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**SeattleLionsFan** · February 4, 2016, 09:05 AM

Don't forget about Mone.

**Cody_Russell** · February 4, 2016, 09:08 AM

and Taco!
He had 5.5 sacks last season.

**hack** · February 4, 2016, 09:21 AM

Combine that with Peppers and Lewis in the secondary, and decent returning starter-level players at two of the other three spots in it. That leaves four questionable spots: Dymonte Thomas at safety, and the three LB spots -- two starters and the primary backup. Thomas really improved a lot last year and seemed finally on track. Ben Gedeon has seen significant snaps and shouldn't be any worse.

Answer all these questions and it's going to be an utterly insane defense, assuming Brown is as advertised.

**iam416** · February 4, 2016, 09:37 AM

Preseason #1

**Hannibal** · February 4, 2016, 09:45 AM

It will be a great first string. Depth will be an issue in some places.

**lineygoblue** · February 4, 2016, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by iam416 View Post

Preseason #1

No.

Preseason top 10?

Maybe.

**iam416** · February 4, 2016, 10:19 AM

Top 5. I think 4 or 5. Easily the most hyped M team since 2012. And, unlike that team, this year's team doesn't play Alabama or at Notre Dame. Almost no way they won't live up to the hype and be 11-0 when they play a rebuilding Ohio State team.

**Rocky Bleier** · February 4, 2016, 10:48 AM

Hackett: Other schools offered Gary "incentives."

Jim Hackett: 'Rashan Gary offered incentives during recruitment'

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Jim-Hackett-Rashan-Gary-offered-incentives-during-recruitment-43471333

null

**jack_crancer** · February 4, 2016, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by iam416 View Post

Top 5. I think 4 or 5. Easily the most hyped M team since 2012. And, unlike that team, this year's team doesn't play Alabama or at Notre Dame. Almost no way they won't live up to the hype and be 11-0 when they play a rebuilding Ohio State team.

If O'Korn is as good as advertised this team will have a very legit shot at being 11-0 when they head to Columbus. I think DeVeon Smith is primed for a breakout senior year and could surprise people next fall. Don't know what hit him between OSU and the Florida game, but he had moves and vision and power that I hadn't seen from him before.

**Jeff Buchanan** · February 4, 2016, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by hack View Post

......That leaves four questionable spots: Dymonte Thomas at safety, and the three LB spots -- two starters and the primary backup. .......

Besides the OL, the LB spots ARE a concern.

On the OL, loosing Hamilton was a pretty big deal, however, I've read that the pieces are in place. 2016 recruits Michael Onwenu and Ben Bredeson will have to step up to the plate in 2017. Most observers think they will. After starters graduate in 2016, there actually is some depth - guys you tend to forget about. Mason Cole, for example.There is a problem at OT but the word is that M is in on some guys for 2017 that could contribute immediately ...... surprising to me that there actually are 6' 5", 320-340 lb HS players who are college ready! Harbaugh has landed enough tight ends that one of those guys could move to the OL, most likely OT, if needed.

At LB: Bush and Elysee Mbem-Bosse have the potential to contribute right away. They are big enough and talented enough to beat out guys like Mike McCray and Ben Gideon. Given the fact that a Don Brown coached DL may be the scariest front four to go up against in CFB, LB play may not matter much except in their ability to cover guys. Anyway, given what I have read about Brown's schemes, what he likes to do, the right guys are already on the roster to do it. Having Gary in the mix has got to make Brown happy.

**hack** · February 4, 2016, 12:24 PM

Well I was just talking about the defense in '16. Definitely Michigan has to nail next year's OL class, especially the tackles. Gotta imagine Wheatley's a candidate.

If Bush is ready to play immediately that's potentially a great shot in the arm for the LB corps. Smallish for the NFL but that's the kind of anti-spread LB Michigan has lacked and needs.

**Mike** · February 4, 2016, 01:12 PM

Quick side note on recruiting. Michigan and OSU signed more 4/5* players than the rest of the Big Ten combined.

**jaadam4** · February 4, 2016, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by jack_crancer View Post

If O'Korn is as good as advertised

It'll be interesting to see what a year sitting and watching will have done for him. I hope Harbaugh and Co gave him some attention during the season to bring him along.

**lineygoblue** · February 4, 2016, 01:51 PM

I don't think he did much sitting around. From what I understand, he ran the scout team and did a pretty good job of it. His teammates were raving about how well he played.

**Jeff Buchanan** · February 4, 2016, 02:25 PM

On the question of, "how good is this class," here's a link to an interesting piece that compairs M's class to that of MSU, PSU and osu. It's not perfect as some of the comments state but it's a neat way of looking at them:

Just how good is this class, anyway? A new way of looking at rankings. | mgoblog

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/just-how-good-class-anyway-new-way-looking-rankings

TLDR: It's very good. Jim Harbaugh deserves an absolute standing ovation. I ranked last year's class as a C- in absolute quality without factoring in the quick turnaround. This year's class gets an A and very nearly gets an A+. Stellar, stellar work. But let's get a little deeper. One way to compare the quality of our recruiting against our Big Ten East competition is to look at absolute recruiting rankings. By that method, OSU is #3 nationally and #1 in the B10E, Michigan is #5 nationally and #2 in the B10E, PSU is #20 nationally and #3 in the B10E, and MSU is #21 nationally and #4 in the B10E. What I don't like, however, is that these aggregated, overall rankings don't really divulge much information about the classes themselves. It's one thing to know our class isn't as good as Ohio State's, but where do they have us beat? At the top? In terms of depth? And is MSU's top end comparable to our own? I wanted to find new ways to find out. I started by using the 247 composite player ratings instead of the player rankings. I used the ratings because they're more stable year-to-year. 247 rates players on a scale between 1.0 and .70. Roughly, ratings between 1.0 and .98 will be five star players. .97 and .90 are four star guys. .89 to .80 are the three stars, and everything below that is a two star. First, let's look at each teams' class, ranked from their best player to their worst: Next - and this is where it gets really interesting - let's put that into a graph. You can click the image to embiggen: Player ratings run along the left edge of the graph. Higher up is better. The horizontal axis represents each player, organized from the highest rated to the lowest rated. Some takeaways: Michigan's class is roughly equal to OSU at the top and at the bottom of the class. But where OSU really separates itself as the best is that the middle of the class is thick with higher rated guys. Our class drops off significantly between Ahmir Mitchell (.9265) and Brad Hawkins (.8997). PSU's variability is pretty remarkable. Their three highest rated prospects rival the tops of OSU and Michigan's classes. But things drop off quickly thereafter, and absent those three players their class is actually a little worse than MSU's. They need those three players (RB Sanders, OG Menet, and DE Simmons) to come through badly. MSU lacks top-end guys, although their decommitments (DE Robertson and WR Rison) hurt them badly. With a few more higher-rated talents, MSU's class would have rivaled our own in the middle and at the bottom of each respective class. You also notice that the players separate themselves off into five "tiers" relative to these four schools. Let's use the horizontal quintile lines above to define our own range of "5-star," "4-star," "3-star," "2-star," and "1-star" players to get a feel for how each class stacks up numerically. That produces a chart like so: MICH OSU MSU PSU "5-Star" 1 2 0 2 "4-Star" 8 9 2 1 "3-Star" 8 7 10 6 "2-Star" 12 7 6 6 "1-Star" 0 0 1 5 Thoughts?

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