By Jordan Hansen
Part 9 of The Daily Iowan’s summer football previews
Ohio State and Michigan State have dominated the Big Ten East Division (really, the whole conference) for the past several years.
Michigan, meanwhile, has been stuck in jail, or rather, the middle to bottom of the Big Ten for much of the last 10 years. Wolverine fans have Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke to thank for much of that pain, and each was fired after rather unsuccessful efforts.
Then Jim Harbaugh was hired, ushering in a new era of Michigan football. His first season was a resounding success, going 10-3 and winning the Citrus Bowl with Iowa castoff Jake Rudock at the helm.
Michigan is well set up this year to pull off an East Division heist, and it will likely be at the expensive of a despised (which, perhaps, is a mild term) rival in Ohio State.
Sound familiar?
It does to me. Urban Meyer is absolutely Terry Benedict in this analogy, with Harbaugh playing the part of Danny Ocean.
There’s already been a lot of trash talking between the two, which is exactly how romantic rivals are supposed to act. It’s only going to get more intense as the two coaches face each other and oh, did I mention Ohio State vs. Michigan is the last regular-season game for each school before the Big Ten Championship?
Things are going to get wild, and I can only hope Harbaugh delivers a line as good as this one if Michigan would happen to beat the Buckeyes in the season finale:
“What happened Benedict, you get robbed or something?”
ZINGER.
However, in order for Harbaugh to even find himself in a position to deliver something so good, a number of things have to go right for Michigan this season.
In what’s a fairly common theme across the Big Ten, there’s a quarterback competition going on strong in Ann Arbor. Harbaugh has several choices to choose from, including a former Houston quarterback with starting experience in John O’Korn as well as Shane Morris, a senior who has appeared in 10 games during his career at Michigan.
Wilton Speight, who Rudock’s backup last year, also could factor in. Whoever gets the job will be the best man suited for the job; Harbaugh has long been known as a coach who excels at developing quarterbacks.
But a good quarterback needs solid players around him to contend for a championship, which the Wolverines have plenty of. There’s a solid grouping of running backs to help pick up the offense in addition to a number of talented receivers.
Then there’s the do-everything Jabrill Peppers.
Peppers is listed as a defensive back, but he contributed greatly on special teams and the offense as well. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and was also named a second-team All-American.
He will lead what should be one of the best defenses in the nation, though he’ll have to do it without last year’s defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, who left for the head coach job at Maryland.
Harbaugh has done a great job recruiting talent so far, and the pieces of his plan for a successful new era of football at Michigan are coming together.
There is only one question left to answer: Can Harbaugh pull a fast one on Meyer and walk out of the casino with everything he wants?
Follow @JordyHansen for Iowa and Big Ten news, updates, and analysis.