Stick A Fork In Him, He's Done
After inexplicably losing to a three-touchdown underdog Michigan State team in week two, Jim Harbaugh and his staff followed it up with a convincing loss at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers, 38-21.
It was Indiana's first win over Michigan in 33 years.
If you ask me, Harbaugh is done. He looks defeated. He is defeated. And he's flat out not getting the job done at Michigan. Neither is Don Brown. Neither is Josh Gattis. For a program like Michigan, with all of its resources and financial advantages, to lose back to back games to Michigan State and Indiana, is unacceptable.
Tom Allen's Indiana team dominated Michigan for the entire game on both sides of the ball. The Michigan players didn't look interested in playing and once again the coaches didn't do anything to help them out or put them in positions to succeed. The corners were beat on deep balls again, the defensive line didn't get any pressure again and the offensive play calling was predictable and ineffective.
For Michigan to be down 24-7 at halftime is embarrassing. It's Indiana. INDIANA. They've got some talent, and Allen has his guys flying around, but there's a reason the Hoosiers hadn't beaten Michigan in 33 years. The Hoosiers don't recruit as well as Michigan and don't put players in the NFL like Michigan.
It didn't matter.
The coaching staff at Indiana earned their paychecks and the coaching staff at Michigan did not. After getting beat by Michigan State in week two, every coach at Michigan should've been on high alert and trying anything and everything to switch things up in order to achieve different results. Instead, it looked like the exact same team and game plan again. That is also inexcusable.
I believe you can blame most of what's happened over the last two weeks on coaching, but players need to be held accountable as well. There were several drops on both sides of the ball, multiple offsides penalties, missed blocking assignments, a couple instances of poor technique at various positions and some missed throws. At some point, players need to make plays. Brock Huard said it repeatedly during the broadcast and over and over Michigan came up short.
This is a bad team, top to bottom. On paper, they shouldn't be, but on the field, they are. The same Michigan State team that beat Michigan in Ann Arbor last week, lost to Iowa 49-7 today. The Spartans really might only win one game all year. They've already lost to Rutgers and got absolutely drilled by the Hawkeyes, yet somehow they earned a three-point win over the Wolverines.
After these two losses and how things look across the board, Jim Harbaugh can not be extended. I was there last week, I'll shout it from a mountaintop this week. I don't really think anything can be done during the season, especially since neither coordinator looks capable of coaching a team either, so ride out this year's slate. Let Harbaugh finish the bizarre 2020 season and find a way for him to leave town amicably as soon as that last game hits zeroes on the clock.
This is not emotion. This is not the disgruntled fan in me coming out. This is reality. Michigan just got housed by the Indiana Hoosiers. If anyone still supports Harbaugh and thinks he should get a new contract, I would love to hear why. I'm all ears.
