Phil Steele predicts UM to CFP
Title says it all
His preseason book is out
he predicts Bama winning National Championship
Ok, cool. Beat Ohio State.
And MTSU
And Army.
And Wisconsin.
And Rutgers.
And Iowa.
And Illinois.
And Penn State.
And ND.
And Maryland.
And MSU.
And Indiana.
Beat all 11 it don't matter much.
-Mgohoarde
I mean that is some what true. Hear me out. Osu schedule is a joke this year I don’t see them losing more than one game. Which means if we lose to them they win the division and go to the btt game. Beating them is a top priority. Go 10-2 and beat them and this season is a success!
We need to football really well
Counterpoint: We still have to play Ohio State
Luckily they don't have one of the top 5 college football coaches of all time running their program this year.
I think we beat their asses.
I sort of wonder how much help Urban may lend Day if he's around the program still this year.
Some talking heads say Day was running the team last year when Urban was off his suspension. I don't think Urban will be much of an influence.
If true thats a good sign. They looked like dogshit for the first 11 games. Worst OSU team since Urbans first year
They didn't start looking like shit until after Urbs came back is the problem though. The first three games their offense was unstoppable. And of course against us too.
OSU looked unstoppable in the first 3 games against teams that went 10-27. Oregon State (2-10) and Rutgers (1-11) may have been the two worst P5 teams in the country. Then OSU was actually in trouble into the 3rd quarter against a TCU (7-6) team that turned out to be very overrated. So I don’t buy that OSU genuinely got worse when Urban returned. Yeah they had some mid season doldrums but it happens. They finished the year (with Urban) by crushing us when we were ranked #4, crushing #19 Northwestern, and then beating #9 Washington.
So how is that good for Michigan, exactly? Because when they played us, all the dogshit went away and they played like a team that could go win the national championship. All their weaknesses just seemed to completely go away in the course of a week, as if the whole season of looking like shit was just one massive mirage/troll job on Michigan.
I don't care how bad they look against everyone else. If they look like ruthless killing machines against Michigan and beat us, what does it matter? So if that was Ryan Day's doing, that tells us that even if he can't get the team right the first 11 weeks, he can get them locked in and laser focused against Michigan. And the result of that is 62-39.
I don't think OSU's defense looked like a CFP defense at any point last year. Including our game.
And that coach that led that defense is gone, so what's your point?
OSU went 12-0 in Urban’s first year. If that’s what dog shit looks like, then it clearly means something different than I thought.
Highly doubt this.
No, they just have that same coach lurking around with nothing to do besides dissect Michigan film.
Urban clearly cares about his OSU legacy for now, so he’s not going to let his hand picked successor get pounded by Michigan.
While I don't totally disagree with this, I've thought the inverse could also be true. If Day starts losing to us, Urbz legacy would be that it was all him who brought all the Ws (which is also probably true).
I actually thought about that as well. However, I think Urban went out on a limb to anoint a guy who hasn't done shit as his successor.
It seems more likely to me that Urban will get a USC type job and then immediately not care what OSU thinks about him - just like at Florida.
I'm skeptical that Urban anointed Day. That requires that Urban left willingly ... which has not been unequivocally confirmed.
Hatter makes a good point. Whether we like it or not, OSU has hit freaking home runs with the hires of Tressel and Urban. Both repulsive as human beings, but man can they recruit and coach football.
No, they just have the coach who actually ran the x/o 's on offense that led to OSU setting like 30 school/Big10/NCAA records last year and pumping us to a 62-39 ass beating.
They also won't have Schiano trying to force his way back into the NFL by standing the linebackers up at the LOS and costing them tons of scores.
I wouldn’t put to much weight in Urban being gone just yet. Their recruiting hasn’t dropped off and Day saved the big time recruits that were on the fence when he left.
The offense was 100% Day and they have no way to go but up on defense. Aside from that, OSU had 10 minutes during every spring practice that was dedicated to the game in Ann Arbor this November. To win The Game, UM will have to rise to their level, OSU isn’t going to drop.
Really not sure what to think of this year's sucknut team. Day totally ran their offense last year and I don't see that part dropping off much although if Fields goes down who knows. It's the defense that will make or break those a-holes. They basically have a whole new staff (minus Larry Johnson) as Day cleaned house. To say that their defense sucked last year is an understatement.
Michigan get them at home and this time we should actually have a team as good or equal to them at home.
One of the unfortunate aspects of the Harbaugh era has been the two strongest teams (2016 and 2018) had to travel to Columbus, while the two weakest teams (2015 and 2017) faced off against OSU in Ann Arbor.
If you flip that, at the very least the atrocity that was 2016 doesn't happen. I'm not sure if it makes a difference last year as the defensive strategy was so off.
I've often thought this as well. Had some bad luck that 2 of our best teams in the past few seasons had to travel to OSU.
That's true but you have to beat good teams on the road if you want to be considered an elite team/program.
Uhh, we took an epic ass beating in Columbus last year. Hard to see that game playing out any differently in Ann Arbor. Home field is rarely good for a 23 point swing.
Yeah, but the home team does get last at bats and that’s a big advantage.
Oh wait, still have CWS on my mind.
We a baseball school now.
Almost certainly true, hence the last part of my post.
However, I'm 99.9% sure the 2016 game that finished 17-17 in regulation with Michigan losing the TO battle 3-1 and Ohio State only having 1 live ball penalty called on them would have ended up in Michigan's favor in Ann Arbor.
What's his level of concern with Army though?
Don’t we do this every year?
Oh, no! Some people think Michigan will be very good.
Yes, right up until we switch to just wait till next year.
I thought Steele was pretty pessimistic in previous years. This would seem to be a switch.
Hey, the "Michigan in the CFP" prediction has to be right one of these years. I, for one, will continue to predict that until I'm right. And when I'm proven correct, it will be, in the immortal words of Lego Batman...
Same tbh
I have Clemson, Bama, Michigan, Oklahoma
You think our DT's and S are good enough for a CFP run?? I'm not saying they're not, but I have some concerns there.
S should be better than last season. Metellus returns and you have Dax, Woods, Hawkins (although he may be a CB now) competing for the spot opened up by Kinnel. Kinnel was good, but wasn't an elite safety.
I agree DT is a weak spot, but maybe we see more 3-3-5 like in 2017. Hopefully Mazi or Hinton are able to step up this season.
Metellus is a solid safety but not a superior athlete. Teams with good athleticism on offense are going to eat up our secondary. We have one five star safety who's a true freshman and Lavert Hill. Beyond that, there's not really anyone else with proven abilities. Ace and Brian were raving over J'marick Woods because of one play against OSU. The guy did virtually nothing last year. That seemed a little premature if not downright silly.
So if it's Dax, how many times have we pinned our hopes on a true freshman five star, and how many times has it worked out?
Defensive tackle is going to hold well for 9 or 10 games this season but there will be a few that will remind us of Indiana and OSU from 2015. Our chances of winning will be a 2010 vs Illinois shootout in more than one game. It's going to take Don Brown doing a savant gameplan the way Dustin Hoffman handled the blackjack table in Rain Man to do any better.
Everyone's so upset about offensive line recruiting but defensive tackle and safety recruiting has been far worse for the last few years and it's going to show this time.
Teams with good athleticism are going to eat up our secondary.
I’m not going to tell you that Metellus is an elite athlete relative to other safeties, but he shut KJ Hamler tf down last year. He’s become a really great coverage guy. Technique can bridge athleticism gaps when you get decent pressure. We won’t be at athleticism deficits in the secondary much this year with Very, Ambry, and Dax, plus Metellus. Trick will be manufacturing pressure when we are.
Metellus’ coverage ability against superior athletes is a strength of this secondary, not a weakness.
Yeah. If we stay healthy, safety will be totally fine. DTs will be strong against the run, will just have to get creative to get pass rush.
Our defense will be better than anything Oklahoma has fielded in their playoff years. I still expect a top 15 S&P unit. Yes, Oklahoma has had one of the best offenses and the Heisman winner each of the last two years, but their defenses have been abysmal. I think we will be top 15 in both offense and defense this year, as opposed to our usual top 5 on D, top 40 on O.
We don’t have a National Championship defense - I fully expect us to lose in the playoff - but I think we have a team that can run the table, win the conference, and make the CFP. After that, we probably don’t have the talent.
Oklahoma also has the advantage of playing about 11 terrible teams every year.
This. Michigan's schedule is going to be crazy. Im hoping for 10 wins and a shot at a Big Ten title against Ohio State to end the year, nevermind a Playoff Birth
Our schedule is easier this year than last year when we won 10 and should have won 11.
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Rinse, lather, repeat.
I think umich will be good but this is why people make fun of us.