How is Michigan an instant contender after two season with a new coach?

I'm amazed people suggest talent is the primary reason. Hoke had that talent, right? While talent is important, coaching is much, much more. There are tons of school that get talent, but there are only a few that are perennial contenders and they have something in common.

 
http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite

Anyone who thinks we are "close to" Michigan in talent on this 2016 roster should check out 247's talent composite.

Bama is in a class by itself.

Ohio State has top-five talent, similar to USC, LSU, and Florida State.

Michigan has top-ten talent, similar to Georgia, Auburn, Norte Dame, and Clemson.

Penn State and Michigan State have top-25 talent similar to Oregon and South Carolina.

Nebraska is ranked #25, but is similar to #24-#28, so I would characterize the Huskers as having a top-30 roster. Similar to Washington, Arkansas, Arizona State, and Mississippi State.

A reasonable goal would be to surpass PSU and MSU into the top-20, but even that will require sustained recruiting effort over multiple years. I think we can get there, but we need patience and persistence.

 
Agreed. Nebraska needs to be 3rd in the Big Ten each year in recruiting with 1 "freak" recruit each year.

On a second note, Michigan had a plan and it worked, the timing worked everything set up perfectly for them. It would be like if Frost had been at say, UCF for 5 years and went 6-6, 8-4, 10-2, 11-1, 11-1 and all of a sudden the Nebraska job came open.

 
Harbaugh is one of the most elite coaches in CFB history who is coaching at his alma mater. That is how. Be patient, one bad loss is not the downfall of this whole program.
No, not the downfall, but a continuation of what we have been putting up with for 17 years. Win close games against lesser opponents, get blown out by teams with with superior coaching and talent.

 
Agreed. Nebraska needs to be 3rd in the Big Ten each year in recruiting with 1 "freak" recruit each year.

On a second note, Michigan had a plan and it worked, the timing worked everything set up perfectly for them. It would be like if Frost had been at say, UCF for 5 years and went 6-6, 8-4, 10-2, 11-1, 11-1 and all of a sudden the Nebraska job came open.
If frost does that well at UCF and lasts there 5 years, I'd be shocked if he took a NU job. He'd intelligently take a job in the south or California. If we are going to make a play at Frost, it needs to be within the next two years.

 
Its probably already to late man. I wonder what his feelings are towards NU at this point.

 
We probably have had a more talented QB than Michigan the past two years, but that is the only position where we are more talented... Perhaps Kicker and Punter last year as well.

 
Give Meyer or harbaugh the Husker roster, and we'd be talking about how we are more talented than Ohio state and Michigan.

 
Michigan was still bringing in high recruiting classes under Hoke, so they had somewhat better and more importantly deeper talent than NU. Hoke was known to be on his way out and Harbaugh was a splash hire so UM didn't have any resistance or sandbagging from players wondering why the change was made. Finally, Harbaugh is ambitious and creative in recruiting and coaching, and those things are exciting to be a part of.

 
Agreed. Nebraska needs to be 3rd in the Big Ten each year in recruiting with 1 "freak" recruit each year.

On a second note, Michigan had a plan and it worked, the timing worked everything set up perfectly for them. It would be like if Frost had been at say, UCF for 5 years and went 6-6, 8-4, 10-2, 11-1, 11-1 and all of a sudden the Nebraska job came open.
If frost does that well at UCF and lasts there 5 years, I'd be shocked if he took a NU job. He'd intelligently take a job in the south or California. If we are going to make a play at Frost, it needs to be within the next two years.
Not that it means much, but one of the big time Oregon boosters I was speaking to back in September stated that Frost's dream job is Nebraska.

 
Talent is not much to me. A great coach will craft masterpeices from the trenches. The great players in my opinion are always the 'diamonds in the rough.' A group of young men who are persistent, teachable/coachable, and passionate. A good coach would make a ball game with a group of kids with these traits. You can have 5-star recruits and more physical talent than you can handle; however, if you can't speak into the lives of young men you'll just be tossing a football around and grunting. I think there are more important lessons in the game of football or any sport for that matter. Which is probably why I value the coaching aspect more than the talent aspect; it's less superficial and harder to do. Average men and women can be pretty successful in sports just by practicing - this gets your talent about equal to most other teams.. The vast majority of improvement is made by coaching. I'm thinking of Nick Saban as a coach who can really rally his team

 
So true. Look at the composite top 10. As many of those teams are under performing as are performing in line with their listed talent.

 
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