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Ann Arbor, MI. — Back in 2014, Michigan hired head coach Jim Harbaugh to come in and revive the once-dominant program in college football history. Some goals were to win their rivalry games, win conference championships, and win national championships. So far, the only thing Harbaugh has been able to do is defeat Notre Dame once, defeat Michigan State three times, and win one bowl game. What about beating Ohio State? He’s now 0-5 against them after losing 56-27 today.
Losing big in back-to-back years is embarrassing to not only himself but to the coaching staff and the players. After losing 62-39 last year, it seemed that Michigan had changed their approach to the game and would be able to put up somewhat of a fight against the best Ohio State team Harbaugh has ever seen. This year though seemed eerily similar to last years loss. Poor offense execution despite early success, the defense isn’t able to make a stop, and overall just simply getting outplayed by the Buckeyes.
In the end, Ohio State dominated the game for the most part and Harbaugh is left wondering what he has to do to defeat the Buckeyes. Losing to Ohio State isn’t what he wants to do. He knows he was brought here to do great things, and one of them was to beat Ohio State, something Michigan hasn’t done since 2011.
Harbaugh was asked after the game how much does losing to Ohio State every year affects him and how badly does he want to win it eventually.
“I thought our team was well prepared, thought they were playing good football,” Harbaugh said. “I thought it was a good football fight. It got away from us. Give them credit for playing well.”
Yet, he was asked again if he wanted to win this game.
“We really wanna win the game,” Harbaugh said. The reporter asked a third time if he wanted to win it personally, “Yea,” said Harbaugh.
Harbaugh wants to win this football game and you can see it anger him that he lost once again. Just because Harbaugh is losing this rivalry to the Buckeyes doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the game, or doesn’t see it as important as the others. He cares about it like the players and the other coaching staff members do, possibly more. He was brought to Michigan to do big things, one of them was beating the Buckeyes, and you can’t do big things if you can’t beat Ohio State.
Harbaugh is frustrated that he’s on the losing end once again, you can tell by his responses to questions today and his posture. He doesn’t gameplan an entire year to lose this game. Harbaugh’s team was just outplayed by the Buckeyes once again. Ohio State isn’t a bad team, they’re undefeated and are going to go to the College Football Playoffs, with two Heisman players on their team. They aren’t a low-tier school from the Sun Belt, they’re the number one team in the nation and they proved why today.
The entire Michigan fanbase is tired of losing to Ohio State. Harbaugh knows it, the other coaches know it, the players know it, everyone knows it. If anyone believes for one second that Harbaugh doesn’t want to win this game then they are truly mistaken for who he is as a coach and as a person.
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