After the first day of the Big Ten Media Day, here’s a look at what’s being written about the Michigan Wolverines:
Bill Connelly, ESPN: Big Ten East preview: Could this be the year for Harbaugh and Michigan?
Harbaugh has, by any definition, changed that. He has averaged 9.5 wins per year and an S&P+ ranking of 9.8. He has fielded a top-10 defense (per S&P+) every season. He is 32-3 in the regular season against teams not named Notre Dame, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State.
He was also 0-4 against Urban Meyer. Three of the losses were by double digits. Ohio State was the hurdle the Wolverines simply couldn't get past. That might not change now that Ryan Day is in charge in Columbus, but it's an opportunity for change. Can UM take advantage?
In many ways, the answer depends on new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. For as strong as Harbaugh's defenses have been, UM has yet to rank better than 25th in Off. S&P+. Michigan's offense has been mostly fine against the mortals on the schedule but has lacked creativity and spice against better defenses. Harbaugh has tasked Gattis -- James Franklin's former receivers coach at Vanderbilt and Penn State and Alabama's offensive co-coordinator in 2018 -- with changing that.
It starts, of course, with Shea Patterson. The former Ole Miss quarterback mostly lived up to the hype in his first year up north, completing 65 percent of his passes with a 22-to-7 TD-to-INT ratio and rushing about five times per game (not including sacks) at 7.7 yards per carry. But while he produced a 150 passer rating for the season, it was under 130 in all three losses. His most frequent target, Donovan Peoples-Jones, caught 21 balls for just 173 yards in those games.
Austin Meek, The Athletic: Michigan is favored in the Big Ten, but is it ready to wear the crown?
Polls don’t matter, but expectations do. And no one in the Big Ten enters the 2019 season with greater expectations than Michigan.
Opinion seems to be coalescing around the Wolverines as the consensus favorite, if not a prohibitive one. Athlon and Phil Steele both picked Michigan to win the Big Ten and appear in the College Football Playoff. In a straw poll of 34 Big Ten writers conducted by Cleveland.com, Michigan received 20 votes to win the Big Ten East.
When the Wolverines take the stage Friday at Big Ten Media Days, they’ll undoubtedly be asked about living up to those expectations. It’s not a question anyone can answer in July, but what matters right now is that people are asking.
Picking Michigan to win the Big Ten means cutting against the grain of recent history. Rivals take great delight in pointing out that the Wolverines haven’t claimed a share of the Big Ten title since 2004. If they fall short this year, it wouldn’t be the first time preseason hype outpaced reality.
Ohio State has won or shared eight Big Ten championships since Michigan won its last. Jim Harbaugh’s 0-4 record against the Buckeyes and last year’s 62-39 loss in Columbus are the asterisks to any championship predictions involving the Wolverines.
So what’s different about 2019? The Wolverines have a senior quarterback, Shea Patterson, and an offense better tailored to showcase his skills. Most of their toughest games are at home. Ohio State has a new coach, Penn State has a new quarterback, and there’s a sense that five years should be long enough for Harbaugh to win a trophy.
Jim Harbaugh unintentionally kicked off Big Ten media days with a dramatic opening salvo on Thursday afternoon. He took a broad swipe at former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer on a podcast with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami.
“Urban Meyer's had a winning record,” Harbaugh said on the TK Show. “Really phenomenal record everywhere he's been. But also, controversy follows everywhere he's been.”
That singular final line crowbars open a window into the ego, pettiness and rationalizations that bubble through the mind of big-time head coaches. And the attention generated by it serves as another reminder of Harbaugh’s defining trait so far as Michigan’s coach – generating attention.
The line was certainly appreciated by those who revel in clicks and faux controversies, as it’s a collision of two of the sport’s biggest names, program brands and, of course, polarizing figures. Harbaugh delivering verbal haymakers to Urban will provide daytime television content for weeks and get revived again come November. (Meyer declined comment when reached by Yahoo Sports on Thursday.)
Harbaugh doesn’t speak until Friday at Big Ten media days, but the buzz created by the remark serves as a reminder of the new reality of this post-Urban Big Ten. All eyes are on Harbaugh to see if he can finally deliver the product to match the bluster. If not this year, when?
Before Jim Harbaugh hired Josh Gattis to be his new offensive coordinator, first-year Maryland coach Mike Locksley had designs on bringing his former Alabama colleague with him to College Park.
Ultimately, it didn't work out that way. Gattis signed a three-year deal with Michigan in January that will pay him $1.1 million in 2019. He'll make a base salary of $900,000 the next two years with incentive bonus money that could add an extra $400,000 to his deal.
Speaking with reporters Thursday at Big Ten media days, Locksley said he was happy for Gattis and wished him success. Save for one game.
"Josh is a good coach. He was very helpful as an assistant in our program. He had an opportunity to see me call every play and put together game plans," Locksley said. "I hope he does well. Except against Maryland.
"Good luck to him."
The two coaches are part of a unique group of staffers who came through Nick Saban's Alabama powerhouse. Gattis and Locksley were two of seven assistant coaches who left Saban's program this offseason, though Locksley was the only one to leave for a head coaching job.
Aaron McMann, MLive.com: Ohio State’s Ryan Day continues to emphasize Michigan rivalry
Ryan Day is taking the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” approach to the rivalry with Michigan.
The first-year Ohio State head coach told reporters Thursday at Big Ten media days that he hasn’t changed much when it came to how the program approaches the rivalry against Michigan.
Urban Meyer, Day’s predecessor, was a perfect 7-0 against the Wolverines before announcing his retirement in December.
“No,” Day said. “No, that worked. That worked just fine.”
Day, who served as an assistant on staff at OSU the previous two seasons, said he learned from Meyer that the rivalry game -- set for Nov. 30 in Ann Arbor this year -- must be emphasized every day.
And from reminders inside OSU’s practice facility and weight room to a drill practiced during each practice, it is.
“It’s a part of what we do, whether it’s recruiting or -- we have periods in practice (that) we call them ‘the Team Up North drill'. So, we live it everyday. It’s something that we always have in the back of our minds.”
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