Michigan Football: 5 things we learned from domination of Michigan State

Harbaugh has his swagger back and his team does too

A lot of people have been critical of Jim Harbaugh and that criticism was mostly centered around his inability to win big games. Yet, in the past two weeks, Harbaugh has changed that narrative and when you look at his record, it’s a lot better than it seems.

Against the top teams in the Big Ten, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State, the four teams that have won the conference title since the league went to a championship game, Harbaugh is 6-7. He’s 2-1 against the Badgers, 2-2 against Michigan State and 2-1 against Penn State, plus 0-3 versus the Buckeyes.

So if you exclude the Buckeyes, he is 6-4 against the other elite programs in the conference. Yes, he needs to conquer Ohio State, but as of right now, he has just about surpassed every other team in the Big Ten and has the wins to show for it. Beating back-to-back ranked teams also proves he can beat these teams when they are good and not just when they are average or worse.

To be honest, Harbaugh should never have been on the hot seat and he never really was, but he has silenced his doubters and with the way he didn’t back down from Mark Dantonio, he’s back to his old, confrontational self and for Michigan, that’s a good thing.