Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Have at it ...... discuss.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-17/2017-michigan-wolverines-football-schedule.php

[paul daugherity]

Tough schedule. As of today, I see 3-5 losses (Florida, MSU, PSU, Wisconsin and OSU). The PSU and Wisconsin games will likely be night games.

[UMStan White]

Florida? are you fucking nuts?Tthe "vaunted Florida defense" gave up almost 100 points in its lat two games. and MSU? God it has to suck to be you and have such little faith in your team. Makes for one miserable human being.

[WM Wolverine]

8-4 would be about my expectations, pretty tough schedule.

[paul daugherity]

M loses a lot from this year's team and opens at a neutral site with Florida. I don't care what Florida did this year. That is a tough way for a team breaking in a lot of new starters to open.

This year notwithstanding, dantonio is a very good coach and I expect them to be better next year. Regardless, MSU always plays Michigan tough. So we'll see if this year was a fluke for them.

[froot loops]

Dantonio better turn it around, if not they might be rowing the boat.

[*JD*]

Tough schedule. As of today, I see 3-5 losses (Florida, MSU, PSU, Wisconsin and OSU). The PSU and Wisconsin games will likely be night games.

I see all those games as winnable.

[*JD*]

I know we are losing a lot of talent but we are also going to have Speight in year 2 under the QB Whisperer. I'm thinking that alone will keep us competitive.

[hack]

Still gonna have an excellent defensive line. Gary in year 2, and assuming Hurst stays. Winovich is starter-ready though of course he's not gonna be Taco. And if Mone finally lives up to the hype. Gotta hope Devin Bush is ready to step up too.

[Cody_Russell]

9-3 or 10-2 regular season.
6-0 start is probable if Michigan beats Florida.
After the midpoint, beat Rutgers and a couple 50-50 games.

[Hannibal]

Brutal schedule. I see five losses (Florida, MSU, Wisky, PSU, and OSU).

Next year will be the biggest rebuilding job since 2008 and the 2014 and 2015 classes left some major holes that are going to have to be filled right away by guys from the '16 and '17 classes. The late decommits on the O-line in 2016 will also hurt us. We'll probably burn two redshirts on the offensive line. Maybe bring in a fifth year transfer candidate if there is one of those. I expect our O-line to look something like this...

LT Newsome
LG Bredeson
C Cole
RG Kugler(?)
RT Ulizio(?) I've got no idea here. Maybe Wilson if we can land him? Or Bredeson if we can backfill him at LG. Looks scary here no matter who it is.

Speight will probably start. Id rather see a young, more talented guy come in and take his lumps, but I doubt that will happen.

I expect Asiasi to be the starting TE, with Bunting and Wheatley getting lots of snaps. i also expect DPJ to start on day 1 to fill one of the big holes at WR. Crawford maybe will be the other WR and McDoom and Perry will split time at the slot. Hopefully, McDoom can round out his repertoire to include being more than just Calvin Bell 2.0.

I expect Evans to be the starter at RB. Like this year though, it will probably be a starter in name only and at least three other guys will get lots of carries. I hope that one of them is named "Harris".

On defense, if Hurst stays, then our starting defensive line will be very good, but not too great depth-wise. I don't think that we'll miss Gedeon all that much and i don't think that we'll miss Peppers a ton either. He will leave Michigan without us having gotten the most out of him, which is too bad. I think that our starters will be Bush, McCray, and then somebody who moves down into the Peppers spot from safety.

We'll miss our departing DBs badly. This is our best defensive backfield since 1997 and we are losing all four starters. This year's pass defense only allowed opposing QBs a paltry 44.5% completion percentage, with 12 INTs versus 9 TDs and less than 5.5 ypa. In an era where mediocre QBs are throwing for over 7 ypa and 2:1 TD:INT ratios, that's pretty amazing. Next year will probably be brutal here. Good QBs will shred the hell out of us when they have time. I assume that Hudson will take one starting spot, and maybe Hill and Long at the corners. I don't know who the other safety will be. No matter who the starters are, there will be virtually no upperclassman snaps in the secondary unless Jeremy Clark gets a sixth year, which would be really nice.

2016 was supposed to be our year. This will be more obvious next year when the teams that were rebuilding this year get all or most of their guys back. That includes Florida, who if I am not mistaken, does not have a single senior on offense right now and played a ton of guys this year on defense due to injury.

All B1G guys I think will be Asiasi, Gary, Hurst, and McCray. Asiasi is going to be a superstar and I don't see him playing four years at Michigan barring an injury.

[Mackenzie]

Why would any school schedule Air Force or Navy. Too much risk, not enough reward. Just asking for trouble.

[hack]

``i don't think that we'll miss Peppers a ton either. He will leave Michigan without us having gotten the most out of him, which is too bad.''

That is an interesting topic for discussion. On ST, I disagree. Starting field position was excellent all year thanks to him. On offense? No doubt about it. Hardly even used him as a damn decoy. For all that talk about how fast he picks stuff up, you'd think there would have been opportunities in the slot and TB.

On defense? I don't know if it's fair. Obviously defenses picked on McCray in the flats and all, and Peppers had more than his share of big plays. But I do feel Lewis is the biggest loss off the back seven.

Offense was really disappionting.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Bitterly disappointing

[Hannibal]

``i don't think that we'll miss Peppers a ton either. He will leave Michigan without us having gotten the most out of him, which is too bad.''

That is an interesting topic for discussion. On ST, I disagree. Starting field position was excellent all year thanks to him. On offense? No doubt about it. Hardly even used him as a damn decoy. For all that talk about how fast he picks stuff up, you'd think there would have been opportunities in the slot and TB.

On defense? I don't know if it's fair. Obviously defenses picked on McCray in the flats and all, and Peppers had more than his share of big plays. But I do feel Lewis is the biggest loss off the back seven.

Offense was really disappionting.

I wouldn't go so far as to call his showing on the defense a "disappointment", but given how much the defensive line was eating up blockers all year, I expected a little more. Peppers never showed the versatility that he was credited with. His pass coverage was just okay. He only intercepted one pass in his whole career. This year he had 15.5 TFL, 3.5 sacks, and zero PBU. In other words, he was sophomore year Jake Ryan. I like sophomore year Jake Ryan so I wouldn't say that we didn't get anything out of Peppers, but he never became Charles Woodson 2.0 on either side of the ball. And it's not because he lacked the athleticism or the motor. I think that we just never found an optimal deployment for him.