Of all the flawed excuses and rationalizations made for Harbaugh, the worst by far

[maelfan]

is this.

At 5-2, headed for 8-4 at best, people now love to say "well didn't you all have UM at 8-4 going into the bowl game anyway? Losing to PSU, Wisconsin, OSU and maybe one other game? What are you so disappointed about?"

The obvious flaw(s) in this angle is this.

The fact that in his third year in you, we as a fan base are just comfortable expecting such a record, resigned to the fact that we will be 8-4, in the third year with a coach like Harbaugh, is pathetic.So the fans are supposed to be happy we will likely hit 8-4 in his third year, regressing not progressing, rather than expecting to go 10-2 or better by actually beating at a minimum two of four of the best teams on our schedule?

What if people "expected" us to go 6-6 this year, and it was realistic? The problem isn't hitting this random expectation, it is that the expectation is reasonably predictable in the first place.

Next year? We go to Notre Dame, MSU, and OSU. PSU and Wisconsin at home, and maybe a tougher than expected NW on the road.

In Harbaugh's fourth year, do we just say " well, it's is fourth year but the schedule is tough, don't start screaming in mid October because we are headed for 7-5, that's what we all expected from day one".

It is ridiculous that approaching game #34, we are showing no evidence of heading in the direction of programs a coach like Harbaugh should be equal with or better.

 

[sg out west]

is this.

At 5-2, headed for 8-4 at best, people now love to say "well didn't you all have UM at 8-4 going into the bowl game anyway? Losing to PSU, Wisconsin, OSU and maybe one other game? What are you so disappointed about?"

The obvious flaw(s) in this angle is this.

The fact that in his third year in you, we as a fan base are just comfortable expecting such a record, resigned to the fact that we will be 8-4, in the third year with a coach like Harbaugh, is pathetic.So the fans are supposed to be happy we will likely hit 8-4 in his third year, regressing not progressing, rather than expecting to go 10-2 or better by actually beating at a minimum two of four of the best teams on our schedule?

What if people "expected" us to go 6-6 this year, and it was realistic? The problem isn't hitting this random expectation, it is that the expectation is reasonably predictable in the first place.

Next year? We go to Notre Dame, MSU, and OSU. PSU and Wisconsin at home, and maybe a tougher than expected NW on the road.

In Harbaugh's fourth year, do we just say " well, it's is fourth year but the schedule is tough, don't start screaming in mid October because we are headed for 7-5, that's what we all expected from day one".

It is ridiculous that approaching game #34, we are showing no evidence of heading in the direction of programs a coach like Harbaugh should be equal with or better.

It's not like you're paying him 10 million dollars..

 

[BigHouseBallin]

Except we should be looking less at year #3 and looking more at the fact we sent about a dozen players to the NFL. We're not Bama in terms of reloading.. Other schools like Clemson, FSU, OSU can pull that off. We don't recruit well enough yet to do that although on D we're pretty close. I looked at this year a lot like I did year #1 but now we're trying to pull it off w/o our starting QB and best WR. 5 returning starters guys... That never suggested B1G champions to me..

Next year, all bets are off... this young team will have a full season under their belts.

 

[jbannan]

A cause for concern is that the MSU team is even younger. I read that 61 of their players have never been to a bowl game and they only missed one year of no bowl. They are the youngest team in NCAA Big 5 conferences. There will have to have big improvements in the off season to have high expectations.

 

[CampbellLION]

Except we should be looking less at year #3 and looking more at the fact we sent about a dozen players to the NFL. We're not Bama in terms of reloading.. Other schools like Clemson, FSU, OSU can pull that off. We don't recruit well enough yet to do that although on D we're pretty close. I looked at this year a lot like I did year #1 but now we're trying to pull it off w/o our starting QB and best WR. 5 returning starters guys... That never suggested B1G champions to me..

Next year, all bets are off... this young team will have a full season under their belts.

But even with all that NFL talent UM still finished third in the East.

 

[BigHouseBallin]

Because we couldn't run the ball (OL/RB) vs better team and our QB was average at best..