When Will Michigan Football Wake Up?
1-4; 0-5; 0
What do these numbers mean? They represent Michigan’s record in bowl games through six years, their record against Ohio State, and the zero represents how many times they played for a Big Ten title. Obviously that fucking sucks. When Jim Harbaugh was introduced as head coach on December 30th, 2014 he was supposed to be the answer. Michigan football was supposed to be back.
In his first two seasons, there was hope as they had a record of 10-3 each season, with one blowout loss against Ohio State and one tight controversial loss to OSU in 2016. Since then, their records are 8-5, 10-3, 9-4, and this last season in YEAR FUCKING SIX they went 2-4.
Because of COVID-19 complications, their game against Ohio State in 2020 was canceled. The Wolverines are lucky this game wasn’t played because they would’ve been straight-up annihilated. Yet again they didn’t even play for a Big Ten title, let alone win one, or play for a national title. 1-4 in bowl games and they continue to be dominated by Ohio State, their biggest rival.
This performance somehow led to a contract extension for four years, keeping Harbaugh through 2025. It almost seems like athletic director Warde Manuel wants to hurt the program, and Michigan deemed that worthy of an extension as well. IF they wake up soon they can achieve their goals but they definitely can’t let Harbaugh remain coach until 2025.
One of the first things that need to be done is a major upgrade of their facilities. In 247 Sports’ most recent rankings of the top 25 college football facilities in the country, Michigan ranked 13th. Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State are the three most dominant programs currently in college football, have combined to win 8 national titles since 2010, and their facilities all ranked in the top 6 on this year’s list. Those programs have had elite facilities and coaches for the last decade. Michigan hasn’t had any of those things going for them since Lloyd Carr, who retired after the 2007 season.
Another edge Alabama, Clemson, and other southern schools have over Michigan is the weather. As someone who has lived in Michigan my whole life I can tell you winter here gets pretty damn cold, which gives even more reason to spend the money to compete for the title of the best facilities in the nation. They need to add the extra features like mini-golf courses, massive players lounge, barbershops, water slides, awesome locker rooms, and other stuff like that. Basically, it needs to be a luxury five-star resort. To be the best they need to train in facilities that rival that of the very best.
Jim Harbaugh was supposedly a QB guru of sorts when hired but the results say otherwise. His QBs since 2015, his first season on the job, grade out as follows according to Pro Football Focus: 2015 – Jake Rudock; 73.4 (about average), 2016 – Wilton Speight; 72.1, 2017 – John O’Korn; 66.9 (below average), Brandon Peters; 54.5, 2018 – Shea Patterson; 83.3 (above average), 2019 – Shea Patterson; 75.4, 2020 – Joe Milton; 73.0, and Cade McNamara 65.9. Of these players, Rudock was the only one to be an NFL draft pick and it was as the 191st overall selection in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. Brandon Peters is currently finishing his career at Illinois.
In terms of the teams’ points per game since 2015, they’ve ranked 31.4 (49th), 40.3 (11th), 25.2 (91st), 35.2 (21st), 31.7 (44th), and last season 28.3 (66th). Harbaugh isn’t producing elite QBs and he isn’t producing elite offenses. This has been a team that beats who they should but can’t win games to go to the next level, but again that’s what Harbaugh was brought in to do. They’re 2-12 against AP top 10 teams since 2015 and have a combined 4-9 record against rivals Ohio State, Michigan State, and Notre Dame.
Strong defense (outside of last season) has helped him keep his job. In terms of opponent points per game since 2015 they rank 2015 – 16.4 (6th), 2016- 14.1 (2nd), 2017- 18.8 (13th), 2018- 19.4 (16th), 2019- 20.7 (25th), 2020- 34.5 (95th). How do Michigan’s ppg and opp. ppg since 2015 look compared to Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State?
PPG. to Opp. PPG. and Rank
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Alabama | 35.1 (30th) to 15.1 (3rd) | 38.8 (16th) to 13.0 (1st) | 37.1 (15th) to 11.9 (1st) | 45.6 (3rd) to 18.1 (12th) | 47.2 (2nd) to 18.6 (13th) | 48.5 (2nd) to 19.4 (13th) |
| Clemson | 38.5 (16th) to 21.7 (24th) | 39.2 (14th) to 18.0 (10th) | 33.3 (32nd) to 13.6 (2nd) | 44.3 (4th) to 13.1 (1st) | 43.9 (4th) to 13.5 (3rd) | 43.5 (4th) to 20.2 (18th) |
| Ohio State | 35.7 (28th) to 15.1 (2nd) | 39.4 (13th) to 15.5 (3rd) | 41.1 (6th) to 19.0 (15th) | 42.2 (8th) to 25.5 (52nd) | 46.9 (3rd) to 13.7 (4th) | 41.0 (11th) to 25.8 (43rd) |
So as you can see, the top of college football is much better than what Harbaugh’s teams have produced. After the 2020 NFL Draft, there are five first round draft picks at QB from those three schools since 2015, while the highest selected Harbaugh QB through six years is in the sixth round at pick 191. He hasn’t produced QBs or offensive production the way he was expected yet HE WAS REWARDED WITH A CONTRACT EXTENSION!!!!!!
When taking a closer look at their 1-4 bowl record in six years and 0-5 record against their biggest rival Ohio State the problem gets even worse. After Harbaugh’s first season they demolished Florida in the Citrus Bowl 41-7. Then in 2016 Michigan had a tight loss to Florida State, 33-32 in the Orange Bowl. Bowl losses 26-19 to South Carolina, 41-15 to Florida, and 35-16 to Alabama followed thereafter. In 2020 Michigan didn’t qualify for a bowl for the first time since Harbaugh took over.
The losses to Ohio State went like this from 2015 onward: 42-13, 30-27 (2OT), 31-20, 62-39, 56-27, and this last season they didn’t play because Michigan had a Covid-19 problem. It should be obvious Jim Harbaugh IS NOT what they expected when hiring him.
If I had to guess, Harbaugh will likely get to coach through 2 or 3 of these seasons at least, so trying to peg potential targets for a new head coach would be too difficult. The number one thing that needs to be done when they search is to ditch the “Michigan Man” bullshit. Get the best coach for them regardless of whether or not they have ties to the Michigan football program.
Who they pick needs to be someone who along with the staff they can coach/develop elite offenses and QBs. The last three national champs were top 5 in PPG. In 2018 Clemson was 4th putting up 44.3 PPG, in 2019 LSU was 1st with 48.4, and last season Alabama was 2nd with 48.5 PPG. Michigan NEEDS to get someone who can fix the offense and bring consistently good play on that side of the ball or they will reach new lows and give opponents the opportunity to further pass them in facilities and coaching.
