What Were You Wrong About?

I thought Oakland was still in play.

1. 7-8 regular season wins
2. Taysom Hill would rip the defense to shreds in a very high scoring UM-BYU game
3. This would be a run based offense with 40-45 carries a game with game manager Rudock only being counted on for 18-20 throws a game
4. Drake Johnson would take off where he ended in the 3rd quarter of OSU 2014 by mid season once he was 100% healthy and win the lead RB job mid year
5. The run blocking by OL would be much better with 5 returning starters + Drevno coaching
6. Durkin would bring the turnover machine exploits of Florida 2014 defense to UM
7. Ben Gedeon would pass Joe Bolden and have a breakout year
8. RJS would not get a meaningful snap
9. Blake Countess would be a solid if unspectacular #2 corner to Lewis
10. AJ Williams would max at 2 catches
11. Ian Bunting and/or Khalid Hill would breakout as the 2nd tight end w/20ish catches in a tight end heavy offense
12. UF-UM would be M00F
13. Didn't realize Glasgow would be a breakout player - thought he would be a competent cog passed by Mone (but I did tag Henry and Wormley as 2 potential stars this year)
14. Harbaugh's popularity with the greater rap community

Nothing. I am never wrong.

/s

overall record by 3 games (predicted 7 wins) and that's about it. Rudock wound up where I thought he'd be earlier so I'll call that a push, our run game/OL was about as pitiful as I expected and that's about it. First year in a long time had I actually made a point to not predict or expect too much. I tried to view the UM Football program with as new of eyes as possible.

Byran Mone would establish himself as a dominant force inside and our running game would return to form behind an OL that finally was taught how to block somebody.

I didn't predict this, but I would have guessed before the season that Harbaugh would have gotten at least one penalty for a sideline meltdown. I don't think he did, though...

The passing game....I expected it to be a major weakness..new QB and little returning production from the WRs. It was a major strength. Along with that I thought Fisch and J. Harbaugh would be weak links in the staff...WRONG. 

Behind that is the quality of the preparation, game planning, program building, recruiting etc. It is impossible to overstate the difference between Harbaugh and Hoke when it comes to running the team and building the program. But, after years of dissapointment, I have to admit I never imagined just how far off its potential this program really was.

Chesson and Rudock both surprised me the second half of the season. I expected merely competent and they both ended up better then that. also thought Dymonte and Williams were lost causes, both surprised me. I expected the level of CB play we got out of Stribling/Clark, I just expected it from Lyons.

Green or Isaac would emerge as the go to back through mid season and that the running game would get stronger through the season. I thought we would lose at least one conference game on the road. My predicted record was 9-4, one game off. I was surprised at how rapidly Rudock developed at QB. Never expected him to throw over 3K yards and be the 2nd highest yardage passer at Michigan. Just goes to show the magic Harbaugh has with QBs. I was surprised how well the DL and secondary played. I thought LB would be a trouble spot this season and it was.

Thought that after sitting out a year, he would be super hungry to show his stuff. Except for one 76 yard run early in the year, he's been a major disappointment. Thought that the Harbaugh/Wheatley coaching combo would work wonders for him. I guess it did, but in a negative sort of way!

I thought Urban Meyer would be worried about us after we played them. After what happened in Ann Arbor, I think Jim is his Huckleberry. This is painful to admit.

he would be that good as just a freshman. So, I guess I was wrong about that in a good way. Really looking forward to seeing him win the Heisman in 2016!

My first marriage, the lawyer I hired in the divorce, oh wait what? 8-5 I agree with Mrs. Missouri the "show me" state so I guess that makes me a bit of a pessimist. next year I bet I will go big like 12-1 13-1 and so maybe I am a optimist. #2 Derrick Green I will leave it like that #3 I knew we were going to beat Staee. Close, (they did not beat us) but still wrong. #4. there is know way anyone (with the exception of WD) could have predicted the Citris score I thought we would win but c'mon man 34 point spead not even close to 7-10 point spread. Then everything else in my life I was right on about.

Soylent Green. I didn't realize it was made out of people.

Really thought we would beat both rivals, but especially OSU. I didn't know what to expect the rest of the season but I figured with how weak the Big Ten seemingly wad outside those two teams that we would have at least 10 wins.

I thought we would win every regular season game except UTAH. I know I was dreaming, but it sounded good at that time. I did not think our secondary would be this good. I did not expect our LBs would be a major hole. I did not expect Chesson would be a big time WR. I expected Darboh to be the top WR, which he was, but Chesson stole the show. I did not expect the passing game to be this good, but I expected our running game to be better.

That there would not be one single mention of RR, Hoke or Brandon. 

thought for sure the tigers would win that world series

how many people thought Jedd Fisch was a bad hire?

and lose to MSU.

Chesson and the Glasgows

I thought Ty Isaac would be a stud and place kicking would be a dud. Bizarro World.

1. I really thought Chesson and Darboh would be almost completely replaced by younger receivers, be it Cole or Harris or Canteen or even Perry.

2. I thought our offense would be mostly a ground attack, and that we'd be better at it.

3. Had no idea Glasgow would be a total beast.

I mixed up Jehu and Ty Isaac's production. Jehu is turning into a game changer that we haven't had in a while at WR while Ty is just trying to get back on the field and demonstrate just one iota of toughness.

 

Not at all what I predicted.

Ty would be a beast this year.

 

Before the bowl game I thought the running game would continue to be trash against Florida.

 

Glad to be wrong about two, disappointed to be wrong about the first one.

I was wrong.  He's so much awesomer than I thought in every way!  (When you graduate from UM with an English major, you are allowed to make up words.)

I didn't realize women porn stars are faking.

I thought Wayne Lyons was going to be a secondary mainstay and that once Clark was promoted to starting corner that the secondary was in big trouble.

that they would beat Ohio State or Michigan State on the way to a 9 win regular season. I also thought the running game would be better faster.

I thought the quarterback position would cost us a couple games.  Utah aside, it was our savior.

I was certain we would beat MSU

I thought the linebackers and Ty Isaac would be better and the CBs would be worse. 

I guessed 7-5 as our record. 

I was wrong.

I am happy about that.

I thought the run game would come around more than it did in the regular season - but then I thought it wouldn't do much against Florida.  I was very surprised at how well the OL blocked in the bowl, and also at how Smith found the holes and made the right cuts.

Likewise, I thought Rudock would be more consistent early in the season than he was, but I never thought he'd be more than a game manager.  By the end of the year he was a star.

 

I was concerned that the offense would be Debord 2.0 MANBALL bang your head against the wall regardless of what the defense was doing.

I did not anticpate the compexity and diversity of the offense.

Yes, Harbaugh's offense will use plays and formations that you see less and less of these days - Full Back dives, QB under center on long yardage, etc. - but you don't know when you will see them. 

He will also throw on running downs, run on passing downs, like up shotgun 5-wide, run the QB . . . just about everything.  It is a very complex offense, and when it is hitting on all cylinders, it's hard to predict, much less stop. 

There were very few times during the Florida game that I could be 100% certain what we were going to run.  Compare and contrast that with Borges, DeBord, and even Bo's offense.

And it wasn't the game I expected. But never, not once was I disappointed by the performance of our team. They were prepared and played well in every game, including The Game, which was the most disappointing outcome differential. Losing to those guys gets old faster than anything else, except this year's other loss.

I thought it was a season of growth and culture change that bespeaks a seachange of success going forward. What I saw was a coach who presented the template for success as nothing more than what it's always required at Michigan: the grinding passion to be better and instilled ethic to work hard daily to improve yourself through trial and error and then learn from that and continue playing with the same mindset, building confidence and personal strength in the fabric of team commitment to competition and winning together. Looks like the message was forged and will build on itself through team leadership  instead of mirrored image of the coach.

Keep grinding in the pursuit of excellence in 2016. I see a team wanting to tick off several key boxes in their  goals next season enroute to a season to remember. 2015 will always offer a special memory because of the Jake Rudock transformation, the emergence of a dominant defense and the overall growth of the team in the Harbaugh way.

Going forward........Who's got it better than US? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOBODY!!!!!!!

Preseason : 8-4, but 9-3 isn't too far off

in season: Rudock was only backup quality but was starting because of the other options at Qb.

I was pretty sure we would lose the three we did lose but I thought we'd lose a fourth to either Minnesota or BYU. Almost managed the former. Thankfully not.

I didn't think the receiving corps would be as good as it was.Thought Chesson and Darboh would be just meh and we would have to rely on Butt too much. Happily proven wrong.

 

 

Only way that happens is if the earth swallows up all of our kickers, punters and soccer players (Varsity, club or IM squads).

I said we'd go 9-3 and pick up a bowl win. However I said we'd beat state and lose to Utah, OSU and Minnesota. Unfortunately I was wrong there, buy a fluke.

I thought the rank ordering of the quality of our various units (exlcuding speacial teams would be as follows:

1. LBs

2. DL

3. RBs

4. OL

5. WR/TE

6. DBs

7. QB

(I'd rank them as follows, now:

1. DL

1a. DBs

3. QB

4. WR/TE

5. OL

6. LBs

7. RBs

For the record, I think our RBs and LBs were limited by nagging injuries throughout the year, and showed a heckova lot more courage than I'd ever be able to muster just getting out there.)