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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 — 17

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Six years on from Michigan Football’s dark ages under former coach Brady Hoke, the stuggles have returned with Jim Harbaugh at the helm. The team has started the season 1-2, with losses to Michigan State and Indiana.
T

here’s 
been 
a 

refrain 
in 
Ann 

Arbor for the past 
five-plus years.

It’s persisted even as Jim 

Harbaugh’s lost thrice as a home 
favorite to Michigan State. It’s 
persisted with just one bowl 
win in his tenure. And yes, it’s 
persisted through five straight 
losses 
to 
Ohio 

State by a 
combined 95 
points.

Michigan 

hasn’t been 
able 
to 

penetrate 
college 
football’s 
elite, 
but 

“Look 
at 

where it was in 2014,” the logic 
goes. In Brady Hoke’s last 
season, the Wolverines went 3-5 
in the Big Ten and 5-7 overall. 
That 
won’t 
happen 
under 

Harbaugh, we were told.

Well, step right up and greet 

the 2020 Wolverines.

Through three weeks, the 

sixth iteration of Harbaugh’s 
Michigan is 1-2. If you’re looking 
through the record books for 
the last time that happened, you 
won’t find it in the Hoke era. 
You’ll have to go back to Rich 
Rodriguez’s first season, when 
the Wolverines finished 3-9.

In Rodriguez’s defense, that 

1-2 start came at the hands of 
Notre Dame and an undefeated 
Utah team.

Last week, Michigan lost 

to Michigan State. After the 
Spartans lost 49-7 to previously-
winless 
Iowa 
on 
Saturday, 

it’s fair to say they might not 
win another game all year. 
This 
week, 
the 
Wolverines 

were toppled by Indiana. The 
Hoosiers 
are 
a 
dangerous, 

well-coached outfit. But that 
damning fact still holds: They 
hadn’t beaten Michigan since 
1987.

So where does this leave the 

Wolverines?

The answer will be familiar 

to anyone here back in the dark 
ages, from 2008 until Harbaugh 
was hired in December 2014. 
With two losses, Big Ten title 
hopes are vanquished. Beating 
No. 3 Ohio State? Forget about 
it. Even a .500 record would be 
surprising ahead of matchups 
with Wisconsin, Penn State 
and the Buckeyes. At this point, 
Maryland and its 2-1 record 
could pose a threat.

“Personal feeling is that we’re 

close to doing it,” Harbaugh 
said when asked if he plans on 
making any changes. “You see it 
done. You see it happening and 
then it’s going to take the next 
step of happening in the games.”

Right now, it’s hard to see 

that happening. On Saturday, 
Michigan gained all of 13 yards 
on 18 carries. Its quarterback, 
junior Joe Milton, alternated 
otherworldly 
plays 
with 

mystifying 
mistakes. 
And 

then there’s the matter of 
Don Brown’s much-maligned 
defense, which, the less said, 
the better.

“Yeah, I do (have confidence 

in Brown), very much so,” 
Harbaugh said. “I love all of 
our coaches. … Their schemes 
are really good. And they coach 
them good.”

After 
the 
Wolverines’ 

defensive 
showing 
against 

Indiana, it’s hard to agree with 
any of that when it comes to 
Brown. Through three weeks, 
his defense ranks 65th in total 
yards allowed, 104th in pass 
yards allowed and 85th in 
sacks. Mainly due to defensive 
mishaps, Michigan as a whole 
ranks 105th in penalties.

None 
of 
that 
screams 

“really 
good” 
schemes 
or 

“coaching them good.” There’s 
a reason that it would be mildly 
surprising at this point to see 
Brown on the sidelines in 2021.

But Michigan’s issues are 

far more macro. In year six 
of the Harbaugh era, it’s near 
impossible to see the Wolverines 
competing for a Big Ten title or 
College Football Playoff berth 
anytime soon.

Far easier is imagining a 

team that spends the next half 
a decade toiling in mediocrity. 
Five-star 
quarterback 
J.J. 

McCarthy serves to muddle 
Michigan’s despair. But in six 
years, 
Harbaugh 
— 
praised 

as the quarterback whisperer 
when he arrived — has yet to 
develop a single NFL-quality 
signal caller.

And sure, four-star in-state 

running back Donovan Edwards 
might be joining him. But last 
week, Andrel Anthony — a 
three-star receiver commit from 
East Lansing — told the Detroit 
Free Press that Michigan’s loss 
to Michigan State “did open a lot 
of eyes. I can tell you that.”

If you’re Edwards, choosing 

between Michigan and a slew of 
programs on the doorstep of a 
national championship, staying 
home becomes a difficult sell.

“Donovan 
has 
goals,” 

Ron Bellamy, Edwards’ high 
school coach, told The Daily 
in September. “He’s a winner, 
he wants to win. He wants to 

go to a football program that 
embodies that family culture, 
a football program that has the 
opportunity to win.”

Right now, Michigan isn’t 

that program.

All of which begs the question: 

What makes 2020 Michigan any 
different than 2014 Michigan?

Over the next five weeks, 

Harbaugh needs to come up 
with the answer. Because if he 
can’t, athletic director Warde 
Manuel will be staring down 
one remaining year of a contract 
that just paid $8 million for 
mediocrity.

And if that’s the case when 

he’s deciding whether or not to 
extend Harbaugh, letting him 
walk would be a lot easier to 
justify than paying another $52 
million for seven more years of 
this.

Mackie can be reached at 
tmackie@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @theo_mackie.

THEO
MACKIE

Harbaugh was hired to take Michigan out of the Hoke era. Six years later, it’s back.

