2019 Wisconsin Season Thread

[FearlessF]

well, then you'd be lying to those 4 and 5 stars that you promised playing time immediately

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe redshirting should be a "central characteristic" for Michigan too. AM I wRoNG?

(1) Boy did you take this sensitively, but you don't have to ... unless you didn't trust that there wasn't anything offensive in what I said. At least in intent, but also in facts, I still think that's true.

(2) Harbaugh's mostly hasn't had that opportunity (and hasn't been around long enough for us to know if he'll eventually even have that interest).

At least in his first years, Michigan had to burn redshirts to put out Hoke-era fires. But like Fearless said, teams with high recruiting rankings maybe never attempt the all-redshirt style. And with the outliers (of those coaches/teams with high recruiting rankings but also redshirt more than most) they probably have outlier continuity (coaches who've been around 6+ years, to spitball a number).

[847badgerfan]

(1) Boy did you take this sensitively, but you don't have to ... unless you didn't trust that there wasn't anything offensive in what I said. At least in intent, but also in facts, I still think that's true.

(2) Harbaugh's mostly hasn't had that opportunity (and hasn't been around long enough for us to know if he'll eventually even have that interest).

At least in his first years, Michigan had to burn redshirts to put out Hoke-era fires. But like Fearless said, teams with high recruiting rankings maybe never attempt the all-redshirt style. And with the outliers (of those coaches/teams with high recruiting rankings but also redshirt more than most) they probably have outlier continuity (coaches who've been around 6+ years, to spitball a number).

1. We all know the facts. There is no reason to state them here, other than to remind those fans of schools not named Michigan or OSU that those other schools are inferior. It happens a lot here, but nearly as much as it used to. Anyway, that is where my reaction stemmed from.

2. I thought Harbaugh was hired to rebuild a program - not to win immediately. Maybe I am mistaken. Anyway, you rebuild by redshirting and developing players. Michigan is not the equal of OSU (Forget STARZ - think evaluation). This could certainly change, now that Urban is gone, of course.

[Mdot21]

Maybe redshirting should be a "central characteristic" for Michigan too. AM I wRoNG?

Absolutely. One of my biggest pet peeves with Harbaugh is his willingness to just burn redshirts.
Some though make sense. 5* guys with freakish ability like Rashan Gary or DPJ aren't staying 4 years let alone 5. Redshirting players like that does you no good. Everyone else is a different story however. His willingness to burn redshirts on averagely talented players like Karran Higdon or J'Marrick Woods is another story.

[FearlessF]

I remember being shocked a couple years ago when Michigan burned something like 17 redshirts on one recruiting class.  Probably 2 years ago.

I brought it up at the time here because I was curious.  Didn't seem to me at the time that those 17 true frosh could get enough playing time to make it worth their while.  Now, with the 4-game rule, that many shirts wouldn't be burned

[847badgerfan]

Well, I guess when you make promises, you should keep them. If you promise early PT and then tell a kid he's going to use his 'shirt, well, the transfer portal beckons.

[Anonymous Coward]

1. We all know the facts. There is no reason to state them here, other than to remind those fans of schools not named Michigan or OSU that those other schools are inferior. It happens a lot here, but nearly as much as it used to. Anyway, that is where my reaction stemmed from.

2. I thought Harbaugh was hired to rebuild a program - not to win immediately. Maybe I am mistaken. Anyway, you rebuild by redshirting and developing players. Michigan is not the equal of OSU (Forget STARZ - think evaluation). This could certainly change, now that Urban is gone, of course.

1. The first part may be common knowledge but we discuss less often how these two things are chunked together. That, assuming they can, coaches/teams either go nuts on recruiting rankings or go nuts on redshirts. There are many examples of coaches accomplishing neither but very few modern examples (I'm still trying to find one) of a coach executing both.
2. I can't imagine he wasn't hired to do both. Also, there's no denying his rebuilding efforts (recruiting sales pitch weighs heavily here) would have been worse off if he hadn't won 10 games that first year, and those first classes were crucial.

[847badgerfan]

I don't agree with #2 at all. 


You are selling promise - and yes - even at Michigan. You are the coach who built Stanford by telling kids they could be a part of something. You could sell THAT. 


"Kids, YOU are gonna go down in history as the class that made Michigan into "Big Blue" again." 


Kinda like King Barry selling that to his 1990 class. Those kids did it. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Big Blue was never a Michigan nickname. That's IBM.

[847badgerfan]

When I first started posting at the old CFN back in 2001, we had only a few Big Ten posters.


Me, Mr. TacO, Big Blue and a few others. Big Blue was a Michigan fan who not only went to UM, but he was a 30-year season ticket holder. Maybe he had it wrong? Before that, I always thought of Kentucky when I heard that phrase. But he used it a lot.

[Anonymous Coward]

He did have it wrong. There's a section of Michigan fans who arrived after the mistake became popular and haven't noticed or are too stubborn to give it up. Then again, at some point a mistake like this probably gets absorbed as the new reality, sommaybe that's where we are now.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Ahh reminds me of old times... Our board's version of Godwin's Law:

No matter the original topic, all threads, if allowed to go long enough, become about Michigan or Ohio State. 

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahh reminds me of old times... Our board's version of Godwin's Law:

No matter the original topic, all threads, if allowed to go long enough, become about Michigan or Ohio State.

I'm that kind of troublemaker. So the odds are definitely higher if I'm in the conversation. But this time I think I'm in the clear for not starting it. Which, by 10-year-old logic, is something. 🙃

[847badgerfan]

Ahh reminds me of old times... Our board's version of Godwin's Law:

No matter the original topic, all threads, if allowed to go long enough, become about Michigan or Ohio State.

Yep, thought of that too. That stops now on this thread though.