The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Who would have thought, in Au- gust, that Michigan figured to stand 10 seconds away from beating the Spartans in Harbaugh's first crack at them? Throw that out there at the end of summer, and you'd have been laughed off by most of the country, including many hopeful followers of the Wolverines. Ratchet up the incredulity level by forecasting there'd be Big Ten cham- pionship and possible playoff berth talk the week of the MSU game, and the men in the white coats might have come calling. Yet all of that roiled in the pregame palaver, while ESPN's GameDay rolled into town for its spotlight showdown. MSU final-play meltdown aside, this train got rolling ahead of sched- ule. Nick Baumgardner, M-Live's beat writer covering the Wolverines, stands among many in the media who point to Michigan's premature prominence as astounding. "The program is just so far ahead of schedule," Baumgardner insisted. "They're so far ahead of where they probably should be right now. "They were a bad team last year. They weren't good. They weren't disciplined, they couldn't move the ball on anybody, they couldn't stop anybody when they really needed to. They didn't make plays like this on defense." So much has changed, so quickly. Even with the loss to Michigan State, the Wolverines stood tied for No. 15 in the Associated Press poll, a play or two against top-10 teams keeping them from bottom-line perfection in year one of the Harbaugh era. "They're ahead," Baumgardner continued. "They're way ahead of where I thought they'd be at this point. So much so, that the crazy punt play aside, you are one above- average quarterback away from be- ing 7-0. That's the reality. Your quar- terback not making some mistakes at Utah, and making some plays against Michigan State, from being 7-0. "That's insane to think about. It's probably a bitter pill to swallow, but if you allow the perspective to sink in, they are way ahead of schedule. Jim Harbaugh is still the head coach. Good things are in store for these guys." All of that might have felt like cold comfort, in the days following the horror-story ending against the Spartans. Still, even that crushing conclusion demonstrated a turning of the tide. More often than not in recent sea- sons, the Spartans simply took the field, tried to take Michigan's head off and at least came away with a Mike Tyson-like chunk of ear. MSU bullied and belted and intimidated out-manned U-M squads into sub- mission, by scores like 29-6 and 35-11. This year, the Spartans required a once-in-a-lifetime gift to win. Har- baugh will remember, prodded by steel in his own spine, and an iron- clad will to dominate. ❏ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB _ Wolverine.