One positive that hasn't been discussed yet
November 28th, 2016 at 12:22 AM ^
Hopefully it wasn't a result of their poor OL. We do need to get the calls in quicker or just go with whatever formation we have. Too many times we were moving around while they were snapping it. I noticed that in other games this season. I'm not too worried about our secondary because Urban Meyer has rarely had a good throwing qb in his tenure. Braxton Miller, JT barrett, Tim Tebow etc. linebackers and defensive linemen are most important.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:28 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 8:40 AM ^
They did tempo us a bit in the 4th quarter. All-in-all though, I was VERY pleased with Brown's defense. He needs the two lock down corners for this to succeed though. Next year could be a bit more dicey.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:55 AM ^
Yeah, the defense looked confused before the snap on seemingly every snap by the end, even when they stopped OSU. But this is year 1 of Brown. As Brian (?) pointed out before the season, his defenses show the most improvement in year 2 on. Brown did a much better job against Meyer than Durkin.
November 28th, 2016 at 4:42 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 7:19 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 5:21 AM ^
OSU changed something at some point late in the game that had Michigan confused or out of position. Several times, including the TD in the first OT, there was no one in the middle and Barret picked up a lot of yards.
November 28th, 2016 at 8:17 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 8:41 AM ^
Their biggest change was "everybody hold" rather than "some of you hold".
November 28th, 2016 at 12:23 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:23 AM ^
Year 2 of Harbaugh and we're championship contenders. And this is with Hoke's seniors and juniors.The program is definitely on schedule.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:26 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
I'm not sure UM is closing the talent gap. OSU is recruiting at a crazy level. I know we are in good shape with a lot of highly-ranked uncommitted targets, but OSU's 2017 class has five five-star recruits. The average rating of their class recruit is greater than ours by the same as ours is greater than Rutgers. Our coaches seem quite good at development, but recruiting more elite playmakers would obviously help (and OSU still has us beat in that category).
November 28th, 2016 at 7:02 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 7:30 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 7:43 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 8:18 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 7:48 AM ^
This is true and the coaching and development is extremely important, but the talent gap still is important. I caught a glimpse of the Alabama-Auburn game and while I was watching an Alabama player got hurt. The announcer then said "wow I wonder which 5-star they'll put in next." The depth that Ohio State will have would be really hard to match and will be extremely advantageous for them.
November 29th, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^
But one of the biggest problem with recruiting stars is that the services only see a limited amount of data and give preference to those recruits that go to their evaluation events. I believe one of the reasons so many 2/3/4 star recruits go on to have such remarkable playing careers is that they were dramatically under rated going to college. When coupling that with a strong player development program, it further reduces the importance of the ratings.
November 28th, 2016 at 2:46 AM ^
On defense, we had arguably as much talent this season as Ohio State did even last year.
But our OL definitely lags behind our DL. Hence, we haven't been able to close out games by running the ball (which is one of the hallmarks of a championship caliber team).
Look back to last year against MSU, Iowa this year, and OSU. If we could pick up 10 yards on 3 plays even when the defense knows we're going to run the ball, we win all the games. Instead, we had to punt.
November 28th, 2016 at 5:14 AM ^
I agree that they are the more talented team, and probably will continue to get higher-ranked recruiting classes for the next few years, at least until Michigan consistently gets more players drafted in the NFL than they do for several years (which is acheivable, given that Michigan has a more NFL-friendly system, especially on offense).
But yesterday, other than QB/running game and maybe LBers and possibly Safeties, there didn't seem to be that great a talent gap, and Michigan was probably better at several positions, albeit some of that was having more experience, but less real depth.
November 28th, 2016 at 6:20 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:24 AM ^
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November 28th, 2016 at 12:27 AM ^
He was never a great passer to begin with. Unless he takes massive steps forward, he's not going to be an NFL QB. Maybe a RB or WR but not a QB.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:29 AM ^
Was Michael Vick a good passer in college? Even if he wasn't, JT Barrett is not even close to being on the same level IMHO.
November 28th, 2016 at 8:20 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 8:26 AM ^
I saw the ball both go towards a OSU player, past the line of scrimmage, and out of bounds. He was lso out of the tackle box too. I just had that initial hope of intentional grounding.
Still a great play by Gary. That burst was so fast.
November 28th, 2016 at 8:26 AM ^
I saw the ball both go towards a OSU player, past the line of scrimmage, and out of bounds. He was lso out of the tackle box too. I just had that initial hope of intentional grounding.
Still a great play by Gary. That burst was so fast.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:26 AM ^
While it's hard to imagine replacing this defense, I honestly believe our defense will continue to improve in the future. A step back next year due to youth on all positions, but with some good recruiting we'll be reloading in no time.
November 28th, 2016 at 5:16 AM ^
Michigan will definitely improve at LB, and maybe Safety. It's going to be hard to top this year's DL and CB postions.
November 28th, 2016 at 6:10 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 8:47 AM ^
what people were saying earlier, he'd achieve in year 2. Our D is already better than OSU, recruits are taking notice.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:30 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:35 AM ^
Well Don Brown dominated Urban's offense in this one game. Yes it is great for the future, but we can't say for sure how much it means.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:44 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:36 AM ^
i think Don Brown has a better game plan this year. PSU game provide a good pattern for us how to defend OSU. Have two DE contain and set the edge. JTB has no where to go.
As long as we have good enough secondary to cover the WRs, they won't do much.
I like this hire a lot. But we will see how it goes next year, since we will have the entire starting DL is leaving. We need some new guys step up to provide enough depth for the DL and DB. Hopefully, Clark's redshirt is granted.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:40 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:46 AM ^
I wouldn't bank on it... They recently got a commitment from the #1 Dual-Threat according to 247Composite and is labeled a Pro-Style QB on Rivals.
The early word on Jones is that he a "true dual-threat" and is one of the better passers in the Class of 2018, but there's still 2 years to go, so not super worried yet.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:51 AM ^
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November 28th, 2016 at 1:52 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 12:51 AM ^
The true test for Brown will be next season and not neccessarily just against OSU. Michigan loses its entire starting secondary, its entire starting defensive line, and 2 of 3 starting linebackers (I consider Peppers an LB and he's gone). It's very possible that Michigan will bring back 1 starter on defense. And while Michigan has proven replacements at d-line, they don't in the back 7.
November 28th, 2016 at 1:11 AM ^
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November 28th, 2016 at 4:46 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 2:25 AM ^
We return the following starters:
D McCray Peppers?
O Poggi/Hill Speight Perry Cole Newsome Bredeson
and the following major (minor) contributors:
DB/S Clark? Kinnel Mettellus Watson (Hudson Long L. Hill)
DL Gary Hurst Winovich Mone
LB (Bush Furbush)
RB Higdon Isaac Evans (Johnson?)
TE Wheatley Asiasi (Bunting)
OL (Kugler Onwenu Bushell-Beatty)
WR (Crawford McDoom Harris)
November 28th, 2016 at 6:18 AM ^
November 28th, 2016 at 9:45 AM ^
Stop dreaming about Peppers coming back. If Peppers was your son, would you tell him to turn down $15 million guaranteed on his first contract so he can risk injury to have a $50,000 year of education?
Didn't think so.
November 28th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
Sure hope we get one or two guys in the recruiting class who are ready to step in and play as freshmen. We don't know about Newsome after the leg injury, and the backups have not contributed in any meaningful way. That said, I am ready to move on from the Kalis/Magnuson/Braden line that never seemed to be good enough to put away tough teams when all we needed was a first down or two to secure a win.
November 28th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^
Looking at your list, it's now crystal clear that we need a LB with last name Fur.
SIAP
November 28th, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
I wouldn't count on Newsome being back next year. He might be dressing but that kind of injury takes more than 1 year for a man his size to recover from. Not mention getting back in to game condition.
Peppers isn't coming back. My emotional thought after the loss was that maybe it will motivate him to come back, but the rational decision is for him to go to the NFL. We as fans have to understand that.
Clark's sixth year would be nice but I'm not confident it will happen (Ed Davis caveat applies, but the NCAA is inconsistent at best).
That being said a starting defense that looks like this probably will do well. The glaring weak spot will be the young secondary.
Gary, Hurst, Mone, Winovich (All major rotation players this year)
Furbush, Bush, McCray (1 starter, 2 special teams starters)
Kinnell, Watson, (Hudson, Metellus, Washingont, Long, Hill, chose 2) (very young, very raw)
The OL will probably be some comination of Cole, Bredenson, JBB, Kugler, and Dawson. Possibly Onewu instead of Kugler but he could end up on the DL too.
Backs should be fine with Isaac, Higdon, Evans, Poggi, and Hill.
QB will be fine with Speight backed up by Peters.
WR will be fine with Crawford, McDoom, Harris, Ways, and Perry.
TE is going to be deep with TWJ, Bunting, Asiasi, and possibly Gentry.
All in all that should be enough to 8 wins by beating Cincinnati, Air Force, @Purdue, MSU, @IU, Rutgers, Minnesota, and @Maryland. The season will be decided by the Florida, @PSU, @Wisconsin, and OSU games.
November 28th, 2016 at 12:54 AM ^