1. One of most disgraceful performances by a Michigan team in the history of the Game given the stakes and how the two teams played all year. Basically wiped away a season of good will here, and a season of frustration there. Think anyone in March is going to care that we were the best team in the conference all year and OSU was lucky to win 2 or 3 of its games? Never seen a team just implode like that. Closest I recall was 2006 Michigan in the second half of the Rose Bowl against USC. But stakes were higher here, and that SC team was better.
2. Now I hear people talking up the talent disparity. Please. With even a bigger talent disparity, how did 2 and 3 star Purdue/Maryland do against OSU? How about Nebraska? We had the closest roster to OSU on its schedule and lost by the most. That's not just on talent.
3. With that said, Harbaugh overall has done a good job here. You can't deny that he took a program that was basically a borderline bowl program over the last 7 years and turned it into a borderline top 10 program in four seasons. In some ways, Harbaugh's tenure is reminding me of the early Mack Brown years at Texas. Mack Brown took over after several uninspiring Texas coaches and immediately got results. He got them consistently to 10 wins, but they consistently lost to OU often in spectacular blowouts. Eventually Mack Brown got Vince Young, got past OU and won a title. He played for another one four years later. He beat OU a handful of times in the second half of his tenure.
4. While the defense was atrocious yesterday, this is modern college football. Don Brown has had three OSU games. His defenses were great in one (2016), good in another (last year) and bad in this one. Newsflash, the 2016 performance defensively isn't happening every year. Some years OSU is going to have its way. But this is why the offensive gameplan has to modernize. You need to go into the OSU game thinking we need 50 to win. If your defense does better, great. But college football has changed. To win a national title, you have to go through OSU, then likely some combo of Clemson, OU and Alabama most years. You have to assume your going to win at least 1-2 shootouts to get there.
5. Next year will really be a litmus test for Harbaugh's offense. We return all of the wide receivers, 4 starting OL, probably the TEs and either Patterson or McCaffrey at the controls. Our key loss is our senior running back, and he could be replaced by a true freshman at some point. The defense will be solid, but will take a step back. If there was ever a year that screamed for Michigan to open up the offense, this is it. The schedule is favorable next year. Split the PSU/Wisconsin road games, win the home games, and you get to OSU at 10-1 with a chance at everything again.
6. As for this year, I do think winning the NY6 bowl game is critical. 11-2 sounds better than 10-3, and let's be honest, we need a big win to end the year. At the beginning of the year, if you said UM went 10-2 against this schedule, you'd have thought we beat several top 15 teams but it's likely that only PSU will be ranked in the top 20 entering the bowl. I'm hoping for the Rose Bowl against the P12 champion, mainly because that's a game we should win, and we need to win. I want no part of UCF with a backup qb (no win situation) or Florida (the thought of playing another Gator team is so boring).
7. As for recruiting, will be interesting to see what happens with Zach Harrison and how the class ends up. I don't think this means he ends up at OSU, because if he didn't want to go there, I don't see why one game changes everything. But I could certainly see it causing doubts for UM and maybe opening the door again for PSU or even some late school to make a charge. I have to think this loss really hurts momentum. We were potentially one game away from changing the narrative on OSU. Now? OSU coaches get to tell kids that their worst team in a decade beat one of our best.
8. Lastly, this hammers home why everyone should have rooted for OSU to drop a second loss over the last few weeks. Yes, this would have sucked regardless but if we had B1G title to win this week, we'd get over it quicker. Ending the B1G title streak, however it was done, really would have been an accomplishment, and this team would have earned it fair and square by being the only team to go 8-1.
2. Now I hear people talking up the talent disparity. Please. With even a bigger talent disparity, how did 2 and 3 star Purdue/Maryland do against OSU? How about Nebraska? We had the closest roster to OSU on its schedule and lost by the most. That's not just on talent.
3. With that said, Harbaugh overall has done a good job here. You can't deny that he took a program that was basically a borderline bowl program over the last 7 years and turned it into a borderline top 10 program in four seasons. In some ways, Harbaugh's tenure is reminding me of the early Mack Brown years at Texas. Mack Brown took over after several uninspiring Texas coaches and immediately got results. He got them consistently to 10 wins, but they consistently lost to OU often in spectacular blowouts. Eventually Mack Brown got Vince Young, got past OU and won a title. He played for another one four years later. He beat OU a handful of times in the second half of his tenure.
4. While the defense was atrocious yesterday, this is modern college football. Don Brown has had three OSU games. His defenses were great in one (2016), good in another (last year) and bad in this one. Newsflash, the 2016 performance defensively isn't happening every year. Some years OSU is going to have its way. But this is why the offensive gameplan has to modernize. You need to go into the OSU game thinking we need 50 to win. If your defense does better, great. But college football has changed. To win a national title, you have to go through OSU, then likely some combo of Clemson, OU and Alabama most years. You have to assume your going to win at least 1-2 shootouts to get there.
5. Next year will really be a litmus test for Harbaugh's offense. We return all of the wide receivers, 4 starting OL, probably the TEs and either Patterson or McCaffrey at the controls. Our key loss is our senior running back, and he could be replaced by a true freshman at some point. The defense will be solid, but will take a step back. If there was ever a year that screamed for Michigan to open up the offense, this is it. The schedule is favorable next year. Split the PSU/Wisconsin road games, win the home games, and you get to OSU at 10-1 with a chance at everything again.
6. As for this year, I do think winning the NY6 bowl game is critical. 11-2 sounds better than 10-3, and let's be honest, we need a big win to end the year. At the beginning of the year, if you said UM went 10-2 against this schedule, you'd have thought we beat several top 15 teams but it's likely that only PSU will be ranked in the top 20 entering the bowl. I'm hoping for the Rose Bowl against the P12 champion, mainly because that's a game we should win, and we need to win. I want no part of UCF with a backup qb (no win situation) or Florida (the thought of playing another Gator team is so boring).
7. As for recruiting, will be interesting to see what happens with Zach Harrison and how the class ends up. I don't think this means he ends up at OSU, because if he didn't want to go there, I don't see why one game changes everything. But I could certainly see it causing doubts for UM and maybe opening the door again for PSU or even some late school to make a charge. I have to think this loss really hurts momentum. We were potentially one game away from changing the narrative on OSU. Now? OSU coaches get to tell kids that their worst team in a decade beat one of our best.
8. Lastly, this hammers home why everyone should have rooted for OSU to drop a second loss over the last few weeks. Yes, this would have sucked regardless but if we had B1G title to win this week, we'd get over it quicker. Ending the B1G title streak, however it was done, really would have been an accomplishment, and this team would have earned it fair and square by being the only team to go 8-1.
