Michigan Football: Start of the Season is Reality Check for U-M Fans
By Matt Snyder
The 2014 Michigan football season ended with the program seemingly on life support. Athletic director Dave Brandon had resigned before the season finished. Head coach Brady Hoke, who saw his team’s record fade in each of his final three seasons, would be out the door a few days after it ended.
And so, for the third time since Lloyd Carr retired (following the 2007 season), Michigan found themselves searching for a coach who could help restore the program to national prominence. A coach would could help make Michigan football MICHIGAN again.
Rich Rodriguez (2008-2010) didn’t understand anything about the program’s traditions and the fans turned against him almost immediately. Brady Hoke (2011-2014) pretended to understand the traditions, but he certainly didn’t understand the winning.
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It looked like the Wolverines would have to salvage the program with a retread coaching hire, an up-and-coming (but unproven) coordinator, or trying to lure away someone like Bob Stoops with a lucrative offer.
There would be no slam-dunk candidate unless Jim Harbaugh became interested in the job, but the though initially seemed a silly pipedream because NFL coaches with a career .690 winning percentage don’t just leave. NFL beat writers were insisting that Harbaugh wanted to remain in the NFL, even if his relationship with the San Francisco 49ers continued to sour.
But the Harbaugh-to-Michigan ball kept rolling downhill and picked up steam. Harbaugh and the 49ers finally “parted ways” on December 29 and the next day, 28 days after dismissing Hoke, it was announced that Michigan would introduce him as their next head football coach.
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Michigan football fans had their dream coach officially inked on paper, and the offseason was filled with visions of what the program might become under (arguably) the most sought after coach in either the college or professional ranks.
But the offseason ends tonight when Michigan and Utah kick off their season opener at 8:30 p.m. eastern. Dreams of the future will persist, but Michigan fans will be met with the current reality of the program’s situation. Harbaugh is taking over a team who won just five games a season ago.
Harbaugh’s track record paints him as a tremendous football coach — one of the best in the game — but he’s not a magician and the process will take time. There will ugly moments this season and bad losses too (perhaps tonight). There will be coaches yelling at players and looks of bewilderment. There will be fans facepalming when leads are blown. It will not be all smiles and rainbows and unicorns.
There will be several reminders that Michigan is not yet Ohio State, not even Michigan State. Most Michigan fans know this and would articulate this, but there’s a difference between knowing a truth in one’s mind and experiencing it with your heart and soul.
We expect the Michigan football team to start playing better, but tonight, for the first time, we will be confronted with the reality that Michigan is not all the way back yet, and not even particularly close to being so.
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