UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[lineygoblue]

That's where I'm at. 9-3 or bust.

Move over, I'm there too.

[klondike]

That's where I'm at. 9-3 or bust.

That Utah game will really tell a lot on how the season will turn out.

[WM Wolverine]

8-4 is pretty damn likely unless M has a ton of improvement at areas where there are significant question marks...

Sparty & Ohio State are really good, that's underselling Ohio State who are 14 point favorites (I think) in every game this season... Penn State and Utah are very solid and on the road, M splitting those two would be good. Minnesota, Northwestern & BYU are solid and could easily give M troubles...

I flop back and forth between 9-3 and 8-4. 8-4 should be the floor but this team has a lot of question marks (they were 5-7 last season) at the critical skill positions. If Utah & Penn State aren't as good as I fear, M could win 10 games but they'd have to nearly run the table against teams they are only marginally more talented or pull an upset of a team that returns a ton of talent from a top 5 ranked team from last season.

[hack]

I'm calling 10-2 with a win over OSU. Even Hoke played OSU tough, and by the time that game comes around Michigan will have almost a full season of incremental improvement. Michigan has shown up and behaved like a rival to OSU, but not yet to MSU. I know it's a very tall task to beat OSU this year, but I think the extra half a season of incremental improvement makes it a better bet than beating MSU.

[Hannibal]

Don't understand the fear of Penn State. Our shittily coached team beat them last year. Now we are getting a huge coaching upgrade. Why do people expect them to get a better but not us?

[Prime2]

I'm calling 10-2 with a win over OSU. Even Hoke played OSU tough, and by the time that game comes around Michigan will have almost a full season of incremental improvement. Michigan has shown up and behaved like a rival to OSU, but not yet to MSU. I know it's a very tall task to beat OSU this year, but I think the extra half a season of incremental improvement makes it a better bet than beating MSU.

Agreed and make no mistake, we have the best coach in football, period.
Harbaugh did enough to win the Super Bowl in his 3rd year butfor countless examples of naked corruption by the officials, what an embarrassment to the NFL.
[youtube]5-C8NZU-EqI[/youtube]

College football is even worse. OSU lost to Penn St. last year, B1G sabotaged the replay booth before the game and wouldn't you know it, every single goddamn call went against Penn St. It was so egregious that the B1G publicly apologized for their corruption post-game.

You see, a 2-loss OSU to Vt & Penn. St. in the regular season means the B1G is excluded from the playoff and that can't happen.

Ohio St. Phantom interception.


All 126 NCAA college football teams get 25 seconds on the playclock to kick a field goal but not OSU. Both officials refused to blow the whistle and penalize Ohio and take them out of field goal range when time expired. Instead they were given 41 seconds to kick a phantom field goal.

[iam416]

Don't understand the fear of Penn State. Our shittily coached team beat them last year. Now we are getting a huge coaching upgrade. Why do people expect them to get a better but not us?

Well, last season was more or less an even game dominated by offensive ineptitude. If you discount the garbage safety and the end of the game and flip homefield, that would make PSU roughly a 3 point favorite. So, if M improves this season by 3 points more than PSU does then there's still reason to believe it's a toss-up at HV. And that's where I am.

I also think Minnesota is far more a Goofer lean than a toss up. They sort of whipped the bejesus out of M last year.

But, I get the sense from some that those wins are a foregone conclusion. HARBAUGH. Utah, Michigan State and Ohio State are the "toss-ups."

[Hannibal]

Well, last season was more or less an even game dominated by offensive ineptitude. If you discount the garbage safety and the end of the game and flip homefield, that would make PSU roughly a 3 point favorite. So, if M improves this season by 3 points more than PSU does then there's still reason to believe it's a toss-up at HV. And that's where I am.

Yeah, toss-up seems fair, but we are six point underdogs for that game and it seems like people are considering it a more likely loss than Utah and about even with Michigan State. Which makes no sense to me. That offensive line last year looked as poorly coached to me as any that I have ever seen at Michigan. It's as if people are overcompensating for Penn State's 2015 recruiting class without taking into account the fact that it's going to take that class a year or two before they start having significant impact.

[Hannibal]

I also think Minnesota is far more a Goofer lean than a toss up. They sort of whipped the bejesus out of M last year.
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Don't get the fear of Minnehaha either. They still only ended up 8-5 last year despite playing a cupcake schedule. They have no athletes and they don't make up for it by outscheming you. Which means that you beat them pretty easily if you don't turn it over. Which is what happened last year. They were +15 in their 8 wins and they were -5 in their 5 losses.

In terms of competent game planning and developing, the bump should be similar to what OSU experienced from Fickell to Meyer. How useful was the 2011 season in predicting outcomes for the 2012 OSU team? The tough schedule will, of course, probably hide some of our improvement as there are two bona fide elite teams on our schedule this year and maybe a few others that we play that were as good as the best teams that OSU played in 2012 (Penn State and Michigan?).

[WM Wolverine]

Every road game is a tough one in the B10, M doesn't out talent any of Utah, Penn State or Minnesota. These games could go either way, none are close to a gimmie especially if you lose the turnover battle as M did so often last season...

IMO M has a higher ceiling than those three but M will need a lot more production from their skill position players than they received in '14 and actually win the turnover battle.

[froot loops]

Best coach in football period?

[Hannibal]

Every road game is a tough one in the B10, M doesn't out talent any of Utah, Penn State or Minnesota. These games could go either way, none are close to a gimmie especially if you lose the turnover battle as M did so often last season...

IMO M has a higher ceiling than those three but M will need a lot more production from their skill position players than they received in '14 and actually win the turnover battle.

Dude -- we have fucking gads more talent than Utah or Minnesota. And significantly more in the upper classes than Penn State. You are confusing "good football players" with "talent". Minnestoa and Utah are untalented overachievers. Michigan is poorly coached underachievers. The only question is the degree to which we stop underachieving.

[froot loops]

The common theme is the Wolverines have a lot of talent but they were not coached properly. But shouldn't you have seen some flashes of talent? Really good players stick out even if their coaches are shite.

[WM Wolverine]

I see Penn State as a good bet to improve their 3-5 B10 mark as they return most everyone except Deion Barnes. They'll likely go 4-0 in OOC as they canceled any decent OOC when they got hit with sanctions. On a neutral field, I think M should win. On the road in Happy Valley? I think it's a toss-up and a long ways from a gimmie.

[Hannibal]

The common theme is the Wolverines have a lot of talent but they were not coached properly. But shouldn't you have seen some flashes of talent? Really good players stick out even if their coaches are shite.

I don't know if that's the case as much with football. Guys who are poorly coached can look completely lost out there. Great coaches can salvage hopeless cases and turn a few mediocre players into great ones. Our 2010 defense had absolutely no flashes but Mike Martin and Ryan van Bergen destroyed the world the next year. I'll be very disappointed if a year from now we aren't looking back on the 2015 and marvelling at one or two miracle salvage jobs that Harbaugh pulled off.