Michigan Football: Getting into the mind of Jim Harbaugh
Michigan football finally went to Brandon Peters, but why did it wait so long? We try to get inside the mind of head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Listening to Jim Harbaugh at the post-game press conference last Saturday following Michigan football and its win over Rutgers, I think we can start to piece together what’s been happening over the last couple of weeks.
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Not that the coach ever tips his hand to reporters, but Harbaugh’s thinking is slowly becoming clear: Wilton Speight was the starter from the beginning and was going to start the rest of the way, if he stayed healthy.
Brandon Peters was going to play at some point, but he certainly wasn’t going out mid-season against Penn State, the no. 2 team in the country at the time, in those white-out conditions.
How do I get that from Harbaugh’s comments? Well, easy. He said that the coaching staff felt Peters was ready to play the last few weeks. The only question was when, and the answer turned out to be a low-stakes, home game against Rutgers – a friendly crowd, good weather, and not exactly an elite Rutgers defense.
From the spring game through summer practice, Harbaugh has been saying that he wanted something more from Peters. He wanted him to be more of a vocal leader, for example, and apparently the young man has been coming along in that area, growing ever so slowly into the role of team leader.
From the looks of it, this Michigan football team was glad finally to have him under center.
I’ll go one further here and suggest that John O’Korn was given one last chance against Rutgers to get something going. But after a quarter and a half, in front of an eerily quiet Michigan Stadium crowd, the time had come to make a change. The timing seemed obvious to everyone – perhaps including O’Korn.
“He really acquitted himself well … it was good ball,” dead-panned Harbaugh at the post-game press conference when asked about Peters’ performance.
Hey, don’t get carried away, coach!
The fan base, which has been restless to the point of mutinous these last few weeks, seemed to be overjoyed. The reaction at the stadium when Peters took the field was the loudest the crowd had been to that point in the game.
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To try and understand Harbaugh’s thinking here one more time: He wasn’t entirely convinced that a quarterback change by itself would be enough to get the offense going. The problems of the last few weeks, after all, have not been O’Korn’s alone. Dropped balls, leaky pass protection – do we need to go through all of that again?
So, Harbaugh said that Peters “exceeded his expectations.” A nice way of saying , I think, that the whole team seemed to take a step forward with better pass protection, open lanes for the running backs, and even some nifty pass routes. Chris Evans’ touchdown catch demonstrated what Evans can do when the ball is in his general area.
Peters looked good in his first extended appearance for Michigan football, a lot better maybe than the coaching staff expected, to the relief of everyone. But a win over Rutgers still isn’t much of a test. The Scarlet Knights are barely better than a MAC team at this point.
Wins against Minnesota, Maryland, and Wisconsin could very well set up the Michigan offense to pull off a mighty satisfying upset of Ohio State in the season finale. It would be the signature win that Harbaugh wants and quite frankly needs.
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Minnesota could turn out to be better than expected, but Wisconsin has been something of a disappointment so far this season. Whatever happens, Michigan football once again has some life headed into the final month.