Michigan Football: Let the post mortem begin
After another soul-crushing loss to Ohio State, it’s time to take a look at where Michigan football goes from here.
With Ohio State’s 31-20 victory at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Michigan football’s 2017 season has come to an end, pretty much where it started – with more questions than answers.
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Yes, I know, there’s still a bowl game, and Michigan is projected to take on Stanford on December 28 in the Holiday Bowl, which will be fun, unless Michigan finds a away to lose again. But the regular season is over.
With 79 teams currently eligible to play in a bowl game this year – with Florida State and New Mexico State about to become bowl eligible next week, that means up to 81 teams will be playing somewhere in the coming months – everything but the college football playoffs has become meaningless at this point.
So, with the meaningful part of the season now over, let the post mortem begin.
I predicted that Michigan would go 9-3 this season and felt somewhat disloyal and pessimistic about my prediction. 8-4 just seemed like too much of a step back after a couple of 10-win seasons. And then, that opening win over Florida, I have to say, really made me nervous about my pre-season prediction. Maybe these young guys were way better than I thought.
But Florida was on its way to a disastrous season, and the opening win looked less and less impressive as the season went along. Penn State turned out to have had a much better team this year than most people expected, and Michigan State somehow turned a 3-9 last year into a 9-3 this year, a credit to a fine team, coach, and program. Michigan football became a casualty for both of those teams, plus of course Wisconsin and Ohio State.
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With so many starters gone – and so many first and second year players in the lineup – Michigan just couldn’t find a way this year to make it into the top tier of the Big Ten. And so here we are, sadly, at 8-4.
With 24 hours or so to think about yet another heart-wrenching, season-ending loss to Ohio State, I have to admit that the Michigan football turnaround is going to take longer than I expected. I must have read too many stories about what Urban Myers was able to do in only his second or third season at Ohio State.
The truth is, Michigan has been mired in mediocrity for a long time, well before Harbaugh’s arrival, and the turnaround is going to take longer than expected. The problems for Michigan went much deeper than the football program and extended to an athletic department that was itself in turmoil.
I was as excited as anyone when Jim Harbaugh became Michigan’s head coach. I still think he’s the right person for the program, and I think Harbaugh critics need to lighten up. I have to say that I’m not as enthusiastic as some about a lifetime contract. I think Harbaugh’s current salary should speak for itself about Michigan’s commitment to him and to the program he is building.
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Michigan football can – and most likely will – make it back to relevance and even a national championship. It’s just going to take longer than some of us thought.