Early. Late. Season-ending.
Michigan State. Penn State. Wisconsin.
And, no danger of being forgotten, Ohio State. The team Michigan has not defeated in 3,261 days. There are online clocks and twitter accounts dedicated to such matters.
It isn't just losses shadowing Jim Harbaugh's six years at Michigan, his alma mater.
It's the who, the when, the how – and how often.
Saturday brought another debilitating blow in Harbaugh's efforts to restore Michigan to a team that could actually play in the Big Ten Championship, let alone win it. The Wolverines were humbled at home, 27-24, by rival Michigan State – which last week committed seven turnovers and lost at home to Rutgers in Mel Tucker's debut for the Spartans.
“The team is going to own this,” Harbaugh said on his post-game Zoom video call. “Congratulations to Michigan State, but we’ve got to own the loss and come back and find out where we can improve. This is a high-character team, and I believe they’ll do just that.
“Each person looking at himself — player or coach, all of us — and strive to be a lot better. Try to find the places that we can make improvements.”
On this day, Harbaugh's own brand of Michigan Misery continued while Tucker joined some cat named Nick Saban as the first Sparty coaches to win their debuts against the maize and blue.
Worse, only once in Harbaugh's six seasons at Michigan has his team entered November unbeaten; even in this abbreviated season that began only eight days ago for the Wolverines, they again face a closing six-pack of games that are must-win affairs.
The Wolverines have lost early-season games under Harbaugh to Utah and Notre Dame, as well as a trio of losses – all at home – to the Spartans; they've lost midseason games to Penn State, twice, and Wisconsin, also twice. Once to Iowa.
They've ended every single regular season under Harbaugh with a loss to Ohio State; the average margin of defeat is 19 points – even with 2016's double-overtime defeat by just three points.
The Wolverines haven't ended a season with a bowl win since Harbaugh's first campaign in 2015. Since then, they've lost to South Carolina, Florida State, Florida and Alabama in their postseason appearances.
As noted weeks ago, Harbaugh is almost on an expiring contract – with just one season remaining beyond this year. But unless Michigan does something unprecedented down the stretch, hope is waning that anything will change for the Wolverines.