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Other Games - Bowl Orgy

Huh? He played a lot of good defenses this year and played well. That roster is full of holes, but QB isn’t one of them.

I think our pitiful QB play this season has skewed our fans’ perception of what a good QB looks like. Did you watch him play today? He must make Illinois fans pull their hair out. One NFL throw followed by two pee wee league throws. He is their best QB by a large margin and he played better than any Qb we trotted our this season but he is not a good QB. If he was any good, he would still be at Michigan.
 
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I know I couldn't believe it. 10 wins in 2001, 9 wins in 2007, and 7 wins in 2010 and 2011. That's it.
I don’t see that stat changing much going forward. In four years, Lovie rebuilt the program.... back to where Beckman had it when he was fired. It’s not Lovie’s fault that he inherited a disaster (a historically irrelevant program that had cratered in the wake of a player abuse scandal and then an interim staff that couldn’t be replaced because there was no AD or university president in place at the time....) but smart fans can see that expecting anything more than a six win season in 2020 is extremely optimistic. (And an obvious fall-off in 2021 is coming due to poor recruiting and class imbalance.)
 
I don’t see that stat changing much going forward. In four years, Lovie rebuilt the program.... back to where Beckman had it when he was fired. It’s not Lovie’s fault that he inherited a disaster (a historically irrelevant program that had cratered in the wake of a player abuse scandal and then an interim staff that couldn’t be replaced because there was no AD or university president in place at the time....) but smart fans can see that expecting anything more than a six win season in 2020 is extremely optimistic. (And an obvious fall-off in 2021 is coming due to poor recruiting and class imbalance.)

Lovie should absolutely bear part of the blame. He came in not prepared to commit himself to recruiting to the degree a college coach needs to because he thought he could recruit on his name recognition alone. Like he did with the Bears, he hired a staff full of loyalists who had limited coaching experience and zero college football recruiting experience. Lovie was arrogant and the results reflect that. He was a very bad hire.
 
Lovie should absolutely bear part of the blame. He came in not prepared to commit himself to recruiting to the degree a college coach needs to because he thought he could recruit on his name recognition alone. Like he did with the Bears, he hired a staff full of loyalists who had limited coaching experience and zero college football recruiting experience. Lovie was arrogant and the results reflect that. He was a very bad hire.
Right, I think you’re misunderstanding or misconstruing my point. I’m saying that after four years, he is what he is. He took on a terrible situation, and he’s improved it but he hasn’t moved the needle to a degree that’s proportional to his compensation. And more importantly, he’s not built a sustainable program, which is far more important than any single season. It’s been implied that Lovie doesn’t care and is just cashing paychecks, and I don’t think that’s the case. He just doesn’t “get” college football. His initial staff was full of terrible hires. He’s made some corrections since then, but too little too late (particularly in recruiting). And Illinois fans view his stubborn faith in his defensive scheme the same way NU fans loathed the offensive scheme. It’s just not worked for many reasons, and I can’t imagine it changing with time. (And to be clear, Illinois fans just want a team that wins 6 or 7 ever year... the bar isn’t that high.)

In my opinion, he’s a failed hire. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s a bad hire, given the context of how he was hired. After scandal removed the HC and AD, the university also lost their President. In the absence of any permanent leadership at the university, nobody had the power to make a coaching hire so they just “hired” the interim HC on a disastrous two year deal. The bottom fell out on an already bad program, and when the AD was hired the following March, he had to decide whether he should wait until the following winter to make a hire after the season (when coaches would be available) or make a move immediately. When he found out Lovie was interested, he made the move. It was bold and risky, and ultimately didn’t work. But given the context, it’s hard for me to fault the decision made at the time. He took a gamble and it didn’t work. It happens, and it’s not like Illinois football has the cache to be able to get the “hot coach”. They’re not as attractive as any other power 5 opening that may be available at the same time, so they’re always going to have to resort to some combination of over-paying, praying they’ve found a diamond in the rough mid-major coach, a “hot assistant with no HC experience” or something exotic like an old NFL HC who hasn’t had success in a decade (haha).
 
Lovie should absolutely bear part of the blame. He came in not prepared to commit himself to recruiting to the degree a college coach needs to because he thought he could recruit on his name recognition alone. Like he did with the Bears, he hired a staff full of loyalists who had limited coaching experience and zero college football recruiting experience. Lovie was arrogant and the results reflect that. He was a very bad hire.
D3 AD needs to be accountable. But I am fine with this as is. I read they only sold 4K tickets to the bowl which indicates limited interest by their fan base.
 
With Lovie we may find out if a P5 team can consistently achieve 6 wins a year relying on transfers. A lot needs to go right. I do think that Lovie is a pioneer in the use of large numbers of transfers - out of necessity.
 
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I'm sure with all the "momentum" Lovie's been talking about, they'll sell out their season opener with Illinois State on September 4th. (sarcasm alert)
 
Way to go Minny. PJ Fleck did an outstanding job!

I normally root for all B10 teams, but love watching Michigan lose.
 
Watching the Michigan game with my son who is a Michigan student. At halftime, I told him that Saban will likely outcoach the heck out of Harbaugh in the 2nd half and that is exactly what we saw. Harbaugh does so little with so much talent.
 
Watching the Michigan game with my son who is a Michigan student. At halftime, I told him that Saban will likely outcoach the heck out of Harbaugh in the 2nd half and that is exactly what we saw. Harbaugh does so little with so much talent.
Peters is a better QB than Patterson. So much for Jim's talent evaluation. Plus, his offense still looks pretty much the same (blah) even with a new coordinator.
 
Peters is a better QB than Patterson. So much for Jim's talent evaluation. Plus, his offense still looks pretty much the same (blah) even with a new coordinator.
Well.... they ran the ball all over Alabama in the first half, so what does the brilliant Jim Harbaugh do in the 2nd half? He completely abandons the run.
 
I would not be surprised if Harbaugh sends out feelers for some of the open NFL Head coaching jobs. He is not an idiot and I think he knows he won’t survive another season or two at Michigan like the ones he has had recently. Breaking in a new QB makes it unlikely that next year yields much better results. I could see him making a play for the Giants or Panthers job while his reputation as a top coach is still relatively intact.
 
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