Nah. I've already accepted it. This is just who Harbaugh is. He's been the same guy at Michigan he was at Stanford and with the 49ers. His philosophy is stone age. He wants to run the ball, play defense, and have a QB that will manage the game and not make the big mistakes. That's fine and dandy against 99% of the schedule most years (save for Ohio State- who is always loaded) but when you face a team like Georgia in a playoff game- well as we all saw- you're not going to out Georgia Georgia at Michigan. Just ain't gonna happen. Michigan had two 1st rd picks off it's defense this past draft. Georgia had FIVE. And the best player in college on the field in the games for Georgia- Nakobe Dean- wasn't one of them.
Even Nick Saban- THE greatest college football coach ever- whose entire MO and rep was built on...we're gonna play smash mouth run the ball down your throat and play elite defense- realized...those days are long gone. The game has evolved and changed- and he's evolved and changed with it. He went out and got Tua, Mac Jones, and now Bryce Young - and he opened up the offense and realized that in todays game....you have to score points...you ain't stopping anybody any more. If the greatest coach ever can change up on the fly and change his program....that tells you something about where the game is today. Harbaugh is too stubborn and hard headed to make any kind of significant change like that. He's going to roll with Cade and try and ball control, game manage, run the ball, and play defense.
I agree 100%. As an old-time Ohio State fan I can understand Harbaugh's feelings. Personally, I LOVED teams that could play stifling defense, run the ball reasonably effectively, and just bludgeon their opponents but I agree with you that it is nigh on to impossible to win an NC that way anymore. I think Tressel's post-2002 teams illustrate this pretty well. The Buckeyes had enough talent to dominate our league that way and they won a slew of league titles but when they got matched up against the best of the best, it usually wasn't pretty:
- 2006: 12-0 regular season, 8-0 Big11Ten, L 41-14 in BCSNCG against Florida.
- 2007: 11-1 regular season, 7-1 Big11Ten, L 38-24 in BCSNCG against LSU.
- 2008: 10-2 regular season, 7-1 Big11Ten, L 35-3 at USC and 24-21 against Texas in the Fiesta.
Even as far back as the Ten Year War, our teams mutually dominated the BigTen but had a terrible record in Rose Bowls. Rose Bowls during the Woody/Bo era:
- 1970: Michigan lost 10-3 to USC.
- 1971: Ohio State lost 27-17 to Stanford.
- 1972: Michigan lost 13-12 to Stanford.
- 1973: Ohio State lost 42-17 to USC.
- 1974: Ohio State WON 42-21 over USC.
- 1975: Ohio State lost 18-17 to USC.
- 1976: Ohio State lost 23-10 to UCLA.
- 1977: Michigan lost 14-6 to USC.
- 1978: Michigan lost 27-20 to Washington.
- 1979: Michigan lost 17-10 to USC.
Those teams played stifling defense. Points given up per season / game:
- 1969 Michigan: 148 points in 11 games, 13.45 ppg.
- 1970 Ohio State: 120 points in 10 games, 12 ppg.
- 1971 Michigan: 83 points in 12 games, 6.92 ppg.
- 1972 Ohio State: 171 points in 11 games 15.5 ppg.
- 1973 Ohio State: 64 points in 11 games, 5.82 ppg. (What is even crazier is that they gave up 44 in their last three games: 13 to Iowa, 10 to M, and 21 to USC. Prior to that they had given up only 20 points in eight games).
- 1974 Ohio State: 129 points in 12 games, 10.75 ppg.
- 1975 Ohio State: 102 points in 12 games, 8.5 ppg.
- 1976 Michigan: 95 points in 12 games, 7.92 ppg.
- 1977 Michigan: 124 points in 12 games, 10.33 ppg.
- 1978 Michigan: 105 points in 12 games, 8.75 ppg.
Those teams played stifling defense and we all know they could run the ball but they went 1-9 in Rose Bowls because when they got up against teams with comparable talent they didn't have any creative answers.
Even looking at last year's edition of THE GAME. Michigan's defense was dominant and they ran the ball very well and they did win but Ohio State still put up 23 first downs, 458 yards, and 27 points. If Ohio State's defense had been merely competent the game likely would have gone the other way. Before anyone objects, I'm not crying the "but we coulda won if" game, I'm making a point about the modern game. Even as stout as Michigan's defense was last year, they still allowed 27 points and 458 yards to Ohio State. You just aren't likely to see a lot of 10-3 or 17-10 type games like the 1970 and 1979 Rose Bowls among top-tier teams anymore. You HAVE to be able to score because it has become practically impossible to hold your opponents to single-digits.