Hyperbole is best left for the next segment of sports talk shows where intellect falls second to loud noises in scoring a debate. “The biggest game of all time” and it’s time-sensitive relative, “The game of the century” never live up to expectations. But, we must label and identify things to bring the sharpest understanding of the subject matter. Using articles and time frames, we best grasp the enormity of the moment.

Please forgive me, I see the error of my ways in what I’m about to do (consultation available in State College).

Michigan is set to embark on the biggest three-game stretch in head coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure.

The current run of excellence, if excellence is the title bestowed after a five-game win-streak against teams with a combined 11-16 record, gets called into question with games against Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State in the next four weeks. How Michigan survives the stretch determines the future direction of the program.

More hyperbole, I know! I can’t help myself. While we’re at it, let’s call the visor the greatest coaching accoutrement in the history of college football for its wearability and the frisbee-like floating motion it makes when flung off the head of a coach’s sweat-stained forehead. Back to business.

Harbaugh’s high-water mark in Ann Arbor is 10 wins, a feat accomplished twice and possibly once more after the 2018 season. The opening week loss to Notre Dame gains more merit each week and in the old weekly refrain where Grandpa Nick sits perched high atop his ergonomic soap box, “Ain’t no Wolverine beating any Buckeyes this year,” I expect Michigan to finish the regular season with at least two losses.

Two losses? Not bad. Not the mark of a dominant program where expectations and far-flung hopes stitched to the right arm of quarterback Shea Patterson were supposed to catapult Michigan to the top of the B1G East, but good. Better than any of the other four years since Harbaugh went back to college.

Beating Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State would temper any sort of unrest until the end of the third quarter in the Ohio State game when the pie-in-the-sky optimists are thudded to reality by all the wonderful things Dwayne Haskins can do throwing the football.

But, an undefeated stretch, cushioned with a bye week after the repeated crash test against Michigan State in East Lansing, in the three games should give Michigan fans the confidence that they can hang with the rest of the programs in the B1G besides Ohio State.

Playing the role of Charlie Brown to the Buckeyes’ Lucy as of late in the rivalry between the two teams fails to satiate the Michigan faithful, but it’s better to come to grips with the program’s short-term standing. Knife versus gun type battles aren’t the sort of battle to endure. Clamp down as the second most dominant program in the conference this year. It starts with Wisconsin.

A 1-2 stretch in the next three games could spell doom for Harbaugh era. Not by the university’s doing, by his own. Could he leave Michigan after four years, unfulfilled by another so-so finish in the B1G East?

Maybe the college game, one more alluring to the fan in me by the creativity in the offensive playbook and the ingenuity of coordinators to out-gimmick one another, proved too quirky and nuanced for him. Maybe the expectations he exceeded in his first year, one where he was left with the loot of a Brady Hoke recruiting haul, forced him to get creative, adapt to the players and generate game plans in accordance to their strengths. Going 3-0 in the next three games would go a long way in fastening Harbaugh to Michigan for the next few years and quell any interest he has in the NFL. 

It might be the only way to save the long-standing well-being of the Michigan program for all of eternity.

Okay, even that was a little over the top.