Losing early. Historical perspective. Bo thru Carr

[jimUMfan]

I went back to and tracked all the years we lost early in our non-conference schedule from the beginning of Bo's tenure in 1969 to the end of Carr's tenure in 2007. All the losses listed are non-conference games previous to the start of the Big Ten, except for 1981 where we lost to Wisconsin in the opener.

24 out of 39 years from the Bo through Carr era we lost early. This means that over half the seasons of what many of us think was a golden era started out behind the eight ball. This is not a new phenomenon and we've dealt with it before.

All the years we had an early season loss are listed in red.
The way I listed is, the year, the team we lost too and the season's final record. Also, the Ties are listed as T.

I got the info from https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/michigan/1969-schedule.html

I thought it would give us a historical perspective of what we can expect going forward. Sometimes we overcame and sometimes we didn't. Clearly, we've had a lot of early season losses.

1. 1969 Missu..........................8-3
2. 1970.....................................9-1
3. 1971.....................................11-1
4. 1972.....................................10-1
5. 1973.....................................10-0-1
6. 1974.....................................10-1
7. 1975 T Stanford & Baylor....8-2-2
8. 1976.....................................10-2
9. 1977.....................................10-2
10. 1978.....................................10-2
11. 1979 L ND........................... 8-4
12. 1980 L ND, SC.....................10-2
13. 1981 L Wisconsin................9-3
14. 1982 L ND, UCLA.................8-4
15. 1983 L Wash........................9-3
16. 1984 L Wash........................6-6
17. 1985......................................10-1-1
18. 1986......................................11-2
19. 1987 L ND.............................8-4
20. 1988 L ND, Miami.................9-2-1
21. 1989 L ND.............................10-2
22. 1990 L ND..............................9-3
23. 1991 L FSU...........................10-2
24. 1992 T ND.............................9-0-3
25. 1993 L ND.............................8-4
26. 1994 L CO.............................8-4
27. 1995.......................................9-5
28. 1996.......................................8-4
29. 1997.......................................12-0
30. 1998 L ND, Syracuse............10-3
31. 1999.......................................10-2
32. 2000 L UCLA..........................9-3
33. 2001 L Wash..........................8-4
34. 2002 L ND..............................10-3
35. 2003 L Oregon.......................10-3
36. 2004 L ND...............................9-3
37. 2005 L ND...............................7-5
38. 2006........................................11-2
39. 2007 L Appy St. Oregon.........9-4