Michigan Football: Joe Milton’s transfer, sign of times not Jim Harbaugh

The Michigan football team will have a new opening day quarterback this year, but it wasn’t all that unexpected. Joe Milton announced that he is entering the transfer portal on Thursday and a once deep quarterback room is now thin and unproven.

Milton’s transfer is not the first of the offseason and might not be the last. As our Chris Peterson wrote yesterday, the timing is a little surprising but not the fact that he transferred.

After starting off hot against Minnesota, Milton was pressured heavily against Michigan State and never seemed to be comfortable after that. He would eventually lose his spot to Cade McNamara but still got to play when McNamara went down with an injury in his only start of the year.

Milton is following fellow quarterback Dylan McCaffrey out the door, so the first question was automatically what is wrong behind closed doors with Jim Harbaugh and his staff?

You have a valid argument if you think that the Wolverines should have moved on from Harbaugh after the year and if you wonder is he really the guy that can get Michigan finally over the hump? He needs to find a way to win against his rivals, especially Ohio State, and he more than likely needs to do it fast.

But is the transfer of Milton really a black eye on Harbaugh or just how things go in this era of college sports? While Harbaugh is less than perfect and hasn’t been the quarterback guru we all thought he was, players transferring may not be all on him.

It’s just easier to transfer

Harbaugh is bringing in five-star recruit J.J. McCarthy and should have a healthy Cade McNamara back for the 2021 season. With the way the season ended for Milton, it didn’t look like he would have much of a shot at being the starter when the Wolverines hosted Western Michigan in the first game of the year.

So instead of staying and working hard and trying to prove everyone wrong, Milton bolted. We are not calling him a quitter and this is not trying to smear his name, but in this day and age, it is easy to just transfer instead of sticking it out and battling for a spot.

Any player has the right to find the best spot for him and if that is at a different school then more power to them, but gone are the days when a player would stay and work harder.

They chase playing time and think that the grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes it is, but a lot of times it’s not. For every Justin Fields, there are five Tate Martell. They find out they aren’t as good as they thought they were and they just can’t quite make it.

Milton has said the right things on his way out and we hope he finds his place with another program, but it is definitely not a guarantee. Chances are he becomes a very good player, but can he be as special as Wolverines fans wish he was?

Harbaugh could be at fault and he may have had something to do with his decision, but this has a lot more to do with the age we are living in.

You want to blame Harbaugh for the teams not living up to expectations, that has merit. But to automatically think this is on him is not necessarily true.

Harbaugh might have been able to develop him more, but with how he played on the field, the Wolverines needed a replacement. Milton wasn’t good with that so he is leaving.

A lot of players don’t want competition, they want a spot and when they don’t get it they transfer. It doesn’t matter who the coach is. Get used to it, this isn’t changing anytime soon.