Jim Harbaugh, Michigan Football have hit rock bottom

After an embarrassing loss to Michigan State at the Big House Saturday, Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football have clearly hit a new low.

It was fun while it lasted, the optimism I mean. Because after watching Michigan football get pushed around by Michigan State Saturday, all of the positive feelings coming out of last week’s win over Minnesota are gone.

The hope that this team was a Big Ten contender or one that could possibly challenge Ohio State seems foolish now and you wonder, how we drank the Kool-Aid, again!?

Michigan State, fresh off a loss to Rutgers, came in a three-touchdown underdog and shocked the Wolverines. Rocky Lombardi threw for 323 yards and three touchdowns as Michigan’s defensive backs couldn’t hang with Michigan State’s receivers.

Think about that for a second and tell me Justin Fields isn’t licking his chops waiting to shoot fish and in a barrel, because that’s what it will be like, at least if Saturday was any indication.

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With all of the talent on this defense, it was embarrassing to give up 449 yards of offense to Michigan State. The stars didn’t show up. Aidan Hutchinson was nowhere to be found for the second straight week and Kwity Paye joined him in being invisible when it mattered most.

Daxton Hill did a good job in coverage, but still hasn’t shown any sign of making the Charles-Woodson type impact plays you expect from a five-star recruit. I’m not saying he should be Woodson, but he needs to do more.

These are the kinds of games that the Hill’s of the world are supposed to dominate but the game-changing play the defense so desperately needed, never came.

Twice, trailing by three, Michigan pinned the Spartans inside their own five and both times, MSU drove down the field. On the first drive, the Spartans missed a field goal and on the second, they picked up a bunch of third downs and got the TD that clinched the game.

Jim Harbaugh has hit a new low

As far as Jim Harbaugh is concerned, it was the worst loss of his tenure at the worst possible time. A win over the Spartans could have put some real distance between the two programs, especially with Mel Tucker just taking over and now, who’s to say MSU can’t sell a brighter future?

Tucker has at least won a game he wasn’t supposed to, which is something Harbaugh hasn’t done.

Good coaches win games they aren’t supposed and Jim simply can’t do it, not at Michigan anyways. He’s not the type that can take his team or your team and win. He needs horses he just doesn’t have and will likely never get.

But what he does have, he should be getting a lot more out of. Urban Meyer raved about Joe Milton and what did Michigan do? Dink and dunked all day.

They never challenged Michigan State’s corners down the field until the fourth quarter, even though the Spartans were really focused on stopping the run and why the Wolverines tried a jump pass by Hassan Haskins near the end zone, down seven is beyond me.

Can you imagine Ohio State taking the ball out of Fields hands in that situation? Me neither. It’s one thing if you have a run called, but that was a mistake and it was costly.

But in the end, it wasn’t the poor officiating, although it was sort of one-sided, Michigan State was hungrier and the Spartans won the game in the trenches and at quarterback. Their receivers were big too.

The big, bad Michigan running game really struggled and even though the Wolverines actually outgained the Spartans on the ground, it was a hollow effort. U-M never established any sort of control on the line of scrimmage.

In the big picture, it’s a dooming defeat in every sense of the word. The Wolverines would need to win out to take the Big Ten East title and that seems incredibly unlikely.

Maybe this team will rally and do the unthinkable. But as this point, it’s going to be hard to ever get my hopes up about this program under Harbaugh and as far as its prospects for the future, they seem gloomier than ever.