Post-Spring Practice: Early 2018 Michigan W/L Prediction
April 29th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
That ain't happening!
One thing that is not obscure to see about Shea Patterson is that Speight/O'Korn/Peters never played like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avA7PuG-e2U
Some will say, Yeah but, that was mostly against inferior teams. But I do see Alabama and Auburn mixed in with those highlights. It looks like he pulls off big plays against whoever he faces. And besides that, did we ever see Speight/O'Korn/Peters play like that even against inferior teams?
What a quick release Patterson has!
9-3. Im tired of hype. This team/coaching staff needs to prove it can do better against a brutal schedule.
+/- 1. With 9-3 being more likely than 11-1. OSU, MSU and Wisconsin all were better than us last year and return a lot of their talent. The chances of us going 3-1 against those three and Penn State, and also beating ND and Nebraska and not losing any games we shouldn't, are not huge. Every position group on offense would have to develop well beyond expectations to run the table.
Counterpoints: MSU was not better than us, we were an average QB away from beating all of them, and we return close to as much as MSU, more than UW and OSU (MSU returns most everything, Wisconsin and OSU both lose chunks of their defense).
MSU was arguably not better than Michigan til they beat Penn State and convincingly won their bowl game while Michigan got smoked by Penn State and embarrassingly collapsed in the bowl game.
The argument just became dumb after the season was over.
April 29th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
with a resounding bowl win. We were 8-5 with an embarrassing bowl loss. They beat us on our own turf, when we had two weeks to prepare. And we didn't HAVE an average quarterback, and they had a better than average quarterback, so yeah, they WERE better than us in the real world. The world the way you wish it would have been doesn't count, sorry. And they return more than we do, as you admit.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:00 PM ^
will get you labeled as a troll on this board. But it's possible to be realistic and still be a Michigan fan. You don't have to predict a NC every year to be one.
Unless we win the NC. Given how his salary compares to other coaches, he should be at least making the playoff every year.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:06 PM ^
April 28th, 2018 at 11:35 PM ^
will get you labeled as a troll on this board. But it's possible to be realistic and still be a Michigan fan. You don't have to predict a NC every year to be one.
You just commented that you don't have to make crazy predictions to be a Michigan fan but now you say Harbaugh should be making the playoffs every year. You're the one setting an unattainably high standard.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:03 PM ^
in 2016, we were 9-0 and were outscoring the opposition by an average of 48-11. Hard to do much better than that, but the season still ended up as a big disappointment.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:25 PM ^
11-1 B1G with the only loss at NW. Trip to Indy. Win. But we get F'd out of the playoff because of the crappy loss. Bowl game win. 13-1 overall and a #3 final ranking. I believe this is the season where we turn the corner from the disappointing past 10 years and start dominating again and beating OSU with regularity.
NW got beat badly by Penn St at home last year. And they went to triple overtime with Mich St at home, with Mich St outgaining them 540 to 432.
I don't know that NW is going to beat Michigan this year, if for no other reason than Michigan's defense is going to be more experienced and stronger than last year. But with Ed Warinner, JIm McElwain, Shea Patterson, and with Higdon and Evans having 1 more year of experience, the offense is going to be better than last year too.
Not at all worried about the defense, though. If the offense can get to average, and if the defense maintains the status quo, this is potentially a 10-11 win season. If it’s anything more, then the sky is the limit. If it’s more of the same, we’re maybe staring at another eight win season. Maybe even a seven win season.
Call me a pessimist but I can’t predict us to beat OSU until I actually see it happen. They just have a huge psychological edge in that game. They could be down 28-0 and still realistically believe they’d win. And they wouldn’t be crazy for thinking it.
*without Barkley and Moorhead
I expect 9 but 10 wins is achievable. Patterson isn't exactly a polished qb. He turns the ball over a whole lot. Wide receivers are still almost entirely unproven. Ridiculously difficult schedule. They'll drop some but still be a strong team. Hopefully they'll be good enough that they can actually win a big game on the big stage (OSU, NY6 bowl, B1G, etc.)
Ole Miss had a poor run game so he had to get creative in passing.
I just want to see improvement on the offensive line.
I'm somewhere between 9-3 and 10-2. We went 8-4 with abysmal QB play last year. Even if Shea is average, our defense should be able to carry us to at least 9 wins. The biggest question marks are OL (is Warinner going to be able to bring the improvements we're hoping for?), QB, and whether we can replace the production that Hurst gave us. Our defense should be solid again and our RBs and TEs are good enough to win the conference. I expect a big improvement in the WR corps with Black back and a year of maturation for DPJ.
So gun to my head....10-2.