The popular outlook on Michigan and head coach Jim Harbaugh is grim coming out of the 2018 season’s opening weekend. As the team with the more definitively elite defense and the higher-ceiling quarterback, the Wolverines were supposed to have the edge against rival Notre Dame in South Bend. Instead, the Fighting Irish displayed an equally dominant defense and a more comfortable quarterback who came out firing in a 24–17 win on Saturday.
Michigan is 8–8 in its last 16 games and currently on a four-game losing streak dating back to last season. It has been referenced often over the last few days that the last Wolverines coach to lose four in a row was Rich Rodriguez nine years ago.