Texas 31, Michigan 12

[THE_WIZARD_]

You both need some advanced STFU...

[JRB]

31-12 is your final, as Texas took its foot off the gas as it became apparent Michigan's offense wasn't capable of mounting a comeback.

One of the big talking points for Michigan this off-season was that while the personnel was changing, the culture would stay the same. This game demonstrated clearly that your personnel is your culture. This is a young, inexperienced team on offense, coached by a new coordinator and some young position coaches. The defense, with all its proven talent, is getting used to a new leader, and we saw that unit look a bit tentative today. This is year 1 of a new program, and teams in year one tend to get clobbered by national title contenders.

This Michigan team, on both sides of the ball, needs all the reps it can get. Will it get much better this year? I don't know. But young players, and young staffs, learn from games like this. All they can do now is get back to work tomorrow and put a better team on the field against Arkansas State. That's what I want to see.

[lineygoblue]

I didn't watch the game live. My grandson's birthday party was more important.

Just scrolled thru the replay. Just total domination by the Horns. My prediction was 34 - 17 with Michigan getting a garbage TD at the end, and I was fairly close at 31-12.

The drop off in talent is worse than I expected. I thought the defense could hold the line and let the offense mature, but I don't think that will happen. Mike is right when he says this team will struggle to get to 7-5.

At least the Fresno game gave me a chance to expect this. Had we beaten them 56-0, this loss would have been a lot harder to accept. But, it raised red flags, and it was easy to see this coming.

Hats off to the Horns. Well played. Michigan has a lot of work to do to become relevant again. Maybe there's another Jake Ruddock out there that would like to be a starter at a major program. The door should be wide open next year.

[Cody_Russell]

What a butt-kicking.
I did pick M to lose, so it wasn’t sandbagging after all. Didn’t expect the game to be similar to Clemson-Georgia from the prior week though.

The warning signs from last week vs Fresno State … M is getting hit by a number of issues at the same time.
- Mediocracy of Davis Warren at QB when compared to a top 10 draft choice in JJ McMcarthy. Perhaps that’s putting it lightly when describing Warren.
- Losing everyone on the OLine and the new unit either needs experience or just isn’t as good.
- Terrible WRs. Particularly no threats outside the hashes. No deep threat whatsoever.
- Kirk Campbell, the new OC, might be a terrible choice at OC. It happens. Look at what the Philadelphia Eagles did last season.

Now luckily M has some time to improve. We will find out more answers in the coming weeks with USC being a must win. The new playoff format gives some hope when compared to the history of college football, but yeah… woof… The program needs to do better. IMHO, the defense might have done fine vs what is possibly the best offense in college football. The Michigan offense with their turnovers and putting the defense in bad position made it appear worse.

All of that said, 2023 champs. Haters better hope the NCAA takes it away… otherwise, you have nothing on us.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think we want to get our hopes up on somehow squeeking into the playoffs. With what we've seen so far, the best we could hope for is to get in at around 11 or 12, so we can get our butts kicked at #5 or #6.

I'd rather just call this year a wash, and hope that maybe we can find a few individuals that could form a nucleus of a good team, going forward. This isn't a team that we should get our hopes up for.

And I'm not joining the chorus of weak hearted fans who already want Moore and his staff fired. First of all, Michigan would never do that. Secondly, they at least deserve the chance that Rich Rod was given. They've all proven they can coach. Right now they are the fireman without the fire truck. The drop off in talent was worse than expected.

Use '24 to find guys you can count on for the future.

[AlabamAlum]

[Cody_Russell]

Correct. 2023 champions.

[Tom W]

Got back from this debacle. Let’s all just back away from the ledge. Yes, they got railed- by an elite team that Mike noted reflects what Michigan was going into 2023.

i don’t think anybody here realistically expected this team to repeat as National Champs and this was a likely loss. Well, here it is. Move on.

it was really good , however, to have a legitimate competitor come to town in September. Texas is a solid team and their fans were a classy lot who seemed pretty impressed. This has become too rare in recent years.

[froot loops]

The quarterback is no great shakes but he has some mobility and was better in the 4th quarter when they opened it up. They may have to open it up even more than they want to this season.

[klondike]

UM has the worst offense in the big ten bleh.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Great UFR Defense from late yesterday at mgo. Puts a lot of stuff in perspective. The most pertinent points were (1), Wink gets a lot of blame but with caveats (I'll get to those). (2) The new guys are definitely new and played like it. Houseman, Q Johnson and Rolder at LB, Etta is not a DT, Jayaire Hill still learning.

As far as Wink goes, "welcome to CFB, Wink." The question is can he back off his exotics which are hard for new guys to execute and adapt to the steep learning curve for CFB players? Or will he just keep doing the same things that put not ready for prime time new guys into bad situations? We're about to learn which one in the next two games.

Seth at mgo who did this UFR is calling for a "wait and see" to that question. Adding Wink did some very good things on defense conceptually that the players appeared to be not ready to execute them. Fst. was not a good test of Wink's D. Ast. isn't going to be much better. USC will be the deciding game that will determine if WInk can adapt to the college game.

I feel no better or no worse about last Saturday's loss to UT. Early games against NC contenders can be hard, especially for a team like M that is absorbing the reality of a massive skill and experience loss from the 2023 National Champs. Expectations were probably way too high for the 2024 Michigan football team. Dial them back and just enjoy the season.

[Jeff Buchanan]

........I should add. Sherrone Moore is dealing with a decided lack of the JH famous "complimentary football." The 2023 team was blessed with the ability to sustain long drives that kept the defense rested. There's plenty of depth on the 2024 team. That defensive depth just can't be optimized when your offense goes 3 and out and the opponent, on average, starts at their own 48.

IOW, it;s not just the defense. The offense plays an important role in optimizing the defense and special teams.

[Tom W]

I feel no better or no worse about last Saturday's loss to UT. Early games against NC contenders can be hard, especially for a team like M that is absorbing the reality of a massive skill and experience loss from the 2023 National Champs. Expectations were probably way too high for the 2024 Michigan football team. Dial them back and just enjoy the season.

The funny thing is that most expectations had Michigan losing to Texas. Oregon was also an expected loss and it's, at best, a wait and see if we can make it 4 in a row at Columbus. The real bellweather games, IMHO, are USC and Washington.