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Michigan working on "lifetime contract" with Harbaugh

ericd7633

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On the other hand, see what Beilein's record looked like after year four....the Football program was only in marginally better shape when Harbaugh took over in the fact that previous coaches had recruited some decent talent. Harbaugh came in and instantly turned things around. The next step is turning us into a national competitor. I think given time he can.

Beilein took them to 2 NCAA tournament's in his first 4 years and nearly beat Duke in a round of 32 game in his 4th season. That's pretty damn good considering Michigan hadn't made the tournament in the previous decade prior to him getting there. Unless you're Northwestern making the tournament once in a 10 year period is something I think every major program did during that timeframe except for probably Oregon State.

Harbaugh was left with a roster that had the most draft picks in 2017. Obviously some credit goes to Harbaugh for coaching them up, but Michigan's basketball program was in much worse shape IMO.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Beilein took them to 2 NCAA tournament's in his first 4 years and nearly beat Duke in a round of 32 game in his 4th season. That's pretty damn good considering Michigan hadn't made the tournament in the previous decade prior to him getting there. Unless you're Northwestern making the tournament once in a 10 year period is something I think every major program did during that timeframe except for probably Oregon State.

Harbaugh was left with a roster that had the most draft picks in 2017. Obviously some credit goes to Harbaugh for coaching them up, but Michigan's basketball program was in much worse shape IMO.
It's a bit different though. In CBB you really just need to be a top-ish team to get into the tournament. Harbaugh has produced a couple of teams that finished in the top 15 in CFB....which is about equivalent to making the tournament in CBB.

Michigan had a lot of draft picks after Habaugh's first couple seasons but it's that age old argument of would they have been had Harbaugh not been here? Let's not just pass over the fact that Michigan was 5-7 the year before and 7-6 the year before that. In 3 years, Michigan has more 10 win seasons under Harbaugh that we had in the previous 8 and equaled the number of 10+ win seasons that we had in the previous 10. Our recruiting wasn't bad during that stretch either.
 

outofyourmind

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This is a joke, right.
.718 gets you a lifetime contract now.

can't be good for college football.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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This is a joke, right.
.718 gets you a lifetime contract now.

can't be good for college football.
I actually think it might be better for CFB. Too many good coaches are getting canned after 3-4 years and I think more would find success if given time.
 

outofyourmind

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I actually think it might be better for CFB. Too many good coaches are getting canned after 3-4 years and I think more would find success if given time.


Yeah, except that coaches get burned out and stop working years before they actually leave in most cases.

5 years out is plenty
 

ericd7633

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It's a bit different though. In CBB you really just need to be a top-ish team to get into the tournament. Harbaugh has produced a couple of teams that finished in the top 15 in CFB....which is about equivalent to making the tournament in CBB.

Michigan had a lot of draft picks after Habaugh's first couple seasons but it's that age old argument of would they have been had Harbaugh not been here? Let's not just pass over the fact that Michigan was 5-7 the year before and 7-6 the year before that. In 3 years, Michigan has more 10 win seasons under Harbaugh that we had in the previous 8 and equaled the number of 10+ win seasons that we had in the previous 10. Our recruiting wasn't bad during that stretch either.

Obviously it's different comparing CBB and CFB. But the fact Michigan went a decade without making the tournament and beilein made it twice in his 4 years is clearly a sign of him moving it in the right direction. Harbaugh has yet to still accomplish what his predecessor did - winning 11 games at Michigan and a NY6/BCS bowl. Having said that he's still a way better coach than his predecessor, just doesn't have any results of significance yet.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Obviously it's different comparing CBB and CFB. But the fact Michigan went a decade without making the tournament and beilein made it twice in his 4 years is clearly a sign of him moving it in the right direction. Harbaugh has yet to still accomplish what his predecessor did - winning 11 games at Michigan and a NY6/BCS bowl. Having said that he's still a way better coach than his predecessor, just doesn't have any results of significance yet.
I guess.....but the year Hoke won 11 games it was one of the easiest schedules I've ever seen and OSU was a 6 win team that year. We faced no team that finished with fewer than 3 losses and only faced two ranked teams during the regular season, both outside the top 15. Harbaugh's 2nd year was more impressive of a season I've seen since the 2006 Michigan team; especially given my opinion of the controversial OSU call that decided the game.
 

ericd7633

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I guess.....but the year Hoke won 11 games it was one of the easiest schedules I've ever seen and OSU was a 6 win team that year. We faced no team that finished with fewer than 3 losses and only faced two ranked teams during the regular season, both outside the top 15. Harbaugh's 2nd year was more impressive of a season I've seen since the 2006 Michigan team; especially given my opinion of the controversial OSU call that decided the game.

Hole was also able to beat multiple .500 or better teams, and a ranked team in year 3, something Harbaugh couldn't do last season. Harbaugh was good his first two years, but I still wouldn't call his tenure a success by any means, given the level of hype and expectation.
 

7Samurai13

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On the other hand, see what Beilein's record looked like after year four....the Football program was only in marginally better shape when Harbaugh took over in the fact that previous coaches had recruited some decent talent. Harbaugh came in and instantly turned things around. The next step is turning us into a national competitor. I think given time he can.
Harbaugh walked into a team stocked full of talent. Beilein walked into a dead program going nowhere.
 

Wild Turkey

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Yeah, except that coaches get burned out and stop working years before they actually leave in most cases.

5 years out is plenty
I'ts rare if a coach can keep a program on top and producing after 10 years. There is something about the decade mark that tends to see programs start to decline. There are exceptions but in the modern game this has proven to be true for the most part.

Examples in the SEC:
Fulmer
Spurrier
Tuberville
Miles

If you haven't started to hit a stride in year 3 then the heat is going to be on and it's not likely you will survive year 4. I haven't seen anything out of Harbaugh that leads me to believe that he is going to be able to take things to a higher level.

As many issues as I have with Malzahn he has been the second most successful coach in the SEC behind Saban since he came into the league (granted Kirby is looking strong though). He has an SEC title, a national championship game on his resume and another Western Division title and those are hard to come by these days.

Harbaugh has nothing.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Hole was also able to beat multiple .500 or better teams, and a ranked team in year 3, something Harbaugh couldn't do last season. Harbaugh was good his first two years, but I still wouldn't call his tenure a success by any means, given the level of hype and expectation.
I think the major difference is that people expected Harbaugh to be Urban or Saban in year 3. Which, looking back objectively, is unreasonable. I wouldn't call his first 3 years a failure either.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Harbaugh walked into a team stocked full of talent. Beilein walked into a dead program going nowhere.
That's fine -- except when Harbaugh got here everyone said he wouldn't do well in year one because we had no talent and recruiting talent is different than developing talent. There's a reason basically the same team the year prior could only win 5 games and no one knew a single name from a player on that team.

Michigan basketball also had a few decent recruiting classes prior to Beilein. I think we even had a top 15 or so class in like 2003. It's also much easier to flip things in basketball because it just takes 1-2 players to do so. That's why little schools can be great at the sport.
 

outofyourmind

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Maybe the first step is a lifetime contract.
Second step??? Yep, Coach in waiting for an assistant.

Just find the right guy.

It will all fall into place.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Maybe the first step is a lifetime contract.
Second step??? Yep, Coach in waiting for an assistant.

Just find the right guy.

It will all fall into place.
This is the ideal scenario. What I don't want to do is turn into a team with a perpetually rotating coaching staff. From 1969-2007 Michigan had 3 coaches, all of them studied under Bo and were on staff. That way, transitions aren't a shock to the system.
 

Across The Field

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Fun fact:

Harbaugh has the same record after 3 seasons that Brian Kelly had at ND. In other words nothing special. If that's worth a lifetime extension so be it.
Right, 2 more wins than Hoke in his first 3 seasons. They bought in on him hard and they're too far in now, so they're doubling down.
 

ericd7633

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I think the major difference is that people expected Harbaugh to be Urban or Saban in year 3. Which, looking back objectively, is unreasonable. I wouldn't call his first 3 years a failure either.

He's at a blue blood. I don't think that's unreasonable. Hell even Brian Kelly played for a title by his 3rd season and that was with a red shirt freshman quarterback.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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Right, 2 more wins than Hoke in his first 3 seasons. They bought in on him hard and they're too far in now, so they're doubling down.
When seasons are only typically 13 games, 2 wins is significant. It also means Harbaugh has 2 less losses. Apply two losses to any season Harbaugh has had and things take a turn for the worse very quickly. It means a 10 win season is an 8 win season. Or both 10 win seasons are now 9 win seasons. I think you're downplaying the significance of those two wins in just a 3 year span. If Hoke gets 2 more wins in 2014 he might not have gotten fired. In CFB there's a distinct difference between 7 and 8 win seasons or 9 and 10 win seasons. That single game, or two games, is huge.
 

MAIZEandBLUE09

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He's at a blue blood. I don't think that's unreasonable. Hell even Brian Kelly played for a title by his 3rd season and that was with a red shirt freshman quarterback.

Being good is reasonable, and I think Harbaugh has done a good job at flipping Michigan so far. Michigan's situation was unique because no one expected last year to be great given the number of players lost from the 2016....which by all accounts was one of the best teams in the country that year. And had a call gone our way on the last play in OT at Columbus, we might be having a different conversation right now. People very easily overlook the fact that Harbaugh was a single call away from a division title, B10 title birth and shot at a national title in year 2.
 

RobBase

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I keep seeing mock drafts with Shae Patterson going on the 1st round of next year's NFL draft, some even have him in the top 10.

That's gotta give us some hope, right?
 
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