Spring Football Bits: 24/7 "5 things we're confident about post spring practice"
This year, I feel pretty good about the QB situation.
Last year, I was worried that someone just loved Milton's arm strength and felt that accuracy and consistency would develop. I think accuracy and consistency are way more important than arm strength and aren't that easy to improve. I feel more comfortable if the QB is a guy with a good historical completion rate and a lot of passes thrown in his life.
McNamara, McCarthy, and Bowman all have that.
Grain of salt. Remember, it's Michigan Offense playing/practicing against Michigan Defense, and vice versa.
We support the team. But don't get your hopes up.
The only thing I’m confident in is that I’m not really confident in anything. There’s question marks all over both sides of the field. QB, OL, DL, CB, just to name a few. New coaches, new defense, no proven leaders on the team.
6-6 to 7-5 seems like a very reasonable outcome for this team. Guaran-freaking teed loss to OSU, road games at MSU, PSU and Wisconsin are no better than toss-ups right now. PSU and Wisconsin are highly probable losses as things stand right now, Indiana has finally gotten over its mental Michigan hump and is arguably a better team right now, Northwestern will always give this team a fight, and even though Nebraska is garbage, I don’t have much faith in this team’s ability to execute on the road. I haven’t for over a decade.
I don't get what's happening at o-line. One place I hear about Steuber. One place I hear about Keegan. One place I hear about Barnhart. One place I hear about Filiaga. I'm pretty sure the tackles are set and Vastardis is our center. But, we've only got 2 guards and 4 guys can't play in 2 positions. I can only take that to mean they are either all good or all bad, but no one is significantly better than the others.
I just dont know if i can do this right now..UM football has me so broken
Please !! I beg of you...fucking win !!!
To me, not knowing how good the OL will be and the QB development is not discouraging but rather the talent on offense is a bit intriguing. We've seen enough of Cade to know he will be a fairly good QB. JJ has great talent and it will be interesting to watch him develop. The offensive system isn't new this year but some players are new. We have a D coach that has done well at a high level.
This year is not 2020. The best players won't be opting out and we have a full schedule with a chance to find our sea legs before the Big schedule kicks in.
We've seen some really bad defense last year. It will have a uptick IMO
My greatest hope is that we will witness a culture change.
I'm curious how other teams are looking next year? How good or bad Michigan appears will essentially be determined by how good or bad the BIG and Washington is. I mean looking at the schedule almost every team has major "issues" and fanbases that feel unsure about how the year will play out.
My point is, I don't think Michigan is going to be good but are the other teams on the schedule going to have so many issues that they can actually pull off some unexpected W's? I mean there is a fluke scenario I could see them losing to Wisc, PSU, and OSU and going 9-3.
There is also the other scenario where they lose to UW, WIsc, PSU, OSU, MSU, IU and they go 6-6.
I'm just rambling but looking over these other teams a lot of them have some major issues they need to address as well going into 2021.
I don't even care if the "hype" (read: possible information) ends up unfulfilled. It just feels great to have some football content and for the season to inch closer and closer. I only want more normalcy in terms of some fans allowed in the stadium, a full slate of games, and improvement in the team.
April 13th, 2021 at 10:56 AM ^
Get the hype train rolling for a likely 6-6 or worse team!
Last year cannot be ignored, it actually happened and Covid saved us from going 3-6 or 2-7. So in a very tangible way we're coming off a 3-9 or 4-8 level season...in our coach's 6th season. And we hired a new defensive staff and got rid of the best position coach on the team on offense. Personnel losses were significant, but not severe. So we're supposed to buy the hype right now? Not a chance.
I think 6-6 is the baseline, but if I'm being honest, we had a 3-9 or 4-8 level team last year and there's a very real chance we could have a worse team this year.
So the covid impacted season is so real we must include fictional games as well?
I'm not going to believe any hype about this offense until I see it consistently on Saturdays. I liked the fact that when Mcnamara came in, Gattis seemed to open things up and let Cade rip it downfield. Granted that was against Rutgers, but Michigan needs to be more aggressive offensively. I've been saying that since Lloyd was here. I'll never forget Lloyd's last game against Tebow and Florida, and how he opened things up almost like a pro-style spread. I thought to myself where was that offense that year and in years past. I understand Michigan is always going to want to be physical and run the ball, but you have 5 Wrs with speed and all this supposed talent, and a guy like Mcnamara who's already shown he can throw an accurate deep ball. If I see Gattis/Harbaugh call another game like Army in '19 I think i'll lose my mind.