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A week after the national media were singing Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines’ praises, they’ve made a complete about face.
And rightfully so.
Michigan was disjointed, unhinged and overmatched in a home game against a MSU team that couldn’t hang with Rutgers, of all teams. It couldn’t battle up front with players who were also-rans back during their recruitment, despite the bulk of its linemen being blue-chippers. It couldn’t get to Spartans QB Rocky Lombardi, despite having, on paper, as good a defensive line as anyone in the country. Lombardi threw downfield as if he was Patrick Mahomes, making WR Ricky White — a player who had offers from powerhouses such as Akron, Kansas, Virginia and Western Kentucky — look like he was the second-coming of Jerry Rice.
Yes, Harbaugh and the Wolverines — let’s be clear, the coaching staff — deserve heaps of blame, a week after it deserved heaps of praise.
Here’s some of the highlights from the national media’s reaction to No. 13 Michigan’s 27-24 loss to unranked Michigan State.
The latest Michigan flop under Harbaugh marks the low point of his unremarkable tenure at Michigan. Michigan State entered the game fresh off a brow beating from Rutgers, and instead of burying Mel Tucker’s recruiting juice locally, Harbaugh delivered a triple shot of adrenaline to his nascent tenure.
This is worse than Harbaugh’s 2-12 record against top-10 teams, 0-5 record against Ohio State and his four consecutive bowl losses. This is about getting beat by a decisively inferior roster, as Michigan State’s roster features a group brought in during the sputtering twilight of Mark Dantanio’s tenure.
This is exactly the type of loss that would make it insane for Michigan officials to extend Harbaugh at his pre-COVID salary of $8 million per year. And that’s why opposing fans are rooting so hard for Manuel to stand by Harbaugh, the grand diluter of a great football brand. This is Harbaugh’s third home loss to Michigan State, a statistic out of the Hoke/Rodriguez horror files.
The answer is starting to become clear: The Harbaugh era is doomed to mediocrity, frustration and unfulfilled promise, and both sides need to figure out how to engineer a graceful exit.
Michigan suffered perhaps the most dispiriting loss of the past six years Saturday, a 27-24 debacle in the Big House against a Michigan State team that lost to Rutgers in its season opener.
Beyond the obvious indignity of losing to a rebuilding program with a first-year coach, Harbaugh is now 0-5 against his school’s biggest rival, 3-3 against its in-state rival, hasn’t played for a Big Ten title and appears to be a galaxy away from contending for a national championship.
Pandemic or not, there are no more excuses. Harbaugh is in Year 6. It doesn’t take a decade to build a brand like Michigan into a contender. We know by now that’s not the track the Wolverines are on. They are what they are.
A week after it looked like the Jim Harbaugh era might trend in a different direction, the program ended up in the same unenviable place: Michigan State beat No. 13 Michigan 27-24 in a game that would have to be considered the worst loss under Harbaugh.
That’s right. It is the worst loss under Harbaugh.
Worse than the “punt fumble” against the Spartans in 2015; worse than the annual root-canal blowouts against Ohio State; worse than the bowl flops or all those top-10 letdowns under Harbaugh. The Wolverines were favored by three touchdowns against the Spartans, and flopped in the home opener at Michigan Stadium.
It’s not going to be easy to forgive, unless Michigan somehow runs the table before the next scheduled appointment with the Buckeyes. Repeat: This is the worst loss since Harbaugh took over in 2015. He had a 37-4 record against unranked opponents coming into the game, and the fifth loss is worse than the one in 2017, also at home vs. the Spartans.
Assuredly, given it was a rivalry game, the Michigan fanbase feels exactly the same.