This is what somewhat irritates me.
We can't drudge up the past every time Harbaugh loses a game. Why? Because it's not predictive of the future. If it were, then Mack Brown and Jimbo Fisher would have teams contending for the national championship.
Frankly, when it comes to Michigan football, the only thing that matters at all is the rest of this season, and what it means for next year and beyond.
Right now, we have one blemish on our record - a four point loss to the team ranked #5 in the country. How is that, in any way, a "bad" loss? Would it seriously matter if that loss was to Wisconsin, and they were ranked #5 instead? Why? Because some of our fans have thin skin and can't listen to their Sparty neighbors and co-workers crow about beating us? Fortunately athletic directors don't make decisions based on things like that. And folks, come March, you'll be able to talk smack all day long to your Sparty neighbors and friends.
We like to pretend we dominate MSU. We have, of course, both early in Bo's career, and then for a time when they were going through coaches like John L. Smith and Bobby Williams. If you go back to 1984 (when Jim broke his arm), and you don't count 2002 (when MSU was awful and fired the inept Bobby Williams mid-season), our record against them is only 21-17.
Our worst stretch, of course, was from 2008-2014, when we went 1-6, right before Jim took over.
So I'm calling yesterday what it was - a very close loss to a very good team on the road.
It doesn't define our season.
What will define our year is how we play the rest of the way. Can we be 10-1 heading into the OSU game? That will be impressive. Even if we can't beat OSU (I expect a loss), can we be competitive against them?
I've seen a lot of things I like this year. Significantly improved OL and DL play. A strong running game. Frankly, what I saw from Andrel Anthony yesterday was fantastic. Same with Cade. Same with Eric All. Same with David Ojabo. This is still a relatively young team and there's every reason to think they'll improve next year and beyond.
I'm most curious to see how they respond the rest of the year. I'm a lot more interested in that than debating Jim Harbaugh's career road record against top 10 teams.
I'll remind everyone again that three great coaches from the early 1990s - Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, and Tom Osborne - came up short against their rivals repeatedly before going on to win national championships.
I'd say let's reserve judgment until the year is over, and we see what the team looks like in the remaining two of its biggest three games.
Finally, let's just call a spade a spade. We lost yesterday because the Spartans have a great running back (the probable Heisman winner at this point) and we could not stop him. Period. We outplayed them in every other facet of the game. Shore up the run defense and we're fine. I thought the LB play left a lot to be desired, and the guys in the secondary took some terrible angles.
We can't drudge up the past every time Harbaugh loses a game. Why? Because it's not predictive of the future. If it were, then Mack Brown and Jimbo Fisher would have teams contending for the national championship.
Frankly, when it comes to Michigan football, the only thing that matters at all is the rest of this season, and what it means for next year and beyond.
Right now, we have one blemish on our record - a four point loss to the team ranked #5 in the country. How is that, in any way, a "bad" loss? Would it seriously matter if that loss was to Wisconsin, and they were ranked #5 instead? Why? Because some of our fans have thin skin and can't listen to their Sparty neighbors and co-workers crow about beating us? Fortunately athletic directors don't make decisions based on things like that. And folks, come March, you'll be able to talk smack all day long to your Sparty neighbors and friends.
We like to pretend we dominate MSU. We have, of course, both early in Bo's career, and then for a time when they were going through coaches like John L. Smith and Bobby Williams. If you go back to 1984 (when Jim broke his arm), and you don't count 2002 (when MSU was awful and fired the inept Bobby Williams mid-season), our record against them is only 21-17.
Our worst stretch, of course, was from 2008-2014, when we went 1-6, right before Jim took over.
So I'm calling yesterday what it was - a very close loss to a very good team on the road.
It doesn't define our season.
What will define our year is how we play the rest of the way. Can we be 10-1 heading into the OSU game? That will be impressive. Even if we can't beat OSU (I expect a loss), can we be competitive against them?
I've seen a lot of things I like this year. Significantly improved OL and DL play. A strong running game. Frankly, what I saw from Andrel Anthony yesterday was fantastic. Same with Cade. Same with Eric All. Same with David Ojabo. This is still a relatively young team and there's every reason to think they'll improve next year and beyond.
I'm most curious to see how they respond the rest of the year. I'm a lot more interested in that than debating Jim Harbaugh's career road record against top 10 teams.
I'll remind everyone again that three great coaches from the early 1990s - Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, and Tom Osborne - came up short against their rivals repeatedly before going on to win national championships.
I'd say let's reserve judgment until the year is over, and we see what the team looks like in the remaining two of its biggest three games.
Finally, let's just call a spade a spade. We lost yesterday because the Spartans have a great running back (the probable Heisman winner at this point) and we could not stop him. Period. We outplayed them in every other facet of the game. Shore up the run defense and we're fine. I thought the LB play left a lot to be desired, and the guys in the secondary took some terrible angles.
