Mr.TaterSalad

Yeah, AOC has looked poised and on target tonight.

75 replays later and we got here.

They better have an answer for Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, Charlie Jones, or whoever the hell this kid is for Purdue.

I know none of us want to be in another Illinois-type situation scrambling at the end of the game to win. I want to be able to pull away and sit the staters come the 4th quarter. Do what we did to Iowa last year.

Georgia stomps LSU and we're struggling to pull away from Purdue and put them away. Georgia is on another planet it seems.

Purdue has to play mistake free football in order to win this. Hopefully we start pulling away now and finish them.

You can't do this against Georgia that's for sure.

I've been reflecting a lot on this game, last year's game, what has changed for Harbaugh and why Michigan is now winning. I'm not saying anything new that hasn't already been said here or elsewhere. It's just after spending the past 3 years mercilessly criticizing Jim Harbaugh and his decisions, both on and off the field, I feel I need to air this out there somewhere in the universe. After pounding the desk for Harbaugh to be fired and replaced with Luke Fickell, I owe Harbaugh some props for making changes we all wanted to see and righting the ship at Michigan. If only to make myself feel better I want to share what I feel Harbaugh has done to turn Michigan around and be highly successful these past 2 years. These changes are obviously positive and for the better and are in no particular order of importance. Developing a good starting QB of his own When Jim Harbaugh first came to Michigan one of the things we were led to believe is that he was a QB whisperer. He was a guy who played the QB position in college at Michigan and in the NFL. His specialty was developing QBs as witnessed by the likes of Andrew Luck at Stanford and Colin Kapernick in the NFL. From the gate, Harbaugh seemingly abandon the idea of developing a homegrown talent and looked outside the program for his starting QB. First it was Jake Rudock coming in from Iowa, giving him the nod over the homegrown player in Shane Morris. Then in 2016 it was the QB battle between the homegrown Wilton Speight and John O'Korn, the transfer from Houston. O'Korn gets hurt and Harbaugh has his hand forced into playing Speight, but Speight is nothing special and is part of the reason we gaged away the Iowa game, costing us the Big Ten Championship. 2017 roles around and now we have 3 guys competing for the starting QB job with O'Korn, Speight, and Brandon Peters. Harbaugh again mismanages the situation, starts all 3 at one point or another during the season, and gives no one time to truly develop and get in rhythm as the starter. 2018 starts a new season with yet another transfer QB winning the starting job, this time it's the ever inaccurate Shea Patterson. To the dismay of everyone and for reasons only known to Harbaugh himself, he passes on giving Brandon Peters or Dylan McCaffery the opportunity to develop and start and stubbornly sticks with Patterson for two straight seasons. In 2019 it's Shea Patterson again and Harbaugh has hit rock bottom at the QB position with Patterson completing only 56% of his passes that year. In 2020 we finally get our wish as fans and Harbaugh, from day one, starts his own recruit at QB with Joe Milton. The trouble is, Milton isn't any good at all and whatever coaching Harbaugh did with him during the offseason clearly didn't work. We got our wish to have a homegrown kid at QB and he was flat out terrible. He couldn't process the defense, never worked through progressions, looked rattled in the pocket, made poor decisions, and was wildly inaccurate. In 2021 and 2022 though, something finally sticks and Harbaugh gets it right. We get the best combination of having a homegrown kid with real talent, good in-game decision making, and great coaching from Harbaugh and company coming together. First with Cade McNamara and then with JJ McCarthy. Jim Harbaugh's commitment to stick both of these guys for full seasons each was huge. Yes, JJ got limited playing time in 2021, on scheme-specific plays. But for the most part, Jim Harbaugh trusted Cade McNamara, stuck with him and allowed him to develop throughout the season. The same can be said this year for JJ. Firing Don Brown and changing defensive schemes This cannot be understated. Don Brown, Dr. Blitz, was almost singlehandedly killing this team and putting us in a position to lose with his blitz at all costs approach to defensive coaching. Michigan became famous for getting eaten alive over the middle of the field and getting destroyed with crossing routes. It became comical against Ohio State with Brown's defenses surrendering 118 points in two seasons, between 2018 and 2019. I'm all for being aggressive and dialing up blitz packages, but Brown was putting his players in bad positions, having them overrun the play, be out of place on coverage, or have offensive players left wide open because of his commitment to blitzing. And when things got ugly as they did against Ohio State, Penn State, or Michigan State, Brown never made in-game adjustments. Blitzing at all costs can work when you are beating up on teams that aren't as good as you are or those with poor offensive lines. Unfortunately for Brown and Harbaugh, that wasn't Ohio State, Michigan State, or Penn State and it cost them dearly in important games. Under Brown's watch you saw talented 5* and 4* players underachieve as well, like Rashan Gary and Aubrey Solomon. Look at the defensive line play and productivity with Hutch and Ojabo versus the likes of Gary and Solomon. When Harbaugh finally recognized that Don Brown was the problem he fired him and went to his brother John Harbaugh for help. John essentially loaned him Mike McDonald for a season and things, with largely the same personnel, immediately improved. McDonald brought a new scheme, less reliant on blitzing, and more about making adjustments based on who your opponent is to put your kids in the best position to succeed. And what happened, outside of one game with Kenneth Walker going crazy, Michigan's defense looked great for the entire season. This was most especially true during the Ohio State game at season's end. When Mike McDonald left, Harbaugh replaced him with Jesse Minter and things picked right up from where McDonald had left them. Sticking with an offensive system and developing an offensive identity Another important aspect of Harbaugh's coaching decisions was his decision to finally build and stick with an offensive identity. We went threw several Offensive Coordinators from Tim Drevno to Pep Hamilton and changes in scheme with each. Gone are the days of the Spread Offense, Spread Option, and the Wildcat. Instead, Harbaugh has finally created an identity with Josh Gattis/Matt Weiss/Sharone Moore and recruited the right players to fit with the scheme. We became a slower paced, ball control, physical, dominate at the line of scrimmage and in between the tackles type of offense. We committed to running the ball which grinds the game out, wears down the opposing defense, and eats up the clock more. We started playing bully ball and used the run to then setup the pass, lots of play action, and now bootlegs with JJ when we do throw it. Building an identity around the running game and becoming a more physical offense with our offensive line has really been to Michigan's benefit in big game situations against Ohio State these past two years. Even when Josh Gattis left, the offensive system largely stayed the same and we adjusted to skillset of JJ. Better in-game coaching decisions We've all witnessed the baffling in-game decisions from Jim Harbaugh. From having Wilton Speight throw it out of the back of his own end zone to not being in max protect on a punt to our head coach generally looking lost in space during a game. Harbaugh has apparently adjusted his mindset and approach to the way he coaches in game and has cut down on the number of coaching mishaps and head scratching mistakes. He has seemingly gotten his head in a clearer space while coaching in-game. Recruiting better running backs and offensive lineman This is another part of Harbaugh's offensive change that has elevated this team. Hassan Haskins, Blake Corum, and Donavan Edwards are simply better than the guys that came before them. Harbaugh has recruited and coached up better backs, running behind better olines. Michigan has developed their physical, ball control offense and now has the talent on the line and in the backfield to execute what they want to do. Cutting down on the goofy behavior Trips to Europe during the offseason and sleeping over at recruits homes were just some of the examples of the eccentric behavior displayed by Jim Harbaugh during his first several years at Michigan. Most of that appears to be done and he is back to the basics. He appears more focused on better game planning and game management. He is allowing his programs record and standing on the field to speak for itself more on the recruiting trail.

Boyd/Fulmer/Norris harkens me back to the days of Justin Thompson, Brian Moehler, and, Seth Greisinger.

WTF! Mazi Smith cares more about carrying a gun than his football career.

Go USC!!!

Damn, RIP Christine McVie from Fleetwood Mac.

One of the biggest reasons of them all that Tua is successful is because he is on a rookie contract and they are able to go out and get a Tyreek Hill. That rookie contract is what allowed them to restructure and resign Hill and will allow the Dolphins to absorb the coming $31 million cap hit from Tyreek Hill next season. If the Dolphins have to pay Tua a big money contract, which they likely will, their cap flexibility is likely going to go down. Tua is the benefactor of good offensive coaching/playcalling with Mike McDaniel, having Hill and Waddle to throw to, and his own rookie contract that allows Tyreek Hill to be traded for in the first place.

I remember Bernie Sanders working with John McCain to spearhead reform of the Veterans Administration after it was rocked by scandal and poor service provided to American Veterans. Unless VA Reform with John McCain doesn't count now as major healthcare legislation. Also, while Bernie has failed to pass Medicare For All, he's advanced the narrative on healthcare as a universal right in a major way in this country and changed the narrative more than Hillarycare did or more than Hillary did in 2008 or 2016 when running for President. Who in mainstream, American politics was talking about single payer and government run healthcare as an option pre-Bernie 2015? Now we have a majority of Americans who support a government-run healthcare system and that support will only grow as Millennials and Gen Z begin to take over politics. It's just a numbers game, as more and more younger people who support Medicare For All enter into national politics and elected office, we'll have a single-payer like system at some point. Now, that may not be directly because of Bernie Sanders vote or spearhead of the legislation. But you cannot deny that he has influenced a generation of young elected leaders coming up in politics who now support single payer and Medicare For All. Also, you called Sanders a grifter while ignoring every Clinton grift for the last 20 years from payments from Ron Burkle to pardoning a career crook in Mark Rich to having to give back hundreds-of-thousands of dollars of illegally fundraised money from Chinese foreign nationals to being paid over $150 million in Wall Street and corporate speeches. I would say that at least Bernie hasn't compromised his values and selling out like Hillary and Bill Clinton, but that would presume that her and Bubba had any real values to being with, but they do not. Sticking your finger in the political wind to calculate the position you should take on every issue on the political spectrum doesn't count as a value and isn't worth anything. But sure, ok, Bernie is the real grifter in Democratic circles, not Hillary and Bubba.

I find it hilarious that people criticize Bernie Sanders on healthcare when the person who really set us back on healthcare in America was Hillary Clinton and her massive failure on Hillarycare in the 1990s. Clinton, as with many things in her life, completely failed to get a healthcare passed and we just conveniently ignore that here. It took almost 20 years for Democrats to recover on the issue of healthcare policy and messaging thanks to Hillary's failures on healthcare in the 1990s. Speaking of grifters, Hillary and Bill Clinton are the biggest grifters of them all. It ain't Bernie Sanders whose going around giving $500,000 paid speeches to Blackrock Investments, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase. Hillary used her status as a former Senator and Secretary of State to grift tens-of-millions of dollars in paid Wall Street Speeches. Her husband grifted himself $15,000,000 in payments from Ron Burkle and got himself a lucrative job as an Honorary Chancellor at a college for a cool $18,000,000. What work Clinton actually did for that college, who knows.

Herschel Walker compares himself to Ricky Bobby . . .

I voted for Scotty Boman that year. No, not the Red Wings coach, but the Libertarian Party candidate for Senate. That was my last election voting anything other than straight Democrat. May of 2012 was when my dad first confessed to me he was broke and his home was in foreclosure. How the hell could I keep voting Libertarian for a bunch of free market acolytes who would take away my dad's Social Security and Medicare. How could I vote for people who would look at my dad, shrug their shoulders and say "oh well, not my problem, should have made better choices with your investments and money." I don't think I voted for a single Republican in 2012.

The Republican Party is already a fascist clown car, I can only imagine how good it would get if Mike Lindell were running it. The party infrastructure would crumble and organizing would be non-existent.

Wisconsin would be a good landing spot for him if he is fully healthy next year. A great transition for Fickell's first year at the program so he doesn't have to trot out Graham Mertz again.

If you could be guaranteed that CJ Stroud or Bryce Young would be not be significantly better nor significantly worse then Jared Goff has been, would having a QB on a rookie contract be worth it? When Goff made the Super Bowl he did so on a rookie contract himself. Does having the extra cap space that a rookie QB contract can free up for 3-4 seasons make it worth it to gamble on Stroud or Young?

Auburn missed out on Luke Fickell and potentially Lane Kiffin with the latter opting to stay at Ole Miss. Rumor is now that they are looking at hiring Hugh Freeze. I think putting Freeze back in a big time SEC program like Auburn has disaster written all over it.

Herschel Walker should never, ever, describe anyone else as dumb as a brick. In-fact, it's an insult to bricks to compare them to a nimrod and dolt like Herschel Walker.

Of all the changes Harbaugh made to get Michigan back on track, finally firing Don Brown was such a huge and positive change. Can you imagine Don Brown coaching this game the last two seasons? He'd have blitzed his way into a loss. Props to Jim Harbaugh for finally recognizing that Dr. Blitz was making his defense worse and making the change. Also props to him keeping the same defensive system in place when Mike McDonald left and he brought in Jesse Minter.

Phenomenal hire for Wisconsin!

He's more mobile and doesn't turn it over quite as much. He's got 35 TDs to only 4 INTs on the season. He did throw 2 in a big game today though.