18 — Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

In lopsided loss, Michigan falls flat on 

its face

Two weeks ago, the Michigan 

football team reached its lowest 
point at the Big House in Jim 
Harbaugh’s six-year tenure with a 
shocking loss to three-touchdown 
underdog Michigan State.

It stooped even lower on 

Saturday night, this time to the 
tune of a 94-year record. For 
that, it has only its own lack of 
execution to blame.

The Wolverines were chased off 

their own field from the opening 
kickoff. By the end of the second 
quarter, Michigan trailed No. 
13 Wisconsin, 28-0 — its largest 
halftime deficit in the history of 
Michigan Stadium, which opened 
in 1927. It only got worse as the 
night went on, resulting in a 49-11 
loss.

For much of the first half, 

Harbaugh stood on the sideline, 
bent over, hands on his hips. It 
was a far cry from the coach who 
triumphantly returned to Ann 
Arbor in 2015 and wore his heart 
on his sleeve.

On 
the 
field, 
his 
players 

appeared to do the same. The 
Wolverines gained a mere one 
yard of total offense in the first 
quarter, and junior quarterback 
Joe Milton didn’t even complete 
a pass to his own team until the 
Badgers led 28-0. Things weren’t 
much better on the defensive side 
of the ball, as Wisconsin strolled 
into the end zone with little 
resistance on multiple occasions.

Asked to put his finger on 

where things went sideways, fifth-
year senior captain Carlo Kemp 
shrugged.

“Things just happened,” Kemp 

said. “Things played out like that.”

Added Harbaugh: “We were 

thoroughly beaten in every phase. 
Didn’t really do anything well. 
And did not play good, did not 
coach good. Not in a good place 
with the execution, not in a good 
place adjusting and what we were 
doing schematically. So not a good 
place as a football team right now 
and that falls on me.”

The words echoed Harbaugh’s 

sentiment following last year’s trip 
to Madison. After getting blown 
out 35-14, he proclaimed Michigan 
was “outcoached and outplayed.” 
The same words applied on 
Saturday night.

The storyline leading up to 

this game was whether or not 
Badgers’ 
quarterback 
Graham 

Mertz would play after his 
recent bout with COVID-19. As it 
turns out, that barely mattered. 
Michigan seemingly folded in 
the first quarter, and by the end 
of the night, its body language 
spoke louder than the lopsided 
scoreboard.

Playing for pride in the second 

half, the Wolverines tarnished 
their only spark — a four-play 
touchdown drive led by backup 
quarterback Cade McNamara — 
with a running into the kicker 
penalty on fourth-and-five. The 
ensuing dejection was apparent.

With heads hanging low, the 

Wolverines finished the fourth 
quarter with zero yards of total 
offense. By contrast, their porous 

defense surrendered 163 in a 
lifeless garbage time showing. 
Understandably, the results left 
Harbaugh floored.

“All things, thoroughly, (are) 

not where they need to be in 
terms of execution,” Harbaugh 
said. “So that starts with, as I said, 
starts with me, starts with our 
coaches, and also every person 
here. Understand what we’re 
supposed to do and then going and 
executing it.

“If somebody’s not executing 

it, then why is that? Are we 
communicating, are we coaching 
it well enough? There’s nothing 
right now to say that an acceptable 
job is being done right now. Players 
or coaches.”

Following 
Saturday 
night’s 

embarrassment, Michigan is 1-3 
for the first time since 1967. More 
specifically, it is 1-3 in Big Ten 
play for the first time since 2014. 
Harbaugh’s predecessor, Brady 
Hoke, was fired after that season.

The 
next 
month 
could 

determine 
whether 
or 
not 

Harbaugh endures the same 
fate. He has the back half of a 
pandemic-shortened season to fix 
things, and at this point, it seems 
the best place to start is in his own 
players’ heads.

“Right now, my concern level’s 

nowhere near worried or nervous 
or anything,” Kemp said. “… Am 
I worried? No. We’ve shown in 
the last three weeks, even though 
what the outcome has not been 
what we wanted at all, we’re still 
here.”

Michigan is quickly learning 

that showing up isn’t enough.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Editor

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

A dejected Michigan team showed little fight in Saturday night’s 49-11 loss to No. 13 Wisconsin.

Michigan’s road to this point started in 2017

Injuries aren’t an excuse, they’re an 

indictment

Three weeks before the Big 

Ten’s season began, Wisconsin lost 
its starting quarterback.

With all that’s happened since, 

it’s easy to forget. But Jack Coan, a 
steady if unspectacular starter for 
the Badgers in 2019, injured his foot 
in practice and was declared out 
indefinitely. His replacement was 
sophomore Graham Mertz, a four-
star recruit. In Wisconsin’s first 
game, he lit up Illinois, completing 
all but one of his passes.

After that game, the Badgers 

took another hit — a COVID-19 
outbreak that infected 12 players 
and 10 staffers, including Mertz, 
his 
backup 
and 
coach 
Paul 

Chryst. While Mertz was back 
for Saturday’s game, several other 
starters had yet to be cleared, 
including 
cornerback 
Rachad 

Wildgoose, running back Garrett 
Groshek and defensive end Garrett 
Rand.

Watching 
Wisconsin 
play 

against Michigan, you couldn’t tell.

The final score was 49-11, a 

beatdown in every sense of the 
word. Wisconsin was better at 
every position (except punter).

Most notably, what both teams 

put on the field was a depleted 
version of their normal selves. The 
Badgers could make sure that didn’t 
derail the game. The same couldn’t 
be said of Michigan.

The Wolverines took the field 

without both their starting tackles 
(Ryan Hayes and Jalen Mayfield) 
and both their starting defensive 
ends (Kwity Paye and Aidan 
Hutchinson, the latter of whom is 
out for the season) due to injuries. 
Boy, was it obvious.

“There’s guys that, they came 

to Michigan cause they wanted 
to play,” Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh said Monday. “Some are 
playing earlier than they thought 
they would, and there’s been some 
good play. Those are some of the 
areas ... to build upon.”

In other words, the replacements 

need improvement.

Without 
its 
anchors, 
the 

offensive line struggled to open up 
holes for the running game. The 
Wolverines gained just 47 yards on 
the ground. 

On defense, the effect was 

equally catastrophic. Michigan as a 
whole has struggled to get pressure 

on the quarterback all season, but at 
least Paye was everywhere on the 
field.

Fifth-year senior Carlo Kemp 

(normally a defensive tackle) and 
junior Taylor Upshaw handled the 
primary duties at defensive end. 
They combined for seven tackles, 
one tackle for loss and one sack. 
As a comparison, Paye finished 
with five tackles, a tackle for loss 
and a quarterback hurry against 
Indiana — a game he left early with 
an injury.

“There’s a lot of room for 

improvement,” Upshaw said last 
Monday. “Obviously when you 
have Aidan and Kwity, two guys 
you really rely on, go down, it’s 
gonna affect the game, but I have 

confidence in the backups and 
even the guys behind me so it’s 
just gonna have to be one of those 
things where you have to step up.”

While Michigan’s issues go 

beyond the injuries, it’s clear that 
the loss of Hayes, Paye, Hutchinson 
and Mayfield is really hurting it. 
That’s not to say it’s an excuse. 
Losing three of the best players on 
your team all at the same time is bad 
luck, but the way the Wolverines 
have played without them is an 
indictment of their depth.

Back in 2018, Michigan had 

Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich 
at defensive end, both of whom are 
in the NFL now. Both struggled 
with injuries at times that season, 
but the Wolverines had Hutchinson 
and Paye behind them to step in. 
On the offensive line, players like 
fifth-year senior Andrew Vastardis, 
senior Chuck Filiaga and Hayes 
backed up stalwarts like Jon 
Runyan, Ben Bredeson and Cesar 
Ruiz as recently as last year. This 
year, they’ve had to give starts to 
true freshman Zak Zinter.

On Saturday, Wisconsin had four 

different players garner at least 50 

rushing yards, and that was without 
Groshek — its leading rusher 
against the Illini. The Badgers’ top 
rusher Saturday was Jalen Berger, 
a true freshman playing in his first 
college game ever. He had 87 yards. 
John Chenal, a fullback with three 
career starts, had 71 yards. Danny 
Davis, normally a backup wide 
receiver, had 65.

“If you’re not embarrassed 

with those numbers, then you 
shouldn’t be part of this fricking 
game,” defensive line coach Shaun 
Nua said on the Inside Michigan 
Football 
radio 
show 
Monday 

night. “I can’t sleep, can’t eat. It’s 
just unacceptable. ... That is not 
Michigan football.”

But right now, it is Michigan 

football. With the kind of depth 
the Badgers have, and the kind the 
Wolverines don’t, they barely had a 
chance.

If Paye, Hayes and Mayfield are 

able to return soon, the Wolverines 
will get a boost. But that boost will 
mean little for a team that’s already 
1-3. 

Wisconsin is a shining example 

of a team that has depth and knows 
how to use it, the exact sort of team 
equipped to do well in the COVID-
19 era. Michigan used to be that 
kind of team, too, but now, it’s the 
sort of team that throws things 
at the wall and prays something 
sticks.

That’s not an excuse, it’s reality. 

It’s an indictment of coaching, 
development, recruiting, retention, 
all things a top Big Ten football 
team has to have.

One 
thing 
is 
clear: 
The 

Wolverines are no longer a top Big 
Ten football team.

____________________________

Gerson can be reached at 

amgerson@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @aria_gerson.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Defensive end Taylor Upshaw tried to make up for key absences on Saturday.

T

alk to people from 
Jim Harbaugh’s 
first Michigan 
team, and you’ll 

hear stories about a man that no 
longer seems 
to exist.

There’s 

the four-hour 
practices 
and the 
submarine. 
There’s that 
time he got 
stopped at 
the door of 
the Mormon 
Tabernacle 
Church in Utah for wearing 
cleats, and that time he gave a 
speech from Shakespeare before 
the Ohio State game. You’ll 
hear how he got so involved in 
drills that he pulled a hamstring 
at practice, and staffers who 
followed him from Stanford will 
tell you about how he ran them 
off the racquetball court.

It’s a picture of intensity, focus 

and competitiveness — and a 
man who enjoys it all. It’s also a 
picture that could sell to recruits.

Because back then, back when 

everyone assumed hype would 
crystallize into reality, Jim 
Harbaugh recruited like he was 
running a program that could 
compete with the Ohio States 
of the world. His 2016 class 
featured the No. 1 player in the 
country, Rashan Gary, a current 
NFL star in Devin Bush Jr., and 
contributors up and down the 
board. 

Ben Bredeson became a 

captain. Mike Onwenu, Khaleke 
Hudson, Sean McKeon and 
Josh Metellus were multi-year 
starters. Lavert Hill and David 

Long were stalwart corners. 
Carlo Kemp, Chris Evans and 
Nick Eubanks are three of the 
team’s best players now.

On signing day, Harbaugh 

held an event at Hill Auditorium 
that featured Derek Jeter, Tom 
Brady, Ric Flair, Todd McShay, 
Lou Holtz, Mike Shanahan 
and a veritable stable of other 
celebrities. Then a year later, he 
signed a class that ranked even 
higher, according to 247Sports.

Never has that felt further 

away than Saturday night, when 
Harbaugh got to his Zoom press 
conference after a blowout 49-11 
loss to Wisconsin and was out of 
positive things to say about his 
team.

“We were thoroughly beaten 

in every phase,” Harbaugh said. 
“Didn’t really do anything well. 
And did not play good, did not 
coach good. 

“Not in a good place with the 

execution, not in a good place 
adjusting and what we were 
doing schematically. So not a 
good place as a football team 
right now and that falls on me.”

The bricks on Michigan’s road 

to a 1-3 record — to a perpetual 
bottom that keeps falling out — 
were laid in that 2017 recruiting 
class. The stars from that group, 
for the most part, are either gone, 
or have failed to live up to their 
potential, or both. And, after a 
disappointing 8-5 2017 season, 
the hype that fueled Harbaugh’s 
recruiting fizzled out. 

Michigan went from fifth to 

22nd in the recruiting rankings, 
per 247Sports’ composite score. 
The Wolverines didn’t take a 
defensive tackle in 2018 and took 
just three defensive ends. Lo 
and behold, on Saturday, with 
both their starting ends out with 

injury, Wisconsin made a living 
off running jet sweeps and end-
arounds.

“We didn’t set an edge all 

night in that,” Harbaugh said. 
“And as I said, there’s things that 
we weren’t containing.”

That cornerback group that 

struggled in perpetuity against 
Michigan State and Indiana? The 
highest-rated recruit Harbaugh 
managed to get at the position in 
2018 was Myles Sims. He plays 
for Georgia Tech now. The two 
four-stars Harbaugh got in 2017 
— Ambry Thomas and Benjamin 
St-Juste — aren’t with the 
program anymore.

As much as the misery of 

Michigan football in 2020 comes 
down to failures in coaching, 
execution and togetherness right 
now, this wasn’t especially hard 
to see coming. If you don’t recruit 
at a high level — and if you don’t 

recruit depth — you’re going to 
struggle. Simple as that.

And if the high-level talent you 

do recruit either leaves or fails to 
pan out (Aubrey Solomon, Drew 
Singleton and Luiji Vilain were 
three top-100 recruits in 2017, to 
name a few), it’ll get even worse. 
Not every recruit will pan out. 
But this isn’t good enough.

The average upperclassman 

the Wolverines started on 
offense Saturday had a .8782 
composite score on 247Sports 
— firmly in three-star range. 
On defense, it was .8923 — just 
barely above the four-star 
threshold.

Want to find where this 

program’s struggles start? It’s 
right there. You can trace a line 
straight through to the late 
hours of Saturday night, when 
Harbaugh sat in front of a Zoom 
camera and said, “Every part is 

not close to where it should be.”

Some of that is out of 

Harbaugh’s control. The 
pandemic hastened departures 
for Thomas and receiver Nico 
Collins. Starting tackles Jalen 
Mayfield and Ryan Hayes, and 
starting defensive ends Kwity 
Paye and Aidan Hutchinson, 
missed Saturday’s game with 
injuries. But the lack of ability 
to withstand such losses falls on 
Harbaugh’s shoulders.

So, too, for that matter, does 

the bad body language — hung 
heads and sullen looks — and 
failure to react to adversity and 
the complete, utter mess we’ve 
seen for the last three weeks. 
All of that is on Jim Harbaugh, 
and $8 million a year should buy 
Michigan more than this.

Here’s a challenge: Name 

three good things about the 
Michigan football team right 
now.

There’s Ronnie Bell, who 

continues to defy any reasonable 
expectation. Then there’s … well, 
punter Brad Robbins seems to be 
doing a good job.

Five days earlier, Harbaugh 

bristled when a reporter asked 
about his lack of a contract 
extension, and whether he wants 
to be at Michigan over the long 
term. Those questions will keep 
coming now, in waves. But if 
Michigan keeps playing like this, 
the question can’t be whether he 
wants to be at Michigan over the 
long term. 

It needs to be whether 

Michigan wants him.

Sears can be reached at 

searseth@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethan_sears.

ETHAN
SEARS

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Coach Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines fell to Wisconsin by a score of 49-11 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, falling to 1-3 on the season.

