2019 Michigan Season Thread

[ELA]

No, I haven't.  It's one of 7 states I haven't visited.

I have conflicting images of Michigan.  Detroit on the one hand, Ann Arbor on the other.

You know, I read the backwards "Southgate" on the shirt, but then all I remembered was the semi-cursive "A" that looks just like Bama's.

Finding a UM alum/UM fan within the state borders is rare

[Brutus Buckeye]

Well he's beaten Texas and Oklahoma and it's not like Ferentz shellacked him and ISU has always been the little step brother there.He did good things at Toledo & BG.Iowa won by 1 pt last week and by 3 in OT 2 years ago.Flip the script and see how Capt Kirk does

Ferentz has always struggled in CyHawk games.

His domination over them during the Campbell era is the exception, not the rule. 

[CatsbyAZ]

That whole thing was sort of weird.  He had an "Alabama Baseball" t-shirt on, and the whole image was reversed as if in a mirror.
I wouldn't bet my last dollar that that guy was a Michigan fan.

Now on that you mentioned it, it does get weird. His neighbor’s maniacal laugh at the end - when he’s explaining “I’m just breaking my Jim Harbaugh Bobblehead” is unsettling in a hilarious way. And yes his yard is awful. As for the Bama logo I thought I saw an M logo on the sleeve of golf club he defiantly tears off.

[MichiFan87]

Finding a UM alum/UM fan within the state borders is rare

Even though a lot of Michigan grads aren't from there and/or left the state after graduating, there are still many more Michigan grads in Metro Detroit than anywhere else. I couldn't find the actual numbers, but a quick LinkedIn search is proportionally representative enough, which shows that nearly 90k out of 292k alumni on LinkedIn live in Metro Detroit. Even if a lot of those are current students (Michigan's enrollment is ~46k), after excluding those, that's still a lot more than the next largest chapters (NYC has 26k, Chicago 18k, Bay Area 16k, DC 12k).

As for the discussion, yesterday was incredibly disappointing and frustrating. In retrospect, I'm glad they got blown out, though. Maybe the players and coaches will finally get their heads out of their asses and play / coach to their potential. There's no reason the offense shouldn't be much better and the defense didn't look good yesterday, either, especially considering it usually does will against more traditional offenses.

[MrNubbz]

Ferentz has always struggled in CyHawk games.

His domination over them during the Campbell era is the exception, not the rule.

Domination isn't 2 games by 1 pt & 3 pt OT.Iowa is a more established program

[Brutus Buckeye]

Domination isn't 2 games by 1 pt & 3 pt OT.Iowa is a more established program

Harbaugh has suffered some close rivalry losses that could have gone either way as well. 

[Cincydawg]

Alaska was my 49th state.

ND is left.

[CWSooner]

It's hard to win at Iowa State, despite the very faithful fan-base.  You're a long way from the great recruiting fields, and as I understand it there's not all that much in Ames, IA, to attract kids from a thousand miles away to come there.

Within the Big 12, Matt Campbell is well respected, and is considered to be doing more with less than any other coach in the conference.

By contrast, the Jim Harbaugh who is being discussed on this board seems to be doing less with more.

That was the rap on Mack Brown at Texas.  "Coach February" he was called, in recognition of his recruiting success that did not fully translate into on-the-field results.  Bob Stoops' OU teams laid some of the worst beatings in UT history on Mack's Longhorns.  But Mack won the BCS national championship for 2005, then coached for another one after the 2009 season, and might have won that one too had Colt McCoy not been knocked out of the game.

There's a lot more to being a head coach at a blue-blood program than merely coaching ability, as previously outstanding coaches so often find when they take a position at one of the blue-blood schools.  Coaches like Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke.  But I'm confident that Matt Campbell can coach a football team.  Could he run a program like Michigan football, with all the other things above and beyond coaching that that job entails?  Who knows?

[CWSooner]

Alaska was my 49th state.

ND is left.

What did you do in SD?  Go to Sturgis for the big biker festival?  
The Dakotas and Minnesota are three of the seven I haven't visited.  Oops!  Eight.  I forgot about Maine.

[847badgerfan]

STARZZ, baby. 


STARZZ!!

[Brutus Buckeye]

What did you do in SD?  .

[CWSooner]

Sure, there is Mt. Rushmore, but STURGIS, man!  ;-)

[Cincydawg]

I drove the kids to a dude ranch in Wyoming in 1994 or so and crossed SD.  We stayed near Wall as I recall.  I recall getting up early the next morning and making Wyoming about 9 AM their time and thinking I was almost there.  I got there at 4 PM.  That was our best vacation overall.

It was a lot of driving in a 4 cylinder minivan with 3 kids and a manual transmission.  I had books on cassette tapes.

[TamrielsKeeper]

Zero Conference Titles, .500 Bowl record, 0-4 vs rival Iowa...

Harbaugh can do that.

We'll see how Campbell does this season, but if it gets to 8+ wins this year, you're writing off some major accomplishments.  He's going to be really good for some major program, not sure which yet.

That program was a mess when he arrived.  Winning 8+ games 3 straight years at Iowa State can be viewed similarly to making the CFP at a program like Ohio State/Michigan, assuming he does win 8+ this season, which I think he will.  The resource disadvantage you have at ISU vs. the rest of the Big 12 is immense.  He went 3-1 against AP top 10 opponents in 2017-2018.  At Iowa State.  I wouldn't compare that to Harbaugh.

I'm not sure who Michigan will go after, but as an outside observer, I definitely think they should hire someone like Campbell rather than stick to someone who has connections to the program.