Nothing stays idle here for long.

Jim Harbaugh has been Michigan's football coach for roughly four and a half years. He's had 23 assistant coaches, five starting quarterbacks, two strength coaches, 38 wins and five different offseason approaches to solving the program's biggest problem.

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That problem, of course, is the program's once-unthinkable 14-year Big Ten championship drought, which has brought five offseasons filled with change. There's been an adjustment every time. He's made difficult decisions every time. There've been altered narratives and plans that make a lot of sense puton paper.

And every one of them has fallen short.

Michigan wrapped up Harbaugh's fifth spring last week in Ann Arbor with more change. For at least the third straight year, there's been an element of starting over.

More:Michigan football's Don Brown sprinkles in zone coverage: 'More is more'

"I'll say this. A lot of people have put a lot of questions and comments out there in the spring: This is a sign of what great head coaches do. They're willing to change," Michigan's first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said last week. "I don't think coach Harbaugh's ever been labeled one way as a head coach. His offenses at Stanford were different than they were in San Francisco.

"He hasn't been labeled as one way as a head coach and this is another example."

That's hard to argue. Good coaches recognize failures and reevaluate everything as a result. They don't dig deeper into the mud because it's easier.

At the same time, five years is a long time. Michigan fans are tired. Tired of hearing about how things are going to be different this time. Tired of hearing about how close the Wolverines are. Tired to a point where plenty have adopted the "I'll believe it when I see it" mantra.

That's also hard to argue. Harbaugh's Wolverines are changing again. Will this, finally, be enough?

This year, the offense is the biggest difference. Gattis' no-huddle "pro spread" system, he claims, will take the best pieces of his past stops — most recently Penn State and Alabama — and meld them together for what he likes to call a dynamic "mutt."

Unlike past years, Michigan will have the ability to change tempo . If the offense needs to move fast, it will. If Michigan wants to slow things down, it can do that, too. It'll fit the skill set of its senior quarterback, Shea Patterson, like a glove. In theory, it should allow Patterson and his trio of talented receivers — Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and Tarik Black — to soar this season.

In theory.

Patterson did a remarkable job of absorbing a new system — one he'd never played in — a year ago and doing all he could to make it work. He wound up as the program's most efficient full-time starter since 2000. But he wasn't able to overcome the offense's fundamental flaws on his own. So, after originally leaning toward standing pat, Harbaugh scrapped everything again. Pep Hamilton was out. Gattis moved in.

And again, everything, in theory, makes a lot of sense.

The offense isn't the only thing adjusting, though. Don Brown's defense has ranked among the best in America in nearly every stat over the past three years. But the only number Michigan fans feel like repeating these days is 62. That is, the number of points Ohio State ran up during an embarrassing boat race in November.

"We won 10 games in a row, we had great moments. Then we have the Ohio State debacle. Don't blame the players, (blame me)," Brown said. "But if you live in the world of negativity, are you ever going to get yourself out of it? You're not.

"We'll be ready to go. Every day there's a part of the day you're getting ready to be better as a professional. Trust me, that's the approach I take."

That approach has led to some coverage adjustments this spring. Brown wouldn't get into specifics, but after his secondary was lit up by a clearly faster Ohio State receiving corps last fall, Brown has sprinkled in more zone looks to complement his standard press-man coverage.

Michigan's defense, he hopes, will be more diverse. He wants to get more bodies on the field. He wants to make sure everyone is in position to give the most they can toward the program's ultimate goals: Getting through the brick wall that is Ohio State and finding its way to the Big Ten title game for the first time.

The program at large is in better shape today than it was when Harbaugh was hired. That's not debatable. Michigan has had double-digit wins in three of the past four years, played in two New Year's Six bowls and come within one game of a division title and a possible College Football Playoff bid twice.

Harbaugh insists Michigan's close. He's probably not wrong. But this is big-time college football and Michigan's put itself into the "all or nothing" lane with Harbaugh — fair or not — since he walked in the door.

Close doesn't cut it. Close gets you a trip to somewhere no one really wants to be over Christmas and a seat on your couch for the games that really matter.

When you're close, you change and hope for the best. Harbaugh's Michigan is changing again. Maybe it'll be enough this time. It has to be.

Because everyone's pretty sick of close.

Contact Nick Baumgardner at nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickbaumgardner. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.