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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.