10 in the nation type, but he can turn Michigan into a very competitive program at both the B10 and at the national level.
As fans and people who care and will always care for this program, we need, I include myself, to become more objective in this matter. We have been too lenient with Harbaugh since the start. If you take all the romantic aspects away, we did hire a first rate professional, paid him accordingly, surrounded him with almost limitless resources in a tradition rich program with and incredibly loyal fan-base. We gave him the key to the car and let him drive as he witched. -- All of this is perfectly ok --
The problem has been that we also gave him our blind faith. There was nothing wrong Jimmy could do.
The first thing it should not have been permitted was to hire family. He hired his son and we applauded. That is not what first rate, well paid professionals do. And if he did, we were supposed to question it.
The second thing was creating all the hype, which now looks kind of ridiculous. Maybe he did't to help with recruiting, I can give him that, if it is the case.
The third thing that bothered me was the inability to match OSU in recruiting. With all the hype and all the resources available to him, I did expect better. I know many of you will disagree but when we hired the second coming in coaching and made him the highest paid college football coach in the country, I expected better. I could give him a pass on the first year, but not as a consistent trend.
Fourth, he has bloated personnel at all levels of the football program and has had a free hand at their recruitment. Something I don't have a problem with if it translate into exceptional results.
Finally the performance on the field, on recruiting (my opinion), player development and game strategy have all disappointed. And for the first time we begin to hear some complaints and criticism.
We have to remember this is a highly paid professional who is not delivering accordingly. I am the first to say that we still need to give him more time. It is only fair to see what he can do in a longer cycle. However, we do need to hold him accountable for his responsibilities and we should be asking for explanations and a clear plan for the short-term and long-term future. If you meet or exceed expectations you may require the fan base to treat you as a God, but when you are underachieving and disappointing you have to come down to earth and behave like all other mere mortals.
