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2023 Michigan Football


djhutch

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18 minutes ago, buddha said:

be careful what you wish for.

let us not forget what michigan football was like before harbaugh: richrod and brady hoke.  never beat ohio state, ceded the state to msu, lost to toledo at home.  basically a laughingstock.

that could very easily happen again without a program as good as this current one in finding and developing 3 and 4* talent.  in all honesty, i'd be shocked if it DIDNT happen.

these are the glory days of michigan football.  unless you get another unicorn coach or a major change in how the university sees how it views its athletics program, youre going to end up with the basketball team all over again.

remember, before beilein left, michigan basketball routinely made final fours and turned 3* kids into nba players.  how is that working out now that beilein is gone?

the same thing can happen to football quite easily.

But there is no sure thing. Say they give Harbaugh the moon, and then in 3 yrs he's bored and feels trapped. I remember he was coach that was running the team in '17, '19 and '20. He had to make big changes to get to now. We assume if he stays he will 'keep up', but while that is probably a better % play than a new coach, it's still no guarantee either. And he has still only brought one competent QB into the program in 9 yrs. To me that's a potential red flag.

Edited by gehringer_2
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3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

But there is no sure thing. Say they give Harbaugh the moon, and then in 3 yrs he's bored and feels trapped. I remember he was coach that was running the team in '17, '19 and '20. He had to make big changes to get to now. We assume if he stays he will 'keep up', but while that is probably a better % play than a new coach, it's still no guarantee either. And he has still only brought one competent QB into the program in 9 yrs. To me that's a potential red flag.

you have never liked harbaugh.  

he's not staying.  all i'm saying is that i think this is the high point in michigan football and will not be repeated unless they change how they view recruiting.

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9 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I agree, it's possible. But I'm treating Jim leaving as an inevitability now. If I was told that if he stayed at Michigan this cycle, he would be here for life, I would want him to stay. But it's not if he goes to the NFL anymore, it's when. And it might as well be now, when the program is at its highest.

he'a 100% gone.

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1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

It's not even that life changing, he's been an NFL head coach before.

It’s a major life change for Harbaugh and his family. Moving across the country, new job, saying goodbye to friends. It’s been 2 weeks. He has done nothing wrong. There’s no great time to leave a program. If this goes on beyond the weekend and Michigan allows that, then maybe that’s a difference story. This is moving quickly. 

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30 minutes ago, buddha said:

you have never liked harbaugh.  

he's not staying.  all i'm saying is that i think this is the high point in michigan football and will not be repeated unless they change how they view recruiting.

It's not a matter of like or dislike - he's a highly capable coach, but he's an institutional nightmare who you can't trust be be with you after he swears he will and who thinks he's bigger than the rules in a highly rule bound system. IOW a highly mixed blessing. 

I think it's a little ironic that after as much as you have chided me for saying I'm not sure if M wants to keep playing with the big boys as this weird future unfolds, that you now are arguing more or less along similar lines. 😉

And it may well be that a contributing reason Harbaugh goes back to the NFL is that he sees a window closing on his being able to run a winning program at Michigan. Big universities are under tons of pressure from a million different directions, demographics, on-line ed, managing a huge Med center, and not the least from some of their own poor decision making. In the end sports is just one constituency among many battling for priority from the admin. In the past, the rule has been as long you net bring in $$ the U is happy to stay in the game. And it's the money that makes it all go. The future is murky to say the least, and should a prospect arise that either under NIL or direct pay the income stream gets diverted and the net to the University falls, you know there will a lot of sudden soul searching about the role of athletics.

Edited by gehringer_2
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What do you suppose UM or OSU spends on their NIL program? I don't mean the NIL money itself, that (at least supposedly) all comes from outside sources, but schools have to be putting time and resources into organizing, recruiting donors and managing the show. 

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1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

 

I think it's a little ironic that after as much as you have chided me for saying I'm not sure if M wants to keep playing with the big boys as this weird future unfolds, that you now are arguing more or less along similar lines. 😉

no i'm not.  youre talking in your usual apocalyptic terms about michigan somehow dropping football or becoming northwestern.  i'm talking about them becoming a permanent second class to ohio state but still at their usual level of good but not great.  iow, the last 20 years on repeat.

huge difference.

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27 minutes ago, buddha said:

no i'm not.  youre talking in your usual apocalyptic terms about michigan somehow dropping football or becoming northwestern.  i'm talking about them becoming a permanent second class to ohio state but still at their usual level of good but not great.  iow, the last 20 years on repeat.

huge difference.

 disagree, all I've ever been talking about is a decision not to spend money or compete hard - to de-emphasize . The other is just the 'out there' possibility that I don't think is unique to M but to college football in general if they manage to completely screw it up for everyone, which I agree I do think is possible while you don't.  And TBH,  I think you may overestimate the difference between a semi-committed UM and a NW. How big a step is it from R Rod/Hoke (7-6/5-7) to NW (8-5)? That doesn't need much of a ladder!

My bottom line is that it always will be about the money - they will stay in the game as long as it's profitable, but if the profit goes away, things will change. You can call that an apocalyptic view if you like, but I'll stand by that part. And I make no claim to know what will happen with the profit except that it's pretty obvious the players are going to get more of it.

Edited by gehringer_2
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I spent 2.5 seasons trying to run Harbaugh out of town. Now I feel bummed he's leaving and not sticking around. I worry we may have just got Pete Carroll'ed and that he's leaving town because he knows the NCAA is going to swing the hammer for covid-era recruiting violations and for the spuygate situation. Thanks for the Natty though Jim, that was worth it.

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