2012 football preview

Big Ten Network Football Tour is at Michigan practice this afternoon. The show will air tomorrow at 10pm, and they will be live tweeting observations from practice. September 1st can't come soon enough.

EDIT:

Collection of BTN crew livetweets & observations from Michigan practice:

http://btn.com/2012/08/23/btn-experts-michigan-football-practice-tweets/

Tom Dienhart's thoughts from Michigan practice:

http://btn.com/2012/08/23/dienhart-my-thoughts-from-michigan-practice/

Some stats from BTNStatsGuy ‏@BTNStatsGuy:

Brady Hoke: Among 4 #B1G coaches with 11+ wins in first season. He's among 4 first-year coaches to win #BCS bowl.

#Michigan's scoring defense improved by 17.8 points per game last season.

#Michigan's 895 wins is the most in college football history. #Wolverines need 5 more to become first to 900.

#Michigan has won its last 12 non-conference games. That's the #Wolverines' longest win streak since a 15-game run spanned 1970-74.

#Michigan won 6 #B1G games last season. That matches the #Wolverines total from the previous 3 seasons combined.

#Michigan went 8-0 at home last season. Best record in #MichiganStadium history.

#Michigan has not won a #B1G title since 2004. That's the #Wolverines' longest drought since 13-year span from 1951-63.

#Michigan looks to end four-game skid against #MichiganState. It's tied for #Wolverines' longest all-time skid in the series.

For those mgobloggers in the NY tristate region, wanted to provide a heads up that the U-M Alumni Club of NY is hosting our 4th Annual Football Kickoff Party w/ MGoBlog’s Brian Cook and ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren, this Wednesday, August 15 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.   Sign up here.

Pertinent Details:

Date:    Wednesday, August 15

Time:   7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Cost: $5 for AAUM members, $15 for non-members. Registration is online only through Tuesday, August 14th at midnight. Day-of door pricing will be $20 for everyone. Pre-registered guests will receive a free drink ticket.

Location: Professor Thom’s, 219 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003 (2nd Ave between 13th and 14th). Guests must be 21 and older.

Information: The NY alumni club is pleased to bring MGoBlog sports blogger Brian Cook and ESPN WolverineNation’s reporter Tom VanHaaren to NYC for our annual football season kickoff event. They will be on hand to spread their knowledge of all-things Michigan football, preview the 2012 season, and discuss the future of Michigan football in Michigan’s incoming class of HS recruits. Preregistered guests will receive a free drink ticket.

There will be some prizes available, including a lottery for 2 tickets in the NY club's group seating for the Nov 24th Michigan vs Cornell Hockey game at MSG and two downstairs booths at Professor Thom's to watch the Alabama game.

Questions? Club leaders will be checking this thread, so post a comment if need more info etc.

http://nyc.umclubs.com/

[Edit... title change, since attempt 1 was a fail. lesson learned - don't abbreviate Wednesday. got it.]

Well the board is slow and there really has not been much talk about football lately so wanted to hear some thoughts about the upcoming season.

What will be the Benchmark for a great season as far as wins are concerned? 9 wins is what most believe to be considered a successful year for Michigan.

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2012/7/3/3134381/2012-michigan-wol...

An 11 win season will be tough this year considering the strength of schedule. With the potential to play 5 top 25 teams and 4 of those away from Ann Arbor, losses may be all but inevitable.  What do you believe to be the key factors in a successful season?  How would you rank the importance of goals listed below.

1) Win B1G championship

2) Beat sparty

3) Beat Ohio

4) Beat Alabama

5) Beat Notre Dame

I believe that regardless of wins/losses to our rivals and Alabama, a B1G championship has to be the big goal.  I feel that sparty is a must win game over all of the other games because of obvious implications and protecting our home-field. Beating Ohio in Urban's first year would be huge as well.  Would you be happy if we lost to Sparty, OSU, and Alabama and still won the big ten?

This may be kind of a "no duh" in these parts, but nice to see our schedule strength get some national recognition.  Here are the top 10 toughest 2012 football schedules per Bruce Feldman at CBSSports.  

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/bruce-feldman/19184201/top-10-list-toughest-schedules-of-2012

ESPN breaks down Michigan as its preseason #10 team in their Top 20 Roundtable countdown today on College Football Live.

EDIT: ESPN has posted the video to their website.

Link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:7930329