At Michigan, Harbaugh knows pressure building to deliver big wins
Michigan was back. Favorite son Jim Harbaugh had returned. An on-campus coronation followed. Only championships could be next. “There are no turnarounds at Michigan,” Harbaugh, the former NFL quarterback and head coach, said then. “This is greatness.” This was December 2014. Less than four years later, they’re still waiting for another celebration, not to mention a win over hated rival Ohio State and a finish higher than third in the loaded Big Ten East. Back-to-back 10-win seasons were followed by an underwhelming eight-victory campaign last fall, increasing the pressure for a program that hasn’t won the Big Ten since 2004.
“[The criticism] is fair because we haven’t won [big games],” Harbaugh told ESPN’s “College GameDay” for a piece that will air Saturday morning, hours before the 14th-ranked Wolverines begin Harbaugh’s fourth season at No. 12 Notre Dame.
The Wolverines have lost many of their biggest challenges under Harbaugh in heartbreaking fashion. Their three defeats in 2016 came by a combined five points. There was the flubbed punt on the final play to cost Michigan a win against Michigan State in 2015 and it blew a 10-point, second-half lead at Ohio State in 2016.
“He’s probably three plays away from changing the whole narrative as far as how he’s looked at,” Desmond Howard, a Michigan alum and ESPN analyst, said in a phone interview.
It could change this year. Even with the broken right foot sustained by wide receiver Tarik Black that will sideline him indefinitely, the pieces are in place for the kind of season most thought would be the norm when Harbaugh arrived. The defense, which was ranked third nationally last season returns eight starters, including New Jersey defensive end Rashan Gary, a projected top-10 pick, and All-American inside linebacker Devin Bush. The offense returns leading rushers Karan Higdon and Chris Evans and top receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones. And it will be led by Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson, the kind of high-quality quarterback Harbaugh has yet to have in Ann Arbor when costly mistakes by his signal-callers ruined potential trademark victories.
“I think people that are down on Jim Harbaugh, by Week 3, they’re going to go back to saying how he’s
the greatest coach in the country,” Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN’s lead college football analyst, said on a conference call. “Somebody asked me the other day [to name] a team that could come out of the top 10 and get into the playoffs, and the team I gave them was Michigan.
“I think they’re going to be a much better team than they were a year ago because I think they’re going to take care of the ball better with a better quarterback play out of Shea Patterson.”
Michigan was minus-4 in turnover margin last year and the Wolverines’ three quarterbacks, Brandon Peters, John O’Korn and Wilton Speight, combined to throw one more interception than touchdown pass. The year before, they dropped a harrowing overtime loss at Ohio State in part because Speight threw two killer interceptions, a loss that eliminated Michigan from the playoff race. In just seven starts for Ole Miss last year, Patterson produced more than the Michigan quarterbacks, throwing for 2,259 yards and 17 touchdowns.
A Toledo, Ohio, native, Patterson grew up watching and attending Michigan games and now he has a chance to help Harbaugh break though.
“It’s crazy just to think that I’m here at the University of Michi- gan,” he said.
Harbaugh has heard plenty of questions about this being The Year. About pressure building. About his 1-5 record against Michigan State and Ohio State. He’s frequently said the goal is to win, like it is any year, though he has admitted the losses to rivals “drives us quite a bit.” His players seem to sense the importance, talking in desperate tones about what has to happen this season.
“We’ve got one shot,” Bush, last year’s leading tackler, said recently. “When the year’s [over], seniors leave, people leave. You’ve got one shot with this team, with this group of guys. You can’t miss.”