Phil Steele:Michigan has the most experienced depth chart in America, according to one measurement
Heres the article by MLive.com
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/06/michigan_has_the_most…
Throughout the final two years of Brady Hoke's tenure at Michigan, the word "youth" was tossed around quite a bit -- whether it made sense or not.
Moving forward for Jim Harbaugh in 2015, any talk about Michigan having a young roster won't make much sense.
According to Phil Steele's annual national two-deep depth chart breakdown, Michigan is the most experienced team in the country at this point.
Michigan has 14 returning seniors with starting experience, and another nine seniors who appear on the two-deep depth chart. Additionally, Michigan returns four juniors with starting experience, and nine juniors with two-deep experience.
Steele's formula for ranking the list reads as follows:
I awarded 3 points for every senior starter (2.5 for every additional senior in the two deep) 2 points for every junior starter (1.5 for every additional junior in the two deep) 1 point for a sophomore starter (0.5 for every additional soph in the two deep) then subtracted 1 point for every frosh starter and .5 for every frosh in the two deep.
Michigan ranks No. 1 on the list with 91 points, followed by Navy, Utah State, Air Force and South Alabama. A year ago, Michigan's 5-7 team ranked No. 122 (out of 128 teams).
The real question, though, is whether or not this means anything.
A year ago, the top five most experienced teams in the country were: 1. Texas-San Antonio (4-8), 2. Louisiana (9-4), 3. Indiana (4-8), 4. Central Michigan (7-6), 5. Mississippi State (10-3).
The four College Football Playoff teams ranked as follows: Ohio State (No. 109), Alabama (No. 107), Oregon (No. 31) and Florida State (No. 39).
Here are Michigan's experience ranks, and overall record, since 2010:
2010: No. 41 (7-6)
2011: No. 19 (11-2)
2012: No. 34 (8-5)
2013: No. 87 (7-6)
2014: No. 122 (5-7)
2015: No. 1 (?)
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with 10-2 or 11-1 (!!!) being the ceiling. Raback it to the bank baby.
Ohio is loaded, but Indiana yikes.
Regression to the mean anyone?
Looking at Michigan's ranking the past 5 years looks about right.
I'm hoping the results the past 5 years are from the teams raw talent winning games despite being under coached.
It's also interesting to see a 11-2 season with a seasoned junior Denard Robinson at QB. However, we got a 5-7 season with 5th year Devin Gardner. The supporting cast each of those seasons played just as big a roll as the QBs.
So many factors go into a football team winning games. I'm being optimistic and hoping that we flip the script from last year and utilize a game managing QB with an above average defense and better offensive supporting cast to get us to a decent record.
So if Michigan loses, we can't blame it on "youth" anymore. It'll be because they are "not good".
Harbaugh would never use youth as an excuse!
I hear you, but if you give credence to this stat then the previous excuse seems to correlate...which you seem to dislike.
Luckily, I think there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about a much improved team this year. Lack of development in previous years may be a reason for less than ideal success, but youth won't be.
But a B10 championship, while not likely, would not surprise me. Not with Harbaugh as coach.
San Francisco didn't appear to be all that much in Harbaugh's first year, either.
the better we do! Jim may ask "are you experienced"?
Experience. That's why Phil put Michigan in his pre-season top 40? No?
I still just can't seem to point my finger at a loss on the schedule. I've wandered my eyes to the 2024 schedule and see nary a loss in sight with Harbaugh leading the surge.
So we are the most experienced team, yet Phil doesn't rank us in the top 40? Did he come up with this formual AFTER he posted his rankings? This team will be in the top 20 all season long. 9-3, take that to the bank!
http://247sports.com/Article/Preseason-top-college-football-teams-ranked-by-Phil-Steele-37770929