Looks like Eric's team is getting a real coach

[Spence]

Lots of people saying Harbaugh to UM is a done deal. I am very happy. I'm not sure I could hand pick a coach I like less than Harbaugh. Should make for an interesting next 6 years.

[billybud]

I wonder if he still has the same fire....

Since it is now so much about recruiting, he needs to hire guys who can recruit as well as coach.

[donovan]

I wonder if he still has the same fire....

Since it is now so much about recruiting, he needs to hire guys who can recruit as well as coach.

This is the real drain, I think. There is a substantial difference between big and minor schools in recruiting. Large well know programs have all kinds of money to identify good talent and then they have systems to go after them. Minor schools, get in their cars and start hitting the high schools on laborious road trips, right in the middle of football season.

[Spence]

I wonder if he still has the same fire....

Since it is now so much about recruiting, he needs to hire guys who can recruit as well as coach.

This is the real drain, I think. There is a substantial difference between big and minor schools in recruiting. Large well know programs have all kinds of money to identify good talent and then they have systems to go after them. Minor schools, get in their cars and start hitting the high schools on laborious road trips, right in the middle of football season.

The large schools do it much the same way regionally. The bigger schools just get on planes and recruit out of their regions too. I'm not sure any of the coaches like recruiting but it is the bread and butter of college football. Good recruiting makes a good coach better. Bad recruiting makes a good coach look not so good.

[Eric]

Well, I'm pretty excited. It's like we've forgotten that we could actually have nice things. It's been a depressing 7/8 years, with our only highlights being a solitary win against the worst Ohio State team over the last 20 years, beating Tim Tebow in the Capital One, and somehow winning 10 games against a weak regular season schedule and eeking out a win against Virginia Tech. Other than that, it's been a torrential downpour of lowlights, outside of maybe those two wins against Notre Dame. And I'm not even kidding, this is literally all we have had to celebrate as a football program over the last 7.5 years.

As depressing as the situation has been, I wouldn't even rule out Harbaugh failing. I'm being dead serious; Michigan fans (myself included) were ecstatic over the last two hires as well, although this one seems like more of a slam-dunk. The thing Harbaugh has going for him is that he has never lost anywhere he's coached. Wouldn't be shocked if Michigan was the first though .

Anyway, I'm happy. I think Harbaugh vs. Meyer is the next chapter in the rivalry. I don't think Harbaugh will be here long term. I'm thinking 4 or 5 years before he scratches his NFL itch again. I don't think he is 100% committed; maybe 90% committed. If the opportunity to leave strikes his fancy, he's going to do it. But as long as he wins here and gets us back on our feet, what more could anybody reasonably ask for? I do think he will get Michigan in the playoff mix by the time he's done here. I'm hoping for an 8-4 record next season, too. It'll depend on whether or not Speight can play QB, because I'm pretty sure Shane Morris can't. The biggest detriment to the roster that he will inherit is that they haven't learned anything about playing football that they didn't bring in with them from high school. They just go out there and play without really understanding anything new or absorbing any new information about the college game. Harbuagh should at least coach them up and teach them some fundamentals and, most of all, he'll provide some motivation for these guys. I got the sense that they wanted to win and wanted to do it for Brady Hoke, but if they don't put in the right kinds of preparation with the right attitude, wanting to win isn't enough.

Of course if Harbaugh succeeds, I think this spells doom for Michigan State as a perennial Rose Bowl contender. Almost every one of MSU's studs comes from Ohio and it sounds like Michigan is talking to one of Kentucky's guys, who is supposed to be a recruiting guru. Kentucky's classes have been consistently good because he is a hit in Ohio. Anyone who doesn't go to MSU or Ohio State from Ohio has been looking hard at Kentucky. Assuming Michigan has more capital than Kentucky, he could be a hit here and that will cut into MSU's talent pool significantly. I don't think it's any coincidence that MSU's rise has happened as soon as Michigan fell. The pendulum might swing back for the second part of this decade.

[Spence]

I think Harbaugh will do well at Michigan. I agree with it hurting MSU. I think part of what made Tressel do so well against Michigan was steering guys he knew wouldn't come to Ohio State to Dantonio. Woody did the same sort of thing to help get guys away from Bo. It just didn't work as well as it did with Tress. I look for Harbaugh to close the door on Meyer at Cass Tech. He will also likely get some of Dantonio's recruits in Ohio. He should even pull a few from Meyer. Herbaugh is a good x's and o's guy. I agree that he won't be the long term answer because I don't think his heart is 100% into CFB. I do think he will be successful. I think CFB actually suits him better because of his personality, but eventually he will go back to the NFL because that is where he wants to be. He is just coming to Michigan to right the ship and I believe he will. Once that is done, I think he is gone.

[donovan]

Harbaugh wants a Super Bowl Victory...not some lame ESPN Emperor has no clothes Dollar Store Trophy.

[Spence]

Harbaugh wants a Super Bowl Victory...not some lame ESPN Emperor has no clothes Dollar Store Trophy.

He does, but this is his paying back Michigan for what they gave him.

[Derek]

Harbaugh wants a Super Bowl Victory...not some lame ESPN Emperor has no clothes Dollar Store Trophy.

That is the most beautiful trophy in all the land donovan!!

[donovan]

Harbaugh wants a Super Bowl Victory...not some lame ESPN Emperor has no clothes Dollar Store Trophy.

That is the most beautiful trophy in all the land donovan!!

I forgot....goes well at Walmart where if you are Alabama, you can break it.....

[billybud]

What does a Super Bowl Trophy look like?

I know the crystal football from college....I'd have to google the Super Bowl Trophy.

[billybud]

I do know that down here in Dixieland, the College National Championship Trophy is revered more than the shroud of Turin is in Italy.

Snide remarks about Walmart aside, crowds will gather in wonder and to have their picture taken next to the blessed relic...some will whisper in reverence when in its presence. Rival fans have broken and entered to desecrate the holy object (A Gator at FSU's display).

The new playoff college trophy is now prominently featured in a national advertisement that portrays that reverence and wonderment (the cola sales guy in the portrayal has it down almost perfectly).

Cathedrals of sports are now built where the trophy is to be housed. Accompanied by the pantheon of lesser conference championship banners, the blessed trophy holds the central place of honor.

Don't underestimate the religion of college ball here in the southland nor its principal holy object.

[Spence]

College sports is a big deal here. The Buckeyes are more popular than our pro teams. But other than being on display in the trophy case, people don't go in crowds to see the trophies. It is more about the winning than the trophy. I'm not sure I have ever gone out of my way to see a trophy. I never understood the significance. I don't even know where my personal trophies are. They are probably at my mom's house in a box somewhere.

[donovan]

Setting the snide comments about snide comments aside here is my empirical opinion on this subject.

The college national championship has been a fabricated title manufactured by the press for the purpose of aggrandizing those that need a triumphal relic to quench the addiction of the impostor syndrome. As jaded as this sounds, what was is better than what we have now and what we will have in the future. The future of college football now belongs to about 30 teams and the rest will drift into Division XXII oblivion.

Those inclined to worship in the cathedrals of professional football have the same zeal as those that prefer the white seplechures of collegiate campuses.

I do believe the South and Midwest have more of an ecclesiastical college sport mentality than in the West. As for me and my house, I want to be in the pews of the stadium shouting hallelujah rather than watching the evangelism of the ESPN Antichrist.

Amen

[Spence]

That was good. I'm not sure we take it to the level of religion, but we certainally take it to the extreme as far as hobbies go. I liked the old system where we had to win the conference to go to a bowl. There were less bowls, they were better for the most part. There was a national champ, but not really. There isn't now either.

There is only one way to have a fair playoff. That is to take the conference champ from every conference and play them off. That doesn't assure you have the best teams in the playoff, but it does mean you are less likely to miss a deserving team.