The Michigan Wolverines are coming off a disappointing 2-4 season, meaning the many former Maize and Blue stars still working in the game of football inevitably are getting asked to share their thoughts on the current situation in Ann Arbor.

Former national championship quarterback Brian Griese, now a commentator on ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcasts, recently tweeted his disappointment about head coach Jim Harbaugh's tenure, while former offensive lineman Jumbo Elliott, a teammate of Harbaugh's at Michigan, went on record and showed support for his quarterback.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebackers coach Larry Foote, a two-time first-team All-Big Ten honoree and the 2001 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year at Michigan (1998-2001) joined the Stoney and Jansen show on 97.1 The Ticket last week and was asked how hard it is to watch the Wolverines' struggles from afar, as a former player.

"People don’t understand — and I’ve been fortunate, being in this league for 20 years now — there is so much abuse that we take in the locker room," Foote said with a laugh. "And a guy like me with a big mouth and always shooting at people all the time, they can’t wait until Michigan loses. I mean, guys that went to schools you’ve never even heard of are giving it to me. Every now and then, I get somebody to sucker me into a bet. We take a lot of abuse in the NFL in these locker rooms — coaches and players."

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The abysmal defense in 2020, and at times before that, pained Foote to watch, especially when it came to the run defense (Michigan was 79th nationally in rushing yards allowed per game this past season). After all, he helped spearhead some stout Maize and Blue units on that side of the ball during his days in Ann Arbor.

"We’ve been having a lot of success, as far as sending guys to the NFL. So you gotta replenish that talent, and guys gotta grow," Foote said. "I just look at it like, stop the run. I get we got young DBs and everybody from a fan perspective, you always rag on the DBs. But stop the run. Last couple years, Ohio State running the ball 300 yards and Wisconsin, Penn State, 200 yards. So I think they have to stop the run, they have to figure out how to stop the run.

"If it’s a talent issue … you’ve got to do something as far as scheme to stop the run."

Foote acknowledged the success that Harbaugh has had at Michigan, winning over 69 percent of his games, including 10-win seasons in three of his first five campaigns, despite not winning a Big Ten title or making the College Football Playoff. Foote, who was a part of teams that never lost less than two games in a season while playing at Michigan, knows how hard it is to win at an elite level.

"Well, I mean, he wins what, 70 percent of his games? It’s not that easy," Foote said. "I think he’s doing a good job."

The clubs Foote played on beat arch rival Ohio State two times, in 1999 and 2000, with the latter victory in Columbus still standing as the last time the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. But Michigan's quarterbacks since then are a far cry away from Tom Brady and Drew Henson, Foote pointed out, and said that lack of elite production at the signal-caller spot is a big reason for the horrible stretch — losing 15 of 16 — against the team to the south.

"To beat Ohio State — if you look back at the Michigan teams in the glory days, in the 80s and 90s when we beat Ohio State, because that’s really what we care about, beating Ohio State — we had NFL quarterbacks," Foote explained. "Ohio State has always had more talented [players], just from the state of Ohio.

"And we have to get a proven quarterback that can beat those guys, and we just haven’t had any luck yet since he’s been there of getting a bonafide NFL quarterback that can go down to Columbus and beat them guys."

Foote's Buccaneers played in Detroit over the weekend, blowing out the Lions, 47-7. He is in his second season in Tampa Bay, part of a squad that clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2007. Foote won two Super Bowls as a Pittsburgh Steeler.

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