Michigan Football Loses Again to a Ranked Road Opponent

The electric current roster has very little to do with this, of course.

Same goes for Jim Harbaugh.

Michigan's caput coach has had iii true road games vs. ranked opponents since he arrived before the 2015 flavour: a double-overtime loss in 2016 to Ohio State, a blowout loss at Penn Country and a late-game collapse at Wisconsin a yr ago. He's 0-3.

But the plan at large?

This is one of those stats Michigan can't seem to shake, and is impossible to ignore. Since 2006, this football program has played xvi ranked opponents on the road.

And this program has lost every one of them. Another hazard awaits Saturday, as 14th-ranked Michigan heads to 11th-ranked Notre Dame.

More:Michigan football at Notre Dame: Scouting study, prediction

"(A win at Notre Dame would answer) a lot of questions about our programme," Michigan'southward Chase Winovich said this week. "It's no surprise. We haven't been very proficient on the road the past couple years."

It's a staggering statistic that, perhaps more than than any other, signifies the issues Michigan has faced during the past 12 years. A stretch that's seen iv caput coaches and, with rare exceptions, enormous bouts of frustration.

The last win over a ranked road team came at the place Michigan volition play Sat. Lloyd Carr took No. 11 Michigan into Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 16, 2006, and beat the No. ii Fighting Irish, 47-21, equally part of an xi-0 commencement. After that year, Michigan fell, 42-39, in the No. 1 vs. No. 2 game at Ohio State, starting a streak that has lasted more than a decade.

Rich Rodriguez went 0-5 and only really came close in one case during a two-signal loss at No. 12 Iowa in 2009. Brady Hoke was fifty-fifty worse, going 0-for-vii. Three letdowns at Michigan Country, two offensive embarrassments at Notre Dame and 2 decent-but-not-good-plenty efforts at Ohio State.

Harbaugh's 0-iii. The first by only iii points. The last 2 by a combined 43.

The average margin of defeat over the unabridged streak: 17.eight points.

"You have to get beat another team (in their edifice), you have their crowd and ofttimes times there'southward the elements," Harbaugh said when asked most route issues this calendar week. "That's the challenge."

More:Michigan football loses at Notre Dame, MSU rolls: Seidel's picks

Harbaugh had plenty of tough road wins prior to his stint at Michigan. As U-Yard's starting quarterback in college, he was 2-for-2. He coached Stanford to ranked road wins at USC twice, including perhaps the biggest upset of all fourth dimension in 2007.

In the NFL, he was beyond impressive, coaching the San Francisco 49ers to three road playoff wins in 4 tries — including the 2012 NFC title game.

But at present he'due south got to effigy out how to practise it at Michigan, and fast.

Michigan visits Michigan Land and Ohio Country this year, and both are ranked. Harbaugh was asked about the possibility of playing all three of these teams on the route in the same year earlier the commencement of the 2016 flavour.

At the fourth dimension, he was asked if he wished he could change that.

More:Michigan football: Defensive line every bit deep as star-studded 2016 group

"I don't recall there'due south any reason to piece of work on that," Harbaugh said. "The schedule'due south the schedule and you play them every bit they fall. It's an opportunity to go to another human's stadium and beat their squad and beat their crowd and maybe fifty-fifty take a chance to trounce the elements. Then football game players, competitors, that really makes the pilus on the dorsum of your neck stand.

"So we wouldn't desire to deprive our guys (by) having all home games. We wouldn't want that."

On Saturday, Michigan'southward getting exactly what it wants.

An opportunity to head into an opposing stadium to play a ranked foe.

These are things any championship squad must be able to accomplish. Michigan, of course, hasn't won a championship since 2004. And, yeah, that team won a game on the road confronting a ranked opponent.

"Nosotros're playing against the (11th)-ranked squad," Winovich says. "If nosotros can go into Notre Matriarch, of all places, in the first game of the year and set the season off on that note, I call up it'd say a lot virtually the trajectory of our season."

It's a broken record Michigan doesn't talk much almost inside its own locker room.

Only everyone knows the stat exists.

And everyone knows there'due south only one manner to erase it.

Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickbaumgardner. Download our Wolverines Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!

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Source: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2018/08/30/michigan-ranked-road-losses/1143577002/