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The ‘worldwide leader’ finally came out with some post-bowl game hot takes coming out of 2019, and Michigan’s performance against Alabama didn’t inspire any confidence.
While the article heading is called ‘Bowl Game Overreactions’ and has a subhead that these are opinions that staff writer David M. Hale says he’ll likely regret in 2020, he certainly won’t gain many fans in Ann Arbor.
Well, he might, among those who are either pessimistic self-hating Michigan football fans.
The Wolverines have averaged 9.4 wins to 3.6 losses in Jim Harbaugh’s tenure, which isn’t elite. However, Michigan has been close, twice, to getting to Indianapolis and the College Football Playoff. Naturally, that barrier has been Ohio State, whose double overtime victory in 2016 kept the maize and blue from either prize, and 2018 saw a blowout of epic proportions despite Michigan actually being favored in Columbus.
More of the same happened to finish the regular season this past season, and with what ended up being a close game for most of the VRBO Citrus Bowl against Alabama, the box score provided no favors to a Wolverines team that just couldn’t hang in the end.
Thus, Hale notes that Michigan is a second-tier team in the college football landscape.
Even the Wolverines faithful seem to have accepted their lot in life: They’re not Ohio State, and they never will be again. Hard to argue with the results, and Michigan’s woeful bowl performance against Alabama was just the latest slip toward the dreaded status of “above average.” Perhaps the bigger issue for the Wolverines, however, isn’t about program and is instead about quarterback. While Ohio State has gone from Braxton Miller to Cardale Jones to J.T. Barrett to Dwayne Haskins to Justin Fields, Michigan has endured plenty of stat lines like this: 17-for-37 for 233 yards, one TD and two picks. That was Shea Patterson‘s production in the Citrus Bowl, and it fits with the litany of underachievers at the position for the Wolverines.
But wasn’t this LSU’s lot in life for too long? Then one day Burrow comes along and — voila! — becomes a champion. Whether Michigan is any closer to finding its own Burrow is open for debate, but it’s worth remembering that from 2015 through 2018, LSU had 59 touchdown passes combined. Burrow threw for 60 in 2019. It can happen that fast.
Could that Burrow-type leader emerge from a quarterback already on the team? There’s a heated quarterback battle anticipated between redshirt junior Dylan McCaffrey and redshirt sophomore Joe Milton. Either could be potentially more polished in a second year under offensive coordinator Josh Gattis than we’ve seen in Ann Arbor in quite some time, especially with Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell still remaining on the receiving corps.
The big question will be how Michigan will rebound defensively. But, with incoming assistant coaches Bob Shoop and Brian Jean-Mary — both recent defensive coordinators at their previous stops — there should be extra eyes to help cure whatever ails the Wolverines’ big play breakdowns.