Jim Harbaugh has proven himself

The narrative that Jim Harbaugh can’t win big games and that he can’t beat rivals is finally vanquished.

Jim Harbaugh need not have to prove himself any longer. He’s done everything that’s been asked of him for when he was hired as Michigan football coach.

There is nothing anybody can say anymore that could be used against Jim Harbaugh that would be negative or he wouldn’t even care.

During and after the game against Georgia in the Orange Bowl, of course, various MSU and OSU fans were taking glee in Michigan football losing, and gloating on Twitter.

Michigan fans really don’t care about that at all. Like truly. They don’t. The players definitely don’t care. They were disappointed in the loss for sure, but it was a special season. The loss was what it was, just a loss. Against the best defense in the country, literally.

Aidan Hutchinson, Brad Hawkins, Josh Ross, all of the senior leaders on the team were sad about the loss, but they knew that they had led the team through the entire season, and had left a great foundation for future seasons to come.

So no, the loss didn’t impact them as much as rival fans would think. The players and Jim Harbaugh have proven themselves.

They don’t have to walk the walk anymore. They definitely don’t have to talk the talk. The entire body of work has done the talking for them.

Any Michigan State fan or Ohio State fan that finds joy in Michigan’s loss, that’s their choice.
It’s funny that Michigan State and Ohio State both think that they could’ve fared much better than Michigan.

MSU’s Kenneth Walker would definitely not have been able to run at all on Georgia’s defensive front. Their passing game wouldn’t fare much better than Michigan’s. Michigan State barely beat a Pittsburgh team in the Peach Bowl that at one point had a third-string QB in the game.

Michigan State’s offensive line didn’t win a Joe Moore award, so I definitely think an even poorer offensive performance for their line was in the cards as well.

As for their defense, oh man, Bowers would have had an absolute field day with Michigan State’s worst-rated secondary in the country. He finished with 60 yards on the day against Michigan and a touchdown.

Modest stats but nowhere near what he did against Alabama in the SEC championship game. Michigan State’s defensive line is tiny compared to Georgia’s offensive line. If Michigan couldn’t generate any pressure with Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, imagine what MSU would do.

As for Ohio State, maybe they would’ve put up a touchdown or two more because of their dynamic offense with all of those receivers and having the speed and recruiting to match Georgia, but Georgia’s defense would have definitely stopped TreVeyon Henderson and OSU’s rushing attack dead in its tracks.

As Michigan showed against Ohio State, there are ways to slow down Ohio State and their offense and I could’ve bet money that Georgia would have done the same thing with OSU.

All of this doesn’t even mention the fact that Michigan State fans went to a bowl game that was $9 a ticket (NINE) on a Thursday night. What kind of a bowl game sells $9 tickets. The Quick Lane Bowl might’ve been more expensive than the Peach Bowl.

For Ohio State, their fans didn’t even show up to the Rose Bowl. It was a Utah-heavy crowd, and the fans think they can talk mess about Michigan. Their own fans don’t even support their own team. They might’ve gotten the Rose Bowl victory, but the players are still furious about losing to Michigan.

This season was a special year for Michigan football. It was only a building block for future years to come. The first step was beating Ohio State, winning the Big Ten title, and getting a foot in the door of the playoff. Mission accomplished.

What’s next for Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football

The next step is winning a playoff game. Not every team is Alabama and can just come in and win the national championship right away.

Winning a national championship for Harbaugh and the seniors would have just been a cherry on top of ice cream. It’s not necessarily needed, but it just adds to the goodness. The goodness is the special season. With or without the national title, this season was truly special.

Jim Harbaugh has nothing more to prove. As long as he doesn’t completely regress from here on out, he has no more pressure on him to win. A few more playoff appearances would be nice, but now that he’s made it, the rest of his tenure is about building off of his first playoff appearance.

So MSU and OSU fans can gloat all they want. Both fanbases didn’t experience a Big Ten title trophy or a Big Ten championship. MSU got the brakes beaten off them against Ohio State.

Ohio State got the brakes beaten off of them against Michigan. So, no gloating. There’s literally nothing to gloat about.

Even if they try, it has no effect on Michigan fans, on Harbaugh, or the players on the team. They know what they accomplished and nobody can diminish that or take it away from them.