I friggen knew it. I told you all this was going to happen. But did I listen to me? Of course not! I got excited. I saw an 5 straight wins including 2 against good opponents and thought “maybe things will be different.” SO I’m in. I buy a BTN+ subscription so I can watch the games. (Which, by the way is a dogshit choppy garbage streaming service. Do NOT purchase a BTN+ subscription.) I tune in for the first time and… Michigan poops the bed against a smaller in-state school that, sure, is ranked, but I mean come on… You’re MICHIGAN! That was pathetic. Uhh… dude, the games not until tomorrow… Did you steal that youtuber’s time machine from a couple of posts ago? OH GOD?! Should I not watch the game Saturday?!?! What? Oh right, the Michigan vs. Michigan State game is this weekend….. No dummy, I told you;* Football is dead to me. I’m talking about Michigan vs. Western Michigan… Hockey. ugh. Michigan’s forwards looked sloppy and lethargic a.-UGH. all night. The defense got caught pinch- UUUGGGHHHHH!!!!WHAT!?! NOBODY CARES!!! IT’S MICHIGAN VS MICHIGAN STATE WEEK! FOOOTBAAAALLLL!! Fine…
Question 1: Are Michigan and Michigan state legit? No. At least not #6 and #8 in the country legit. Look we’ve sort of covered this to death already. Both teams are much MUCH better than pre-season expectations, but neither team has beaten a team that is currently ranked. And the teams they beat that we thought were good are… Nebraska and Rutgers. I mean, the rest of college football is pretty bad this year too so maybe they should be ranked high… but are they a threat to Georgia or Oklahoma or a not sleeping Ohio State? No.
Question 2: Who is better? I KNOW we’ve gone over this… Remember? Pointing Spider Mans? Ugh… Both have excellent RBs. (Michigan’s are better). Both have QBs who are vast improvements from last year but… that’s like… well I can’t think of a metaphor that could explain it better than “Vast improvement over Shea Patterson and Rocky Lombardi” Michigan State’s is better… but “better” in the sense that he is a run threat and is currently showing more ability to hit a deep ball. So.. More dangerous? That could go the other way though as while I’d maybe give Thorne the edge in “ability to win a game for you” I’d also probably trust Cade more with “Don’t lose this game for us.” But What about JJ!?!
Question 3: Should they start/play JJ or Cade? Cade BOOO!!! If you’re Jim Harbaugh, Cade is the right choice. He is 7-0. That’s way WAY above pre-season expectations. Sure, some of that is opponents not living up to their pre-season expectations and a lot has to do with a much better than expected defense, but… 7-0. Neither Cade nor JJ is going to beat OSU this year. Fans expecting otherwise are insane. If the athletic department expected this then Warde should have fired Harbaugh last year after MSU, or Wisconsin, or Rutgers. Pre-season expectations (given bringing Harbaugh back with a new DC, new starting QB, after the second worst season in my lifetime) should have been 8+ wins, beat MSU (who at the time was expected to also be bad), show improvements on offense/QB, and promise in a new defensive system. I haven’t seen practice (or enough game reps) to guess if JJ is “ready”. If he’s not then Cade should stay. He’s shown enough ability to beat (or at least not blow the game against) every team remaining on the schedule except OSU. Maybe JJ beats them by more, or maybe he throws 6 picks and loses to MSU/Indiana/Penn State. Only the coaches have seen him enough to try and determine if he is “ready.” If he’s not then get him ready for next year instead of turning him into another Shane Morris/Brandon Peters/Dylan McCaffrey. The outcome of THIS season is likely the same either way.
Question 4: Should they fire/have fired Harbaugh? If they lose Saturday, yes. This was part of the imaginary 7+ wins/beat MSU deal I had with Warde Manuel… Harbaugh already had the blown season last year so the “you shouldn’t fire a guy who wins 9-10 games every year” clause is broken. The fact that MSU is good this year** makes this a little less obvious but the facts are the same. If they lose then Michigan has a 7 year coach with a 3-4 record against MSU. He’s playing a coach that has had a Covid year and a half a season to rebuild the ashes of Dantonio’s final 3 years… A coach who’s probably splitting his time between coaching and real estate hunting in Louisiana… If Harbaugh loses it will be to this coach for the second straight year. Michigan is essentially coming off a double BYE week because Northwestern doesn’t count as a football team this year. Michigan is better. Michigan has more talent***, and Michigan should be prepared. If they lose this game it will be because of poor QB play/flat offense for the 6th**** out of 7 years and multiple attempts at changing the personnel. If I’m wrong and we lose 67-69***** because MSU hits bomb after bomb on perfect deep throws then fine, we’ll re-evaluate this position pending the rest of the season… but I don’t see that happening. This team seems happier and more fired up this year than in the past and this is a must win game. If they can’t pull it off then Harbaugh is done. (They won’t fire him)
Question 5: Who will win on Saturday? Michigan State. Because I put $2 on Michigan in Tim’s pick ’em league and jinxed the world.
**I mean relatively speaking because they’re not. Nobody is. We discussed this last week using the proof by contradiction of The Rutgers Theorem.
***Higher rated recruiting classes and more NFL draft picks
****To be clear, I’m saying the offense/QB as a whole has been lackluster/bad for 6 of Harbaugh’s 7 seasons, not specifically talking about in MSU games. Also none if this is supposed to be an insult to Michigan State. It is a fact that Michigan has a bigger name, larger fanbase, and therefore consistently has a better recruiting class. The fact that all of this is true and Michigan State has STILL eaten Michigan’s lunch for the better part of a decade and a half is a credit to Michigan State, not an insult.
*****Nice…