Mlive.com Game by game prediction for the 2013 season.

Submitted by WingsNWolverines on
Mlive gave their season prediction article today and like most of us especially me they have the Wolverines going 10-2 BUT the two losses don't include Ohio St or ND. Nick Baumgardner has our two losses in crucial games on the road and those losses are to NW and MSU. With that being the prediction Michigan being 10-2 will not be enough to go to Indy unless NW and MSU lose 3 conference games. Losing the head to head would keep Michigan out of Indy. I personally believe NW won't be as strong as people are making them out to be and I think they'll go either 9-3 or at worst 8-4. We'll see. 10-2 though doesn't get us to the title game. Be that as it may like Nick my prediction is 10-2 also. http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2013/08/michigan_game-by-game…
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Mr. Yost

August 26th, 2013 at 10:49 PM ^

I think they're the 3rd best team in the league...and I actually hope they are. I want to see them do well outside of the Michigan game. I want State to suffer for awhile, Wisconsin has had their run and it's old (plus they had 5 losses last year), Nebraska is Nebraska and PSU is suspended. N'Western is the perfect team that I can root for in the B1G except when they play my team.

Joined: 07/25/2011

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James Burrill Angell

August 27th, 2013 at 8:01 AM ^

Detroit Free Press predicted the same 10-2 record with the same two losses (MSU and NW). Lets face it, all seven losses of the Hoke era have come on the road and MSU and NW are our two legitimate road opponents and it took last minute heroics to beat both those teams last year and that was at home. NW is essentially the same team and possibly better if some of their freshmen are ready. Yes State's offense was anemic last year AND they don't have any RB remotely as good a Leveon Bell. That said, you have to score on them to beat 'em. That's not an unreasonable prediction.

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bdsisme

August 26th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^

Of course Baumgardner picks us to lose to Sparty -- he graduated from MSU.  Maybe it's because I know he's a Sparty, but his articles and tweets always seem more pessimistic and harsh than everyone else's on the UM beat.

Joined: 09/19/2010

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Mr. Yost

August 26th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^

I see 0 to 2 losses...and to me, NW and Ohio are the question marks. I know people think NW is overrated this year, but they took us to OT last year. They're better and it's an away game - which I don't think it has a huge affect on us (since we own that place), but I think it makes THEM better playing at home. I think we get to Indy and win. It'll just be a matter of if we have any losses and if we go to the National Championship game or Rose Bowl (even with 2 potential late season losses).

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WingsNWolverines

August 26th, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^

but I don't want one of our losses at home this year at all. Hoke has a two year unbeaten streak going in the Big House and last thing I want to see is ND, Nebraska or OSU spoil it. Although if Michigan is going to lose a game that won't hurt us in the B10 standings, lose to ND.

Joined: 04/27/2011

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denardogasm

August 26th, 2013 at 11:41 PM ^

You fail to note that we had A LOT of problems last year.  OL, to a lesser degree DL, QB who had only practiced a few weeks... And we beat them in OT.  I'll put us at 11-1 without losing any games in the division. (I actually think 12-0 is very possible but I'm afraid to make that prediction).  MSU could not scare me any less.  Our offense vs their defense is a MUCH better matchup than their offense vs our defense, and that's really what the game of football comes down to.

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JT4104

August 26th, 2013 at 10:52 PM ^

It may not be a popular thought but Baumgardner is kinda right...we have yet to win that big time road game. I'm not counting that win over NW 2 yrs ago either. 

We have yet to prove we can get it done on the road in a tough enviroment.

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FreddieMercuryHayes

August 26th, 2013 at 11:21 PM ^

Sugar Bowl win doesn't count? I don't like this logic because its the typical sports writer thing that takes small samples with weird circumstances and tries to turn it into a trend. 2011: two losses are basically Borges forgetting he has Denard and doing what he knows. First year in transition, typical. Not to mention MSU was an 11 win team that beat a good Georgia team. And he doesn't count the VT game? 2012: lose 5 games, all on the road. 4 against teams in the top 10, 3 in the top 5, and two in the NC game. And the fifth is winnable until Denard's ulnar nerve. Well...so UM wasn't a top 10 team in 2012.

Now it's 2013, with Borges familiar with the players and finally has 'his' playbook. And frankly, neither NW or MSU are as good as Bama, ND, SCar, or Ohio were last year.

So in this case, the past teaches us little about this year. Can we lose both? Certainly. But to say 'road game loss because hasn't proven it yet' is not very good logic on his part.

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Lionsfan

August 27th, 2013 at 12:04 AM ^

Why would the Sugar Bowl count? While there were probably more VT fans there, there were still a lot of UM fans. It was like playing at Minny or at Purdue. Yeah technically, it's an away game, but it's hardly a hostile environment. As for the rest of your post, you're basically coming up with excuses to "disprove" him; when really it's the truth that Michigan has struggled and come up short in big road games. That doesn't mean we're automatically gonna lose them, but it's a legitimate concern going into year 3. Nowhere in his article does he say "tough road game = loss".

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Lionsfan

August 27th, 2013 at 6:53 AM ^

He's still backing up his opinion with something besides road=loss. Against MSU he's predicting a game like last years, with MSU squeaking out a win, and for NU he's got UM with a slight hangover off a tough Nebraska game the week before, where NU's speed just wears us down

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Generic MGoBlogger

August 26th, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^

There is not a game on that schedule that we can't  win... I fully expect Hoke to have this team ready to shine this season... This is a highly underrated team with all the tools to be a fantastic team.  I say 1 regular season loss (fluke game-PSU possibly), and the B1G championship is a toss up... That being said we should end up as an at large, if not Rose Bowl bound, in a BCS bowl. Going to be a good year.

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Shop Smart Sho…

August 26th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^

Did I miss something?  When did GRCC close?  The Google machine is confused as well.

 

"Cody Kater was a terrific JUCO player, but this is a long way from the now defunct Grand Rapids Community College."

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LSAClassOf2000

August 26th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^

I will say, I would like to see us trample the algorithms - Massey and TeamRankings both would put us at 8-4. While the preseason stuff is based on historical data and probably should be taken with a grain of salt, a 10-2 or even 9-3 season seems entirely possible, if nothing else. 

TeamRankings, incidentally, did a complete projection complete with odds of winning the conference. If it is taken as a reasonable baseline, then the Legends Division is essentially Nebraska and Michigan and others, with the Cornhuskers and the Wolverines being the only teams in that division with >10% odds of winning the conference by their figuring. 

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ShadowStorm33

August 27th, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^

I'm glad I'm not the only one that caught this. Maybe he meant "Nebraska's offense is solid, but I think Michigan's is better?" That's plausible; I like the balance we'll have, even without Darboh. Otherwise, where the hell did that come from...

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ckersh74

August 26th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ^

When it's all said and done, after the first week of January, I see us with three losses. Take your pick as to where they come: Notre Dame, MSU, Northwestern, Penn State, Ohio State, Bowl game. There's going to be a couple games where the youth and inexperience of the interior OL bites us in the ass, where we're unable to run the football, and there's liable to be a game where the secondary lets us down and we give up 400 yards passing somewhere.

Here are my reasons for potential losses:

Notre Dame: Inexperienced interior line, early in the season test

Michigan State: Goofy shit tends to occur in that cement cell block. This is probably MSU's last gasp for a while. 

Penn State: On the road, semi-night game, one of PSU's biggest games this year. See above.

Northwestern: This is where we could get torched for 400+

Ohio: Self-explanatory

Bowl Game: No one knows what's going to happen there. 

Three of those six. No more, but I don't see any less, either.  10-3 by the time we're done. 

This team is a year away. We're going to be downright scary in 2014. 

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