The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/848029
AUGUST 2017 THE WOLVERINE 5 FROM OUR READERS of the conference season. Wisconsin returns an experienced sophomore quarterback, plays solid defense, and the Badgers are particularly danger- ous in Camp Randall Stadium. Regardless of the standings, and it is ridiculous to state the obvious, but it is time for Michigan to finally beat Urban Meyer. (Of course, Lloyd Carr did it in his final game as Michigan's coach, when Meyer was at Florida). All the hype about the Michigan re- cruits is fun to discuss, and the qual- ity of the new personnel appears real. Talent has been, more often than not, the deciding factor in the outcome of the Michigan-Ohio State series. In 2015 at Michigan Stadium, it was obvious that the player talent of Ohio State was better than Michigan. In 2016, Michigan had the talent to com- pete and beat Ohio State, but Ohio State got the calls, in my opinion. At this time of the year, there is only speculation with a definite tilt toward Ohio State in terms of on- the-field proven experience for Ohio State as compared to Michigan. How- ever, as I and many others say, that is why they play the game. The case for my anxiety is real, as anyone can see. I challenge the team to relieve my anxiety by delivering a champion- ship season in 2017. I can hardly wait for the season to begin. GO BLUE! J. Richard Jaconette, M.D. Battle Creek, Mich. Kickoff can't be far away, eh, Dr. J.? • If Jim Harbaugh was our coach for 10 years, then for some hypothetical reason jumped back to the NFL for a final Super Bowl trophy shot, but during his time at Michigan achieved four Big Ten champion- ships and four playoff berths, but just couldn't get the lucky breaks to win the national championship … would you be crushed, content, proud? I'd be in the middle of content and proud, and a touch bewildered due to the fact that super alpha coaches don't fall from trees, what now? mongoose187 • Just beat MSU and Ohio State, and the rest is sugar on top. ladron • Good, but not good enough. He came here to win it all. If we do well in the "other bowls," and add at least one national championship to your numbers, I'm good. floridawolve • Depends on how seamless the transition was to the post- Harbaugh era. If the AD and Har- baugh set up the coaching trees, succession planning and coaching searches the right way, I'd be a bit disappointed at first but ultimately content. Goal No. 1 was to bring Michigan back to national promi- nence as a contender every single year. Winning four Big Ten championships and getting to the playoff four out of 10 years would definitely qualify in my book. But the real acid test would be what happens 3-10 years af- ter Harbaugh left. If that level of performance (or hopefully a national championship) happened, I'd be very content. MGoDuPage • If that includes six wins over OSU and nine over Sparty, I would take it. Last year exemplified how difficult it is to get to the playoff, let alone win it. I would be proud and mostly content. Remember our his- tory over the last 70 years — we only got over the hump once. I have great expectations for Jim Harbaugh and be- lieve he can win it all, but I'm not going to let that be my only criteria for success. Dalemac • I am content every game we have him as coach. On and off the field he is perfect for U-M football. cwp • There's a statue of a guy on cam- pus, along with a building named after him … some guy simply re- ferred to as "Bo." He never won a national championship, yet I think he did pretty good. Expectations MUST be high for any head coach at U-M. That is the nature of the job and the business in general. He can coach for 10 years, go to 10 bowl games, be considered one of the best of all time, yet not meet expectations. The best part of this story is that while U-M has high ex- pectations for Jim Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh has even higher ones for himself, his staff, his players and ev- eryone involved with his program. detroit.dean • What you describe is better than the average 10-year coach's performance the past 70 years when you consider it's tougher to win a B1G (no ties/must win the championship game) and the fact that Michigan has ONE national championship the past seven decades. When Harbaugh was hired, my first thought was that he would be considered the best (clearly) Michigan coach in 70 years. Basically Bo, with the postseason wins. My guess is that this is his goal, as well. northvineinc • No predeterminations here. I'm going to enjoy this as much as I can while it lasts, and we can tally it up down the road. bobigblue From Our Website Since arriving in Ann Arbor, head coach Jim Harbaugh has raised the expectations of Michigan fans. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL