Is Michigan officially a dead program like Nebraska?

[Across The Field]

No one cares about Michigan when they're getting blown up in the Gator Bowl..

Miami was as good as anyone through the mid 2000s - including fielding one of the best CFB teams of all time.
Michigan gets talked about because they hired a coach that looks to have a slight mental disorder and has a stupid khaki shtick.

michigan has at least sniffed championship contention a couple times in the last decade (2006, 2016). Since 2006, Miami has finished ranked only a couple of times - literally, twice - despite being in arguably the largest hotbed of recruiting talent. They're a cute story this year with that last second win over 1-3 Florida State, but they're so far from being relevant. The odds are good they'll lose 3-4 more games, go to an irrelevant bowl game and finish unranked yet again. Rinse, repeat.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

OH produces good talent, a tier below CA, TX, FL, GA.
MI doesn't have as much of an emphasis on HS football would be my guess for lack of instate talent.

Last time I checked, both Michigan and Ohio State have losses to marginal teams.

 

[Across The Field]

Last time I checked, both Michigan and Ohio State have losses to marginal teams.

lol what?

 

[belcherboy]

Michigan really looks like Georgia. Great recruiting classes, lots of wins, but always seems to find a way to get a bad loss or two every year. Plus both have VERY bad records against our main rival over the last two decades.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

lol what?

Oklahoma just lost to Iowa State, at home.

 

[ellupo]

So why do you think the talent level in GA or other southern states is greater than up in OH or MI? The population base is virtually the same in all 3 states..

Is the talent better in GA than OH? For sure MI but not so sure about OH.

 

[Across The Field]

Oklahoma just lost to Iowa State, at home.

So that means that they're marginal now? Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State back in 2011 and should've played in the NC game. One upset doesn't suddenly make a team "marginal". Odds are good Oklahoma would beat MSU soundly.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Michigan really looks like Georgia. Great recruiting classes, lots of wins, but always seems to find a way to get a bad loss or two every year. Plus both have VERY bad records against our main rival over the last two decades.

Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15. We haven't even played Ohio State yet. Michigan righted the ship (step 1), we're recruiting better (step 2), and now we just need to give it time (step 3). As long as we're consistently winning games and pumping out elite defenses, the wins against MSU and OSU will come. I truly think people wanted too much too quickly, myself included.

 

[Across The Field]

Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15. We haven't even played Ohio State yet. Michigan righted the ship (step 1), we're recruiting better (step 2), and now we just need to give it time (step 3). As long as we're consistently winning games and pumping out elite defenses, the wins against MSU and OSU will come. I truly think people wanted too much too quickly, myself included.

Seriously?

 

[The Q]

They were a correct 4th down spot away from the B10 title game and a likely trip to the CFP last year.

Playing with their backup QB in tsunami like conditions and losing a rivalry game does not make them a dead program.

 

[The Q]

Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15. We haven't even played Ohio State yet. Michigan righted the ship (step 1), we're recruiting better (step 2), and now we just need to give it time (step 3). As long as we're consistently winning games and pumping out elite defenses, the wins against MSU and OSU will come. I truly think people wanted too much too quickly, myself included.

Getting a D1 QB would be a good starting point.

#TeamPeters

#IfNotPetersTeamMcCaffery

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Seriously?

I'm not sure what the problem is with the bolded statement? Again, Harbaugh didn't take over OSU. He didn't take over Clemson. He took over a broken Michigan team that only won 5 games the season prior. It took him 4 years at Stanford to get the ball rolling. Year 3 he only won 8 games. I have critiques (as any fan does when you lose) but at long as Harbaugh is winning 9+ games a year, I'm satisfied for the time being. The wins against OSU and MSU will come. I'm not stupid enough to wish away the best coach we've ever had because he's had close losses to MSU and OSU in the first three years.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

They were a correct 4th down spot away from the B10 title game and a likely trip to the CFP last year.

Playing with their backup QB in tsunami like conditions and losing a rivalry game does not make them a dead program.

Exactly. People are really putting a lot of emphasis on a single loss in a monsoon.

 

[Across The Field]

I'm not sure what the problem is with the bolded statement? Again, Harbaugh didn't take over OSU. He didn't take over Clemson. He took over a broken Michigan team that only won 5 games the season prior. It took him 4 years at Stanford to get the ball rolling. Year 3 he only won 8 games. I have critiques (as any fan does when you lose) but at long as Harbaugh is winning 9+ games a year, I'm satisfied for the time being. The wins against OSU and MSU will come. I'm not stupid enough to wish away the best coach we've ever had because he's had close losses to MSU and OSU in the first three years.

"Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15."

michigan has also been doing this for a long time. With Ohio State, it's been 15. With Sparty, it's been 10.

 

[7Samurai13]

I'm not sure what the problem is with the bolded statement? Again, Harbaugh didn't take over OSU. He didn't take over Clemson. He took over a broken Michigan team that only won 5 games the season prior. It took him 4 years at Stanford to get the ball rolling. Year 3 he only won 8 games. I have critiques (as any fan does when you lose) but at long as Harbaugh is winning 9+ games a year, I'm satisfied for the time being. The wins against OSU and MSU will come. I'm not stupid enough to wish away the best coach we've ever had because he's had close losses to MSU and OSU in the first three years.

Harbaugh took over a team with two top ten classes as upper classmen. It's not like he took over Michigan State after John L Smith or Illinois.

 

[The Q]

Exactly. People are really putting a lot of emphasis on a single loss in a monsoon.

My biggest complains about harbaugh would be:

1) bland old offense (aka little modernization, rather predictable)
2) his aversion to playing Peters even though he supposedly looked the best in the spring.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Harbaugh took over a team with two top ten classes as upper classmen. It's not like he took over Michigan State after John L Smith or Illinois.

Very true. Dantonio had a tougher task at MSU. And with that, Harbaugh had two back to back 10 win seasons.

 

[belcherboy]

Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15. We haven't even played Ohio State yet. Michigan righted the ship (step 1), we're recruiting better (step 2), and now we just need to give it time (step 3). As long as we're consistently winning games and pumping out elite defenses, the wins against MSU and OSU will come. I truly think people wanted too much too quickly, myself included.

Couldn't the same be said of Georgia. They righted the ship (when they hired Richt), recruited better (top 10 classes in most of the past 10-15 years), and now with Smart as their head coach they just need to give it time. Michigan has had a terrible 15-20 year run against Ohio State, Georgia has had a terrible 15-20 year run with Florida. Neither of them has won their conference in over a decade. I'd say they are pretty much identical right now, with the only advantage going to Georgia winning more games over the past two decades.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

"Except that's it's only been 2.5 years. Georgia has been doing that for the past 15."

michigan has also been doing this for a long time. With Ohio State, it's been 15. With Sparty, it's been 10.

Oh sure, but I can't blame those previous losses on anything Harbaugh is doing. You have to compartmentalize coaching records. It sucks that we've had a string of coaches that can't beat OSU, but Harbaugh will hopefully break that.

 

[7Samurai13]

Very true. Dantonio had a tougher task at MSU. And with that, Harbaugh had two back to back 10 win seasons.

So Michigan was "broken" by Michigan standards but was in better shape than 99% of first year coaches.