It is that baseline against which Harbaugh was being judged”-though population redistribution (favoring the South), increased athletic racial integration, and the role of money (TV contracts, sports journalism/media, government funding for public universities, etc.) has vastly changed the college football landscape in the interim. He’d had three 10-win seasons since becoming head coach at U-M in 2015, as well as one nine-win season, but the fact that he’d not been able to beat Ohio State had put his job in jeopardy even before the first pre-game coin toss of the 2020 season.Īs Mathis-Lilley explains, “The modern Michigan fan base and its sense of how successful the program should be were created in the '70s. Of course it’s possible to spot a team’s flaws even when they win, but the pronounced Debbie Downer-ness of this running commentary, shared while a convincing Michigan win on national television is unfolding, makes you wonder: What more could Michigan football fans want? Good lord, would anything make us happy?Ī similar (but arguably more justified) dissonance involves Coach Jim Harbaugh, who found himself on the titular Hot Seat at the start of the 2021 season, after U-M suffered an abysmal, mercifully truncated 2020 season (2-4). A few cheery examples: “We’re going to get killed by any offense with a pulse.” “Passing game is atrocious.” “We are not good.” One of my favorite parts of Slate senior writer (and rabid longtime Michigan fan) Ben Mathis-Lilley’s new book, The Hot Seat: A Year of Outrage, Pride, and Occasional Games of College Footballis a list of fan site comments during U-M’s second game of the 2021 season.Īfter noting that U-M beat Washington 31-10 that night and that the Wolverines were never, for a second, tied with or losing to the Huskies, Mathis-Lilley shares three and a half pages of these in-the-moment fan perspectives. Ben Mathis-Lilley author photo by Christopher Beattie.
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