I'm posting this verbatim here and on the new board, so if you've read it here and see the same title on the other site, it's the same. It's very, very long, but it was cathartic to write.
Like everyone else, I have a lot of thoughts about the Michigan State game. However, others have said everything I' would say, whether here or elsewhere, and it serves no purpose to just repeat those thoughts. Frankly, others have said a whole bunch of things about the game I disagree with, in some cases vehemently, and these too have been beaten to death. I write Game Thoughts shortly after each Michigan basketball game because I think I can add something to the discussion of what just occurred, or take the discussion in new directions. Here, I don't see that I can do that, so I won't. I do though want to offer my opinion as to where we go from here for what it's worth.
So as not to bury the lead, I would not, repeat not, blow things up and start again with a new coach and staff. Had we decided to fire Jim Harbaugh after last season, I would have been at least accepting, if not actually in favor of, such a move, as we were in a downward trend in both recruiting and on-field performance with an old staff seemingly past its buy/sell date. We didn't do that, and the staff was replaced with young, vibrant newcomers who have infused life into recruiting and the program itself. With youth and inexperience come hiccups--Mike McDonald had his lunch handed to him yesterday--but this is not, as was the case with Don Brown, a situation wherein the mistakes can never be fixed because the coordinator is too stubborn and set in his ways. I like the new staff, and I'm not in any way a fan of totally scrambling the staff and/or the head coach two years in a row, and dealing with the player attrition and lack of continuity it would bring. Small changes, sure--I think Josh Gattis will move on after this year, and that will likely be the best for both sides. But, firing Harbaugh and starting anew--no, not for me.
For those who have read this far and are itching to tell me that this means I am "satisfied with mediocrity" and or unconcerned with losing to our rivals at a current 3-10 pace, nothing could be further from the truth. I have an unhealthy obsession with Michigan sports in general, and basketball and football in particular, and I hate losing, especially to rivals. It's possible that blowing things up could prove beneficial--MSU under Mel Tucker is certainly doing extremely well in his second season, and there are other programs which have made changes like the fire Harbaugh crowd are suggesting and come away with good results. That said, more--many, many more--have either watched their programs implode completely, or had limited success followed by falling to well below pre-change levels. The latter would include, of course, us when many rejoiced in Lloyd Carr's retirement so we could get a fresh new face like Rich Rodriguez from outside the program's stodgy thinking. It includes Texas and USC and UCLA and, for almost 20 years, Notre Dame, and Tennessee, and others, and even lightening in a bottle programs like Auburn under Gene Chizek and LSU under Ed Orgeron which had a season or two with a great QB abd then fell back. It might happen to Tucker as well--in truth, there is no one on this or any other Michigan message board who would have hired Tucker to be our coach in January of 2020, or even at the beginning of this year after his 7-11 debut as a head coach and his abject failure as a defensive coordinator with the Bears. Change is sometimes necessary--it was at the end of the Rich Rod and Brady Koke eras irrespective of who the new coach was to be because things were downright bad at those times.. It is not, however, a panacea. And when things are potentially looking like a turnaround could be occurring, change because people are too angry to be patient is often completely misguided.
This does not, repeat not, mean that I excuse Jim Harbaugh's repeated shortcomings in certain areas. Playcalling inside the red zone has been bad for seven years. Until this year, clock management at the end of half has been atrocious--Mcnamara has helped significantly in that regard, but we're still not where we could be. An inability to defend teams which play up-tempo has been repetitious, and never more evident than yesterday. At almost 58, some or all of those things likely will not get better, and thus will surely prevent Harbaugh from ever progressing into the ranks of elite college head coaches. Maybe, if we fire him, we'll find someone who is without those or similar flaws. Or, more likely, we'll just find someone with new ones. With very, very rare exceptions, every coach has major flaws of one sort or another. These flaws can be overcome by talent which overwhelms other teams and covers the flaws, but they're there--Nick Saban, who is a coaching legend, has had two jobs, MSU and in the pros at Miami, where he did not have overwhelming talent vis-a-vis his opponents, and he was a bit better than mediocre at one and bad at the other. We just don't notice, or choose to ignore, the flaws of others like we do those of the guy whose every move we analyze to death in real time, especially when they have ridiculous talent levels. It's like the back-up quarterback syndrome.
I'm gutted by yesterday's loss. I do not overlook the coaching contributions to same. That said, I will note that avoiding basic mistakes, such as drops of easy passes, a flinch of fourth and inches, a fumble , etc., or some truly bizarre refereeing, including at the booth replay level, would have obviated the coaching errors. That's a game we should have won even with the coaching issues we had.
I''m actually excited for the future. This is a young team with young playmakers. Corum, Anthony, All, Wilson--these are guys who look like potential all-conference players moving forward. Quarterback looks to be in great shape as well. You looked at this program last year, and there was no one who matched up to the good Big Ten teams in terms of talent and/or potential at the offensive skill positions. Now, there is such talent. I, for one, want to see how that talent progresses. If it doesn't, then yeah, we'll need to make a significant change, because we'll have squandered the good which may be garnered from the maturation of a young staff and young talent. Now though--no.
In closing (for those still here, those words must yield a sigh of relief), I have been a Michigan football fan since I was 4. I'm 67 now. I'm used to late season disappointment. My 11 years of high school, college and law school fandom resulted in a failure to win the last game of our season every single year (in 1973, we tied). And those were supposedly the "golden years." Since Bo took over in 1969, we started in the top 4 in the AP poll (thus unofficially in the playoff had there been one) in 11 seasons, been in the top 4 at some point in the year during 30 seasons, and finished in the top 4 in just 6 seasons. We've won it once, with a team which ranked 14th pre-season, and a coach who was on the hot seat when it began, and we've only played for the championship (i.e., been in a bowl game where winning would have garnered us first place votes, much less a championship, on that one occasion. We've often lost in big games in ways which were gut-wrenching rather than decisive. We beat rivals often for the first 30+years of the Bo and post-Bo era, which was satisfying and far better than we're doing now, but in virtually every year (except in the aforementioned Rich Rod and late Brady Hoke eras), there has been a Charlie Brown running up to kick the ball and having Lucy pull it away vibe about Michigan football. I've gotten to where I enjoy the wins when they come, while knowing that there will be inevitable disappointment--Mel Brooks's "Hope for the best, expect the worst" from 12 Chairs. I don't want to go back to the time before Jim Harbaugh just to make a change--those were awful times with not even an ability to hope for the best--unless it's likely to actually get better. Give me names of people we could get if we fire Harbaugh, and maybe you can convince me that we would be better off doing so. Until then, albeit with wounded heart, I will be back for next week's game, looking forward to the future...and of course, basketball season.! Go Blue!
Like everyone else, I have a lot of thoughts about the Michigan State game. However, others have said everything I' would say, whether here or elsewhere, and it serves no purpose to just repeat those thoughts. Frankly, others have said a whole bunch of things about the game I disagree with, in some cases vehemently, and these too have been beaten to death. I write Game Thoughts shortly after each Michigan basketball game because I think I can add something to the discussion of what just occurred, or take the discussion in new directions. Here, I don't see that I can do that, so I won't. I do though want to offer my opinion as to where we go from here for what it's worth.
So as not to bury the lead, I would not, repeat not, blow things up and start again with a new coach and staff. Had we decided to fire Jim Harbaugh after last season, I would have been at least accepting, if not actually in favor of, such a move, as we were in a downward trend in both recruiting and on-field performance with an old staff seemingly past its buy/sell date. We didn't do that, and the staff was replaced with young, vibrant newcomers who have infused life into recruiting and the program itself. With youth and inexperience come hiccups--Mike McDonald had his lunch handed to him yesterday--but this is not, as was the case with Don Brown, a situation wherein the mistakes can never be fixed because the coordinator is too stubborn and set in his ways. I like the new staff, and I'm not in any way a fan of totally scrambling the staff and/or the head coach two years in a row, and dealing with the player attrition and lack of continuity it would bring. Small changes, sure--I think Josh Gattis will move on after this year, and that will likely be the best for both sides. But, firing Harbaugh and starting anew--no, not for me.
For those who have read this far and are itching to tell me that this means I am "satisfied with mediocrity" and or unconcerned with losing to our rivals at a current 3-10 pace, nothing could be further from the truth. I have an unhealthy obsession with Michigan sports in general, and basketball and football in particular, and I hate losing, especially to rivals. It's possible that blowing things up could prove beneficial--MSU under Mel Tucker is certainly doing extremely well in his second season, and there are other programs which have made changes like the fire Harbaugh crowd are suggesting and come away with good results. That said, more--many, many more--have either watched their programs implode completely, or had limited success followed by falling to well below pre-change levels. The latter would include, of course, us when many rejoiced in Lloyd Carr's retirement so we could get a fresh new face like Rich Rodriguez from outside the program's stodgy thinking. It includes Texas and USC and UCLA and, for almost 20 years, Notre Dame, and Tennessee, and others, and even lightening in a bottle programs like Auburn under Gene Chizek and LSU under Ed Orgeron which had a season or two with a great QB abd then fell back. It might happen to Tucker as well--in truth, there is no one on this or any other Michigan message board who would have hired Tucker to be our coach in January of 2020, or even at the beginning of this year after his 7-11 debut as a head coach and his abject failure as a defensive coordinator with the Bears. Change is sometimes necessary--it was at the end of the Rich Rod and Brady Koke eras irrespective of who the new coach was to be because things were downright bad at those times.. It is not, however, a panacea. And when things are potentially looking like a turnaround could be occurring, change because people are too angry to be patient is often completely misguided.
This does not, repeat not, mean that I excuse Jim Harbaugh's repeated shortcomings in certain areas. Playcalling inside the red zone has been bad for seven years. Until this year, clock management at the end of half has been atrocious--Mcnamara has helped significantly in that regard, but we're still not where we could be. An inability to defend teams which play up-tempo has been repetitious, and never more evident than yesterday. At almost 58, some or all of those things likely will not get better, and thus will surely prevent Harbaugh from ever progressing into the ranks of elite college head coaches. Maybe, if we fire him, we'll find someone who is without those or similar flaws. Or, more likely, we'll just find someone with new ones. With very, very rare exceptions, every coach has major flaws of one sort or another. These flaws can be overcome by talent which overwhelms other teams and covers the flaws, but they're there--Nick Saban, who is a coaching legend, has had two jobs, MSU and in the pros at Miami, where he did not have overwhelming talent vis-a-vis his opponents, and he was a bit better than mediocre at one and bad at the other. We just don't notice, or choose to ignore, the flaws of others like we do those of the guy whose every move we analyze to death in real time, especially when they have ridiculous talent levels. It's like the back-up quarterback syndrome.
I'm gutted by yesterday's loss. I do not overlook the coaching contributions to same. That said, I will note that avoiding basic mistakes, such as drops of easy passes, a flinch of fourth and inches, a fumble , etc., or some truly bizarre refereeing, including at the booth replay level, would have obviated the coaching errors. That's a game we should have won even with the coaching issues we had.
I''m actually excited for the future. This is a young team with young playmakers. Corum, Anthony, All, Wilson--these are guys who look like potential all-conference players moving forward. Quarterback looks to be in great shape as well. You looked at this program last year, and there was no one who matched up to the good Big Ten teams in terms of talent and/or potential at the offensive skill positions. Now, there is such talent. I, for one, want to see how that talent progresses. If it doesn't, then yeah, we'll need to make a significant change, because we'll have squandered the good which may be garnered from the maturation of a young staff and young talent. Now though--no.
In closing (for those still here, those words must yield a sigh of relief), I have been a Michigan football fan since I was 4. I'm 67 now. I'm used to late season disappointment. My 11 years of high school, college and law school fandom resulted in a failure to win the last game of our season every single year (in 1973, we tied). And those were supposedly the "golden years." Since Bo took over in 1969, we started in the top 4 in the AP poll (thus unofficially in the playoff had there been one) in 11 seasons, been in the top 4 at some point in the year during 30 seasons, and finished in the top 4 in just 6 seasons. We've won it once, with a team which ranked 14th pre-season, and a coach who was on the hot seat when it began, and we've only played for the championship (i.e., been in a bowl game where winning would have garnered us first place votes, much less a championship, on that one occasion. We've often lost in big games in ways which were gut-wrenching rather than decisive. We beat rivals often for the first 30+years of the Bo and post-Bo era, which was satisfying and far better than we're doing now, but in virtually every year (except in the aforementioned Rich Rod and late Brady Hoke eras), there has been a Charlie Brown running up to kick the ball and having Lucy pull it away vibe about Michigan football. I've gotten to where I enjoy the wins when they come, while knowing that there will be inevitable disappointment--Mel Brooks's "Hope for the best, expect the worst" from 12 Chairs. I don't want to go back to the time before Jim Harbaugh just to make a change--those were awful times with not even an ability to hope for the best--unless it's likely to actually get better. Give me names of people we could get if we fire Harbaugh, and maybe you can convince me that we would be better off doing so. Until then, albeit with wounded heart, I will be back for next week's game, looking forward to the future...and of course, basketball season.! Go Blue!
