Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh has piled on the wins in three seasons in Ann Arbor, but he comes up short in the big games, time after time.
Many are senselessly wondering if Jim Harbaugh will be on the hot seat if he does not deliver a conference championship next season. While he has won many games in his three seasons in Ann Arbor (28 to be exact), but he cannot escape the criticism’s of winning “the big game”. Time and time again he’s come up short against Michigan State, Wisconsin and that school down in Columbus.
But before you criticize Harbaugh any further, let’s ask this question: When is there ever a little one? I ask this question because this was a question that haunted one of the greatest coaches in the history of football, John Madden. From 1969 through 1975, his Oakland Raiders advanced to the AFC Championship game six times and never won. Madden was always told he could never win the big one, and the previously stated question was his answer to his critics.
Madden always talked of winning games to qualify for the playoffs and playoff wins as big games. Madden did finally silence his critics by winning Super Bowl XI at the conclusion of the 1976 season.
As we switch back to Harbaugh and the Wolverines, Michigan has won some big games to get in positions for the Big Ten and National Championship race. He beat No. 13 Northwestern in 2015 in a 38-0 shutout and beat No. 19 Florida later that year. In 2016 he dominated a Penn State team that went on to win the Big Ten title by a score of 49-10 and beat No. 8 Wisconsin the following week 14-7.
The big games Harbaugh has lost have had key moments that were just out of his hands, the infamous punting snafu at the end of the Michigan-MSU game in 2015 was one of the wackiest finishes in college football history and the Wolverines were on the wrong side of game-changing calls at Ohio State in 2016.
Next: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for Michigan
Harbaugh can win big games, he’s proven so at Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers, and at Michigan. But in Ann Arbor, you need to beat the best of the best (Ohio State) to get your full credit.