Michigan Football, the 2020 Abbreviated COVID Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

2d old, just filtered in through my new feeds:

https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2019/12/six-early-signees-to-join-michigan-for-citrus-bowl-prep.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

Pretty realistic evaluation of M's targets that are in the transfer portal from TTB. No players that really excite if Magnus is correct in his analysis. Some decent place holders on the 3 deep but that's about it.

https://touch-the-banner.com/if-i-ha...020-transfers/

[Jeff Buchanan]

Eubanks announces he will return for a fifth year. (link below).

Still waiting on DPJ (probably will return) Nico Collins (60/40 to return), Ruiz, no body is saying. Kwitty Paye is returning per Phil Steel

The talk is that Bredeson will be the only early (2nd or 3rd) round NFL draft pick. It's said Collins would be the next but in late rounds.

There is some talk of Patterson returning and in a presser he had before leaving for Orlando he dodged the question saying he'll decide with his parents after the Citrus Bowl ...... he's not on anyone's radar as an NFL draftee. Maybe free-agent. He could also enter the transfer portal as a grad transfer but if he wants to play college ball and he can beat out McCaffrey et. al. - and he probably could - and Harbaugh encourages him to compete for the starting job why transfer into a new system and new coaches for one year of eligibility. At M, assuming he wins the starting job, he could also improve his draft stock some.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6l-UY7gppK/

[iam416]

Nothing better than reading "[Insert Year] will be make or break year for HARBAUGH!!!" -- it's like a warm blanket that appears every January.

[UMStan White]

Nothing better than reading "Oh Shit. We drew Clemson!"

[iam416]

Ooooh...ROASTED!

[lineygoblue]

Chris Partridge is gone. He's taking a job at Ole Miss. I think that's where Lane Kiffin has taken over.

His new position is yet to be determined, but he's likely to be a co-DC along with (get this) DJ Durkin.

We'll miss Partridge on the recruiting scene. He's been able to draw a lot of talent from the east coast, and he's likely to help Old Miss gain a foothold in that area as well.

I guess the best we can say is we didn't win anything significant WITH him, I don't see how it can get much worse without him.

[Hannibal]

I have changed the name of this thread to reflect <current year>.

We're playing on the road at UW and OSU. Both of those games are 100% stone cold guaranteed losses.

Road games at MSU and home games vs. PSU and Wisc probably lean to win. Minnesota on the road will be a popular upset choice but they have been our prison bitch as much as UM vis-a-vis OSU.

Bowl game after a 9-3 season is close to being a 100% guaranteed loss.

Should be 9-4 with yet another pair of losses at the very end of the season and no championship.

[AlabamAlum]

Chris Partridge is gone. He's taking a job at Ole Miss. I think that's where Lane Kiffin has taken over.

His new position is yet to be determined, but he's likely to be a co-DC along with (get this) DJ Durkin.

We'll miss Partridge on the recruiting scene. He's been able to draw a lot of talent from the east coast, and he's likely to help Old Miss gain a foothold in that area as well.

I guess the best we can say is we didn't win anything significant WITH him, I don't see how it can get much worse without him.

Kiffin has made a couple of decent asst hires. He just got Joe Jon Finley from TAMU.

[WingsFan]

raised some eyebrows with an on-air stat

[lineygoblue]

Wings - is that Devin Bush Sr. thing just a rumor, or have you seen something official on that? Bush Sr. would be an upgrade, IMO.

Michigan's legacy is that they lose bowl games. Its part of the package of being a Michigan fan.

[WingsFan]

The Wizard don't worry buddy...... since your team isn't going to Bowl games. Michigan will pass you next year in all time losses.....

Michigan and Nebraska are tied with 27 Bowl losses right now.

[lineygoblue]

Michigan's 2020 schedule according to Mgoblue.com

https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/schedule/2020

This is a front-loaded schedule, with the exception of OSU. They're at Washington to open, then they come home for Ball State and Arkansas State. Then, they open the season with home games against Wisconsin and Penn State, and then its on the road for two games versus MSU and Minnesota. Then its back home for Purdue in homecoming, then they alternate home and away games with Maryland in Ann Arbor, Rutgers in Piscataway, Indiana at home, then OSU at the snake pit.

The first seven games are going to decide where this season ends up. If they come out of that with any more than 2 losses, its over. They might be able to afford one non conference loss and one conference loss, and still be "in it".

I didn't realize that those first four conference games were set up that way. That's a murderers row.

[maxreturn]

I have changed the name of this thread to reflect <current year>.

We're playing on the road at UW and OSU. Both of those games are 100% stone cold guaranteed losses.

Road games at MSU and home games vs. PSU and Wisc probably lean to win. Minnesota on the road will be a popular upset choice but they have been our prison bitch as much as UM vis-a-vis OSU.

Bowl game after a 9-3 season is close to being a 100% guaranteed loss.

Should be 9-4 with yet another pair of losses at the very end of the season and no championship.

Yup...the powers that be are content with Harbaugh and seemingly the masses on this forum are too.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yup...the powers that be are content with Harbaugh and seemingly the masses on this forum are too.

For me, it's not being "content." I'm not content but I'm also definitely not in the fire Harbaugh, Brown or whoever is in today's cross-hairs camp. Massive change like that is disruptive and counterproductive. Harbaugh has demonstrated the ability to attract a great staff and to make the changes that appear to us fans on the outside need to be made in the off-season.

I'm also not lowering the bar and I don't think Jim Harbaugh is either. Championships remain the goal for me and i suspect for him as well.

Whatever you think of Don Brown, he's delivered top 10 defenses for Harbaugh. My take is that he can adapt and has a ton of experience to guide needed changes. More importantly, he appears to be able to teach players how to run his concepts and has been a major factor in keeping M in games against elite competition even when the offense falters. He's a keeper in my book and so is Mike Zordich. Does his defense get beat by elite talent? Yes it does but so does everyone else's when talent mismatches appear..

Recruiting top HS talent has been a problem and now M has to replace one of it's best recruiters, Chris Partridge, who's headed to Ole Miss in what role under Kiffin is still not clear and that's weird. Recruiting tends to be such a crap shoot for M considering where it stands on the national CFB scene. In other words, top 100 talent sees better places to be to enhance their chances of getting drafted by the NFL. I'm not thinking that the one guy replacing Partridge is going to have an impact in changing that.

M has to win with what it has and IMO, what it needs most is a QB - and M has two that I can see being pretty good going forward - McCaffrey and McNamara with Milton likely also in the mix. The pieces are there and the OL has depth to absorb the losses of Bredeson and Runyan.