My “sources” tell me it’s over for Harbaugh. I believe them to a degree, but I’m not convinced Harbaugh doesn’t get some time to fix this absolute mess.
First, we need to know why Joe Milton was selected as the starter over Dylan McCaffrey. Milton showed NOTHING in his previous playing time that he was ready to take the reigns of the offense and there are many rumors as to why McCaffrey left so suddenly. I have no idea why Milton won the job but the local media should do their jobs and ask the question. They have a kid coming in who could be the future but they have to commit to him, yesterday.
The Don Brown defense is a disaster and if Harbaugh survives, Brown won’t, he is a gimmicky coach who has relied on middling recruits from the Northeast while ignoring Pennsylvania and Ohio. Many of the guys starting on Michigan’s defense are “Don Brown” specials; middle of the road recruits who can’t cut it in the B1G. There is zero excuse why the Michigan DL is do bad, except they have recruited poorly at this position. The DL was the strength of the defense when Harbaugh was winning.
Gattis is a disaster. Three years later, “speed in space” is a joke. His little athletes are not suited for the brutality of B1G play. They are phenomenal athletes who can’t get open in this conference. One or two of these guys are ok, a whole team of water bugs won’t work. The play calling is atrocious, nobody is fooled. I’ve never seen so many awful situational calls. If he picked Milton over McCaffrey we need to know why, this is a judgement issue. The offensive line should be fine long term as they have recruited well and have a young crew up front.
If Harbaugh wants to fix this and stay at Michigan for any length of time, he needs to scrap Brown and Gattis and return to Harbaugh “man ball.” That is what wins in the Big Ten and what he knows best. Harbaugh allowed himself the chance to “grow” and it has been a disaster, he needs to do what he does best, smash mouth football. Michigan isn’t good at this now, think Wisconsin to see what Michigan should be and could be going forward.
If Harbaugh isn’t Harbaugh, this experiment is over.
