Head Coach Jim Harbaugh: B-
This was head coach Jim Harbaugh’s best chance since arriving to have an impact in the Big Ten. Win the conference championship, possibly appear in the playoffs, win big games. While he did beat Michigan State and Notre Dame, he struggled to get past Wisconsin, Penn State, Alabama, and once again, Ohio State. In his fifth year, he got nine wins and nothing really else noticeable on the season resume besides the two rivalry wins.
2020 has to be a 10-win season at worst, things have to improve for Harbaugh and his coaching staff. Gattis was a big hire for Harbaugh and a big change for him. He already lost his Special Teams coordinator and his best recruiter, Chris Partridge, to Ole Miss, others could be on the move as every offseason there are usually changes everywhere in college football.
Harbaugh has to make some big hires if he loses other coaches if he can retain everyone and continue to grow what he has that could be huge. He’s also got to improve his recruiting and get some better players at Michigan to help rebuild the players he’s losing. Losing Partridge was a big blow to that and to find someone just as good won’t be easy. Nobody on the roster is from former head coach Brady Hoke, they are all Harbaugh’s players and if he wants to keep Michigan upright he’s got to get the five-star prospects there, along with being able to develop them and the four and three stars.
Offensive Coordinator Josh Gattis: B+
In the first half of the season, Michigan scored at most 52 points, but it was against a 2-10 Rutgers team. In the season opener when they beat Middle Tennessee State 40-21. Besides those two games, Michigan scored 24 against Army, 14 against Wisconsin, 10 against Iowa, and 42 against Illinois. The offense was having moments of success, but it wasn’t consistently as you can see from the scores.
In the second half of the season though, it seemed that the offense finally figured things out and knew how to move the football, but it still had issues against tough opponents. They scored 21 against Penn State, 45 against Notre Dame, 38 against Maryland, 44 against Michigan State, 39 against Indiana, 27 against Ohio State, and 16 against Alabama.
Gattis’ offense was ranked 68th in the country, and while that isn’t as high as Michigan fans and the staff would like it, 2020 should see more growth as the players have another off-season to understand it and can help the younger players grasp it if they are having troubles. Gattis was a great hire for Harbaugh and one that has the group in the right direction. The future is bright on this side of the football.
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