Michigan Football, Team 137, 2016 Season.

[Detroit Dan]

1. Assume Michigan's defense is good.
2. Note that offense dominated in spring game, with both Speight and O'Korn performing well.
3. Note that reviews from camp this August have been favorable regarding QBs and offense.

So, unless Michigan's defense is not as good as we think, Michigan's offense should be very good. Note that Michigan's offense and QBs were not good in the 2014 spring game, so this is something new.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Don't count out Ty Isaac.

I'm counting Ty Isaac and Deveon "Tackle Breaker" Smith out of it already. Both are very average RBs at best. Chris Evans is the future, maybe not near future, but definitely the future. I can't get much of a read on Kareem Walker though. He's a wild card in my book. When guys struggle with grades, my mind automatically takes me to "lack of effort". "Lack of effort" takes me to "worthless". "Worhtless" takes me to "Whoa, that went from 0-100 real quick." Then back to the wildcard thoughts. I'm rambling. Go Blue.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Assume nothing about M football based on anything you've heard in the last month.

[edindetroit]

Harbaugh Wasn?t Lying About Hawaii Tape; QB Challenge Looming?

[Pasadena Blue]

The OL was a crushing disappointment last year and will need to make huge leaps forward if Michigan is to win the B1G since we'll be going the "game manager" route at QB. Since Harbaugh doesn't spread the field horizontally very much we'll have to spread the field vertically. We've got the receivers to do it but a new starter at LT and "game manager" are going to hurt the passing game.

Then you are in for a big disappointment and time to start resetting your expectations. Magnuson, Kalis, and Braden are what they are. If you want to buy that Drevno can sprinkle magic dust on them and have them unlearn all the damage that Funk did, go ahead.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think magic dust is necessary.

I think those guys are talented football players, and will do just fine this year. I'll believe that until they prove otherwise.

[Pasadena Blue]

the fact that Harbaugh is planning on having up to 15 freshman in the 2-deep is a damning indictment of the upper classes. Most of the non-5th year senior types were from a period when Hoke's recruiting was falling off. Combine that with poor Funk-Borges-Hoke coaching/development early on + Hoke's non-intense approach, it's not surprising we have a bunch of juniors/seniors who are not fixable.

The scary thing is that this is an unbelievably important year for M football and it is unfortunate that the three toughest teams on the schedule are all away games. M NEEDS to have a big year (both in terms of W-L and also in the NFL draft) to get the big-time recruits to believe that JH can be successful at the highest level --- if not, the already large talent disparity between M and O-state will continue to widen and JH may lose his window of opportunity to turn M around.

[lineygoblue]

Why does the talent of the incoming freshmen have to mean that the upper classmen suck? Can't it just mean that Harbaugh has upgraded the talent that is arriving in Ann Arbor to the level where it should be?

We used to have incoming linemen all the time, who would arrive, and challenge for a starting position, and that was even during the Bo/Moeller/Carr years.

I prefer to believe that the guys we already had are improving, and the new guys are really good players who are pushing them.

[Pasadena Blue]

hope you are right, but teams like 'Bama and O-state aren't usually replacing seniors with freshman unless the seniors have graduated.... Hard for me to believe our freshman are all outplaying their "star ratings" and are substantially better than the freshman classes at other schools ... hence my pessimism about (many of) our upper classmen.

[WM Wolverine]

The talent from the '14 & '15 classes wasn't good which we were already aware of for the most part on their signing days...

M's true freshman from the '16 recruiting class leapfrogging them is GOOD news. These true freshmen are going to be sophomore starters and a big part of M's success in '17, '18, '19.

[WM Wolverine]

With the amount of seniors graduating, M is going to have a ton of true freshman playing in '17 too.

[The Oracle]

Yup, yup and yup.

[WM Wolverine]

There is concern about the talent level of the '14 & '15 recruiting classes but we already were aware of that.

[The Oracle]

That's allowing us to bring in 28 people classes last year and this.

[iam416]

The class of 2016 will be foundation for HARBAUGH!!!!'s first elite team...probably in 2018. JMO.