It's Time For Ruthless Jimmy To Return Before It's Too Late

Why Jim Harbaugh needs to take control of this offense, or he risks losing control of the Michigan program.

Michigan posted a historic defensive performance against Iowa. A "defensive masterpiece" as Jim Harbaugh described it.

And yet, despite getting eight sacks, 13 tackles-for-loss, and four turnovers, the Hawkeyes still had the ball with a chance to either tie or win in the final seconds. Even a competent Michigan offense wins that game by 2-3 touchdowns. Instead, the current Michigan offense nearly gave the game (and thus the season) away.

Can you imagine the conversations we’d be having right now had that occurred?

The Wolverines have one more laugher this week against Illinois, before the East Division gauntlet begins at the Penn State white out. This is perhaps the last ideal opportunity for a reboot given what lies ahead. So now is the time for Harbaugh to assert himself before this becomes another season of unmet expectations. Especially because I'm not sure this fan base has any patience left for anymore unmet expectations as it is.

Therefore, if there's any of Ruthless Jimmy left in there, now is the time for him to either fire Josh Gattis and re-assume control of the offense, or start Dylan McCaffrey at quarterback.

Whichever one he thinks is necessary, because whatever this offense is won't work and it's not happening. We're halfway into the season, and the offense does nothing well. But when questioned about this most obvious of realities after the Iowa game, Harbaugh laughably insisted the offense was "hitting its stride."

Of course we don't expect Harbaugh to blow up his offense publicly after such a big win. The defense deserved the attention, and the team deserves to celebrate a meaningful victory. However, that’s approaching Butch Jones "champions of life" territory. There's a million clichés to throw out there other than those that pee on everyone, while claiming it's raining. There’s coach speak, and then there’s cognitive dissonance.

This offensive evolution has become a devolution. Just look at some of these disturbing numbers and trends:

· Michigan was 4-1 last season with a yards-per-play differential of 3.1/game, which was the best in the Big Ten. This season, Michigan is also 4-1, except the YPP differential has slumped to 1.1/game and middle of the pack.

· Here’s Shea Patterson’s QBR game-by-game this season: Middle Tennessee: 39.5, Army: 53.9, Wisconsin: 64.2, Rutgers: 92.7, Iowa: 41. Needless to say, one of these things is not like the other.

· Patterson has accounted for 33 total touchdowns in his 18-game Michigan career. 19 of those touchdowns (58%) have come in six games against Rutgers (twice), SMU, Western Michigan, Maryland, and Middle Tennessee. In other words, the majority of his production has come against by far the worst teams he’s faced.

· That also means in his other 12 career games, Patterson has only accounted for 14 total touchdowns. You simply cannot play championship football in this era with quarterback play like that, especially in a system as quarterback friendly/prevalent as the one Gattis wants to run.

Translation: something has to change, because if it doesn’t the lack of championship results isn’t going to change. Which means people will start demanding change, if you know what I mean.

So if there’s any of that “what’s your deal” Harbaugh left – you know, the one that intimidated Pete Carroll, made Jim Schwartz melt down, and Rick Neuheisel despise him – it’s time to let him back out. It’s time for the Harbaugh that in-season made a radical quarterback/paradigm shift everyone panned at that time, but resulted in the 49ers being inches away from winning a Super Bowl mere months later.

Ruthless Jimmy must decide if Gattis is his ride or die.

If Gattis is his ride or die, fine, but then a quarterback change must be made. Because until there’s someone under center who is a consistent threat to run, this offense stands little chance against defenses that aren’t comatose. “Speed in space” will continue to look like “double amputee.” If the quarterback is not a consistent running threat, this looks like a triple-option without a fullback to keep interior defenders from shooting gaps, or a veer stagnated by a statue pro-style passer. The goal of this offense is to make the defense account for all 11 players every play. When it does that, this has proven elsewhere to be the most lethal offensive scheme in contemporary college football. When it doesn't do that, it's whatever the Sam Hill hot garbage we are now. 

If Gattis is not his ride or die, then it’s time for some adulting. Playtime is over. Harbaugh needs to re-assume control of the offense, and go back to more of a power approach that protects his emerging defense, suits his offensive line, and doesn’t rely so much on Patterson, who clearly is not a quarterback that can carry a program. Except this time, try more aggressive play-calling rather then running against 27-man fronts for little gain every first down like before.

Yes, that is not likely to end much differently than what we’ve already seen the past few years. But based on our current collision course, we are destined to end this season differently than its predecessors – albeit worse off than we were before. When you start the season back in July calling your championship shot at Big Ten media days, you better not end up 7-5/8-4 and in the Holiday Bowl.

Not in year five. Not when you have no wins over Ohio State. Not when you have no championships.

Ruthless Jimmy wouldn’t let that happen. Ruthless Jimmy would step in and step on some toes before things deteriorated to that point. We're just not sure there is a Ruthless Jimmy anymore.

We thought and hoped we were hiring Ruthless Jimmy five years ago. We still do, because there’s nothing we’d like more then for one of our most famous/popular former players to be the author and finisher of our revival.

Ruthless Jimmy, are you there? Please come out, before it’s too late.