Should Michigan Fire Jim Harbaugh Preview Article

VirginiaCavs

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Should Michigan Fire Jim Harbaugh?




What Came Before

After Lloyd Carr’s long and successful tenure as Michigan’s head coach, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke brought significant disappointment from 2008 to 2014. Rodriguez was 15-22. Hoke was 31-20, but failed to obtain bowl eligibility in 2014.

Harbaugh arrived in 2015 and brought improvement and stabilization. His current record with UM is 47-17. His worst season was eight wins and he’s led three 10-win seasons. Under Harbaugh, Michigan is consistently a top-15 team.

So What’s The Problem?

Unlike Carr's, JH’s Michigan has not won a Big Ten title let alone sniffed a national title. Harbaugh is 2-11 against top-10 teams and 1-7 on the road against ranked teams.

Perhaps most importantly, Michigan is 0-5 under Harbaugh against Ohio State, its biggest rival. The Wolverines lost those five games by a combined total of 95 points with four losses coming by double digits and three by over 20 points.

Losing to Ohio State is also important because it arguably cost Michigan a playoff berth both in 2016 and 2018.

We need to ask two decisive questions: is this bar that Harbaugh’s Michigan is failing to eclipse Harbaugh’s fault and should be fired for it?

Is Harbaugh The Problem: Offense

There’s this perception that Harbaugh is stubborn and refuses to change. Supposedly, he’s mired in this old-fashioned mindset that favors a slow-tempo, pro-style offense with a physical run game that heavily involves the tight ends.

But clearly, this perception isn’t accurate. Two offseasons ago, he landed five-star transfer quarterback Shea Patterson.

Stylistically, Patterson is very different than the college quarterbacks that Harbaugh had wanted to run his offense, true pocket-passers like Andrew Luck at Stanford and Jake Rudock.

Patterson is a mobile, exciting type of player who makes things happen outside the pocket.

During the offseason, Harbaugh brought in a new offensive coordinator and play-caller in Josh Gattis. Gattis’ offense is up-tempo and spread-based, which favors Patterson’s skill set.

While Patterson has incurred criticism for critical mistakes and otherwise disappointing performances, it’s hard to blame Harbaugh for Patterson because Patterson was the perceived transfer to land.

In terms of scheme and coaching, on the offensive end, it seems like Harbaugh is doing all he can.

Why Can’t Michigan Beat Ohio State: Recruiting

As measured by 247’s Team Talent Composite, Ohio State ranked between three and nine spots higher in all five of Harbaugh’s Michigan years.

When UM came within seconds and inches of beating Ohio State in 2016 only to lose in overtime, the ranking disparity was only three spots.

In OSU’s most recent 29-point slugging, it held a nine-spot advantage.

It seems obvious: the Buckeyes have beaten Michigan by more points when they had more talent.

Is Harbaugh An Insufficient Recruiter?

Harbaugh should be a great recruiter. After all, he’s a nationally respected name given the reputation that he cultivated with the San Francisco 49ers and at Stanford.

It’s not like Michigan hasn’t ranked top-11 by 247 in each of his years at Michigan. Plus, another top-10 recruiting class is on the way.

If Harbaugh is expected to beat Ohio State, though, then he should be expected to recruit better.

To be fair, I think he is disadvantaged in this respect by Michigan’s higher academic standards and the lack of quality produced in Michigan high schools.

But Harbaugh has also had some notable gaffes. For example, he failed to land current Boston College star A.J. Dillon.

Dillon had committed to Michigan, but wasn’t convinced that he’d play the sort of expansive, all-purpose role at running back that he envisioned for himself. This season, Dillon has run for 1,685 yards at Boston College.

While the Buckeyes boast a star in J.K. Dobbins, Michigan’s lack of rush attack absolutely holds it back in big games.

Under Gattis, Michigan had developed a rush attack that had seemed solid like in the team’s blowout win over Notre Dame.

But in Harbaugh’s 11 losses to top-10 teams — including the recent loss to Ohio State — UM averaged more than 2.9 YPC three times and never averaged than four YPC.

The Verdict

In recent history, a national championship team has needed to have Dabo Swinney, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and/or a Heisman-caliber quarterback.

So there is very little else in the coaching world that could reliably be said to be better than Harbaugh.

The Buckeyes have benefitted both from having Meyer and Heisman-caliber quarterbacks and they just so happen to be in Michigan’s conference.

Given where Michigan is annually under Harbaugh, I don’t think a case can be made for firing him.

A better case can be made for firing defensive coordinator Don Brown, whose Wolverine defense gave up 62 points to OSU last year and 56 this year.

For comparison’s sake, Rutgers gave up 52 points last year and 56 this year to Ohio State.
 
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Good work VC. Change of scene is needed at DC.

My gripe with Harbaugh..although he was better this year..are a few things..

Clock management is atrocious overall.

IN-GAME adjustments need to be made on both sides of the ball. PSU second half was an example of great adjustments in the game..Wisconsin, not so much. Bucks blitzed the shit out of SP in second half..and the wrs had the dropsies..AGAIN..wrs under-performed until later in year. But Saturday was bad.

Offense needs to be more UP-TEMPO...and I hope it is next year. Still needs tweaking..I personally will be glad to see a new QB.

Play the BEST players. Regardless of class.
 
don't take 9 or 10 wins for granted. that is all.
Nope, and if they care about and win the bowl this is the best 5 year stretch since 97-01... They just so happen to be stuck in an era of OSU football that's never been touched before. He has to tie up a few loose ends but the Gattis move was a huge one. Now...it might be time for the big one on the other side.
 
This line of thinking is always interesting to me......there is only one team that can win the NC and only four that get into the playoffs......if you fire Harbaugh, you have to actually find someone to bring in that will be better....who is that? Does UM really think they are getting Saban or maybe even Riley (who may or may not turn out to be a top-tier coach),......someone else?

I understand that there are situations where changes need to be made, but what has UM done to fall off the map....as BAR mentions, this is just a time of Buckeye dominance.......would be a very dumb move imo
 
Yea there‘s precedent for firing a sort of successful coach who can‘t get over certain humps. What was that guy‘s name at Nebraska?
 
Brown needs to go as his defense is either elite or awful. With no ability to adapt when it's awful. Which happens often vs. good teams and every time vs. OSU.
 
You cover speed WRs with safeties, you should get fired. You continue to do it after being burned repeatedly in the past, you should be hanged. Dum Brown needs to go. Looks elite vs crap teams, easy to do for any of these teams when half the teams in any conference each year look like they'd be better with us throwing and catching passes, not to mention the cupcakes in non-conf. I mean seriously, how bad do you have to be to only win 6 games or even 7? You have to stink. 8 is ok. 9 is good, 10 is pretty good, 11 is very good, 12 is great. So Jim is winning 9 or 10 fairly consistently. So is Franklin. So is Chryst. Boat Rower did this year, maybe he continues. That's it. Ferentz does backflips for 8 wins.

"Fire Jimmy". So sick of that, who are they going to hire right now thats better? Too big a risk to go backwards and the university is conservative at heart. Sparty fans that laugh and say you have to fire Jimmy, they just want the Rich Rod days back cuz they knew they are screwed right now as is. In other words, its their only hope. If Jim leaves, its because he wants to. Otherwise, he'll be here long enough to eventually break through. Yeah, at this rate with OSU it may take 20 years but it will happen. Norvell, Campbell, Ruhle etc. I'll keep Jim thanks.
 
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The fact is this. Michigan has NOT been a Top 5 team for many years now. They have never had a 0 or 1 loss season in this century. The best they have done is a 2 loss season in 2006 and 2011. They are 5-11 in Bowl Games since 2000. They have been a consistently good team, for the most part, but NOT a great team. Those days are over. Harbaugh or no Harbaugh.
 
It’s an interesting discussion.

Blaming harbaugh’s woes on osu dominance seems a bit shortsighted. Wisky and psu have both achieved despite osu’s success. There’s no reason why mich couldn’t be the level of psu/wisky level but they’re not.

And with big contracts come big expectations.
 
It’s an interesting discussion.

Blaming harbaugh’s woes on osu dominance seems a bit shortsighted. Wisky and psu have both achieved despite osu’s success. There’s no reason why mich couldn’t be the level of psu/wisky level but they’re not.

With big contracts come big expectations.

Maybe not this year but Michigan is definitely at Wisky/PSU level. They just can't get to a title game every year like Wisky can.

Didn't Michigan beat PSU and Wisky by a combined 100 a year ago?
 
Maybe not this year but Michigan is definitely at Wisky/PSU level. They just can't get to a title game every year like Wisky can.

Didn't Michigan beat PSU and Wisky by a combined 100 a year ago?
Yup. and truth. If they got rid of ridiculous nonsensical divisions in this conference, then M would be in Indy some years. There are four teams who would complete for two spots:, OSU, M, Wisky PSU. Thats it.
 
Maybe not this year but Michigan is definitely at Wisky/PSU level. They just can't get to a title game every year like Wisky can.

Didn't Michigan beat PSU and Wisky by a combined 100 a year ago?

I dunno, I see a pretty bad record against top teams, away games, bowl games, and never finishing above 3rd in their division. I think wisky and psu have been more successful programs overall. PSU has also played osu really close over the last few years and also managed to win one.

This is bigger than OSU.
 
The problem is this. How long do you allow this to continue? Next season Michigan opens at Washington and closes at Ohio State. They lose their starting QB Patterson and 5 others on offense, plus 7 starters on defense. So do you wait until 2021, when they host Washington and Ohio State and hope they can defeat Penn State and Wisconsin on the road? When does it end for MIchigan? When do they finally win a championship in the Big 10?
 
Pelini had to go because he could not win more than 9 games a season. Now Nebraska can't win more than 9 games in TWO seasons.

Pelini having to go had nothing to do with his record. And if pelini is so great, check out his record at Youngstown state and then ask yourself why that was the best job he could get.
 
Jim needs to stay. He is the best coach Michigan can get, there isn’t any9nw better for this program. What he needs is to be better in recruiting.
 
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