'Embrace the suck' shouldn't be possible for Michigan's Harbaugh in 2019

The most shocking moment of an otherwise surprisingly predictable 2018 college football season may have occurred on a Saturday afternoon in late November. By then, we had deluded ourselves into thinking we were finally getting something different in the year’s version of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. The Buckeyes looked to be clinging on for dear life as Urban Meyer’s tenure faded to black; the Wolverines had won 10 straight games, constructed the nation’s top-ranked defense, and had a legit shot at slipping into the College Football Playoff with a win. 

What happened that day, with Ohio State dismantling that defense amid a 62-39 beatdown, felt like a repudiation of Harbaugh’s entire tenure at Michigan. You thought he had made progress, that all the goofy bluster and peculiar soliloquies had finally actualized on a football field? You thought Harbaugh had led the Wolverines to a point where they were at least on the same competitive level with the Buckeyes?  

Well, you were wrong.  

Something was still missing at Michigan, 0-4 in Harbaugh's tenure against the Buckeyes. In fact, something’s been missing at Michigan for two decades now, ever since the Buckeyes started beating Michigan on the regular (16 of 18 times since 2001). And Harbaugh’s once again spent the entire offseason attempting to remedy whatever the hell that thing might be. 

So here we go again.

It’s 2019, and Michigan is favored to win the Big Ten; the completist college football wonk Phil Steele has the Wolverines ranked third in the country. The Wolverines have a veteran quarterback in Shea Patterson, a hot young offensive coordinator (Josh Gattis) and a (supposedly) more wide-open offensive scheme. Ohio State has a rookie coach and an inexperienced quarterback, Penn State is rebuilding, and the path to a major bowl -- if not the playoff itself -- is wide open for Harbaugh.  

But here is the question that lingers under the surface: What if it doesn’t happen this year? It’s not as if the Harbaugh years have been an utter train wreck. The Wolverines have won 10 games in three of his four seasons. They’re better than they were under Rich Rodriguez, and they’re (clearly) better than they were under Brady Hoke. 

Yet this year is the most obvious opening for Harbaugh: He no longer must find a way to defeat Meyer. (Instead, he can lob unsubtle insults at him from afar). Heading into his fifth season, the program belongs completely to him. He gets Michigan State and Ohio State at home in the stretch run of this year’s schedule. Even Harbaugh acknowledged at last week’s Big Ten media days that it makes sense for the Wolverines to be favored to win the Big Ten.

So maybe it happens. Maybe Harbaugh beats Ohio State and takes Michigan to the playoff, and maybe he alters the dominant narrative. “That’s a narrative I’d really love to change,” Harbaugh said last week.

But for every year that the narrative doesn’t change, the underlying questions linger. What if this is as good as Michigan can be? What if Ohio State simply has an inherent recruiting advantage that can’t be altered? And what if Harbaugh simply wasn’t built to be a college football coach in the long term?

Of course, Michigan and Harbaugh are stuck with each other, at least for now. Harbaugh likely won’t consider leaving for an NFL job until he has a defining season; Michigan would be insane to fire a beloved alum who’s one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. 

Harbaugh told reporters last week that he plans to “embrace the suck,” to examine those losses to Ohio State and others and figure out what’s gone wrong. But if this year is a flop, I’m not sure it matters what the outlook is.

Maybe it starts to feel as if Michigan and Harbaugh have taken this union as far as it will go. Maybe it starts to feel as if Michigan is going to be forever stuck in this purgatory, good enough to make a solid bowl game but never good enough to beat Ohio State. And that, I suppose, is the most disturbing underlying question of all: What if the thing that’s missing at Michigan can no longer be found?