During the 2019 college football season, the Notre Dame football team was throttled by Michigan, and they have not lost since.
Last October, Michigan humiliated Notre Dame on a cold and rainy night. Quarterback Ian Book was 8/25 for 73 yards in the game, and Jahmir Smith led Notre Dame in rushing with 15 yards. Meanwhile, Michigan did most of their damage on the ground, going for over 300 yards rushing the football.
For two coaches, Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh, who have been similarly criticized for not being able to get over the hump, it was an affirmation of this criticism for Kelly, and a possible exorcism of those demons for Harbaugh. For Notre Dame, the humiliating loss put them on the outside of the New Year’s Six picture, which they would not get within again.
They also haven’t lost since that game.
Now, riding a 14 game winning streak, including a win over top ranked Clemson, the Irish are thriving off lessons learned. They know that they need to play within their own abilities. If you don’t have the slot receiver to throw to the slots, then why waste your time trying?
By playing within themselves, developing the talent that they can get to South Bend, and expecting to win, Notre Dame has made itself one of the premier teams in the country to end last season, and start this one. But it still took some figuring out after the Michigan game.
A two-minute drill to survive Virginia Tech scared everyone before the offense took off at the end of last season. Then, to start this season it was choppy at best. Still, the Irish knew they were playing within their own game and have marched to an 8-0 start.
Notre Dame football and Michigan have gone different ways since 2019
What has happened to Michigan?
On the other hand, Michigan has struggled since that game. Big losses to Ohio State and Alabama at the Citrus Bowl to end the 2019 season marred the end of their season. After the B1G 10 had some difficulty getting the season started, it began with hope for Michigan.
They dominated Minnesota, who just about everyone expected to be good this season. It has since become clear that Minnesota is not good, and neither is Michigan.
Since that win over Minnesota, Michigan has lost three straight games. Each game has been a bigger final deficit than the last. Their offense is non-existent, and their vaunted defense can’t do any of the things that it prides itself in doing.
For instance, defensive coordinator Don Brown doesn’t like to leave man coverage. That’s great when you have the athletes on the outside, but Michigan has neither recruited the players, nor developed the talent to be able to successfully play in man coverage. However, they refuse to leave it.
These are the issues that have truly plagued Michigan since Harbaugh arrived. He isn’t as good a recruiter as is perceived nationally.
In fact, Michigan’s 2018 recruiting class was only 22nd in the country. Meanwhile, their 2020 currently sits at 14th. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, except if you’re desperately trying to catch Ohio state, who is a perennial top-5 program for recruiting.
It also means that you’re taking mostly four star recruits, which is good, except for the wide range of four star recruits out there. There are borderline five stars and borderline three stars, and each of those is a wildly different player. This all means that you’re going to have to contend with the fact that you need to develop talent more than the elite teams.
Michigan hasn’t done that. Instead, they’ve tried to force these players into their system, rather than build a system around the talent that they have. It’s essentially the opposite of what Notre Dame has done.
The Irish typically recruit at a similar level to Michigan, some years even a little behind Michigan. The difference has been that Kelly has adjusted to his talent better than Harbaugh.
Really, when you look at the two program’s since that meeting, it seems like 45-14 was a fluke. Maybe so, but it was the smack in the face Notre Dame needed. They’ve certainly woken up since that game as a program, now pushing for an opportunity to make the College Football Playoff.