Playoff Path Just Got a Lot Clearer
With Stanford and Utah losing today, the Pac-12 would appear to be out of the CFP picture. That leaves the other four P5 conferences and Notre Dame. So just three things have to happen now for us to make the four-team field:
- OSU beats MSU next week.
- Stanford beats Notre Dame.
- We win out, and beat Iowa in the B1G title game.
- It's also possible that the Big 12 will cannibalize itself in the next two weeks and lose out on a spot.
Right now, the ACC (Clemson) and SEC (Alabama) appear to be in. The B1G champ has a great case for the third spot, so Michigan just needs to be the B1G champ.
Harbaugh took a bunch of guys who went 5-7 last year, and a quarterback that Iowa didn't want, and he's got us in the CFP conversation in late November. He's good.
November 15th, 2015 at 3:03 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:49 AM ^
But to be fair I didn't call you a jerk, if anything, I was the jerk because I took such pleasure at watching you give a 6x FISTPUMP & be CARRIED OFF THE FIELD by your lineman because you completed the 2 pt conversion to go up by 3 with over a minute left.
But I see you already threw your team under the bus for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrBP2c_i_I
0:36
Reporter:
"Did ya- did you think you guys kinda had the win.......after you ran in that touchdown?"
Josh:
"NO, but I kinda got the feeling everyone else did....."
When? Was that after the fist pumps or before scanning the crowd for more cell numbers?Maybe you forgot to explain to the team that 6 fist pumps is just for a tenous lead, SEVEN fist pumps is when you have vanquished an inferior opponent from your home field.
1:03
Reporter:
"By 'everyone else' did you mean the team or ...just people in the stadium?"
Josh:
"Uh, I- mean, I'm not gonna say anything specific......"
Yeah you said enough.
Kid can be a great QB but he needs to shove his ego up his ass and learn to be a leader. This was a teaching moment for him, a leader wouldn't be celebrating, he would be apologizing to his defense for leaving a minute.
I bet all those who think it's OK for him to celebrate like that before a game is won have a lot of "participation trophies" on your shelves.
November 15th, 2015 at 2:41 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 9:48 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 3:13 AM ^
needs to happen...Iowa needs to stay undefeated until the Big10CCG...and there is that gane @Nebraska that I could easily see Iowa losing.
November 15th, 2015 at 5:54 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 6:03 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 6:41 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 6:47 AM ^
If we sneak in as the 4 seed, would hate to play Bama at the 1 seed. With their depth and or injuries, it could be a painful night.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:01 AM ^
Bama would not be the 1 seed. That will be Clemson.
November 15th, 2015 at 6:55 AM ^
That whatever happens, a team wants to lose early in the season, and not late. There is no time to atone for the punishment in rankings.
The injury situation worries me of course. But, the offense has come on pretty well in the last two contests, which is sort of the secret formula...need contributions from everyone at key moments, have to scratch out close wins..."find a way to stay alive"...
November 15th, 2015 at 7:00 AM ^
It's college football. There's still a long ways to go especially given the performance of the D this week (sans Glasgow). I'll start speculating once more dominos fall, and Michigan actually beats PSU.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:13 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 8:02 AM ^
ND is not in by winning out at all. They need Ok St to lose and even then may not be able to stay in fron of OK because of ND's lack of Power 5 quality wins.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:48 AM ^
Agree. a B1G champion or even a B12 champion would have a better resume than ND at the end of the year. I want this Independent S*** come back to bite them year after year so they can permanently join ACC and take Purdue with them for their second best rivalry game.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:08 AM ^
ND is not in if they win out. They would need OK St to lose and possibly Ok as well ND has very few wins over even decent power 5 teams. And that Stanford loss hurt them a lot. Temple now has two losses and will likely end up with at least 1 and quite possibly two more losses.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:33 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 7:50 AM ^
I assume you are completely discounting the possibility that Michigan wins out. As they say "that's why they play the games".
(And don't call me Jesus)
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^
I hear you. That is my main concern.
If we don't get in, I don't want any of rivals to get in. I include ND in this, but definitely not Illinois :)
I especially don't want MSU to get in. I will not be able to hear the end of it, even though this is probably their last year of a great chance for a while.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:34 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 7:45 AM ^
Bottom line: I'm not sure Michigan is really a top 4 team, but I love the fact we can have this discussion so late into the season in year one of Harbaugh.
Go Blue.
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November 15th, 2015 at 7:57 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 9:39 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 10:54 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 8:00 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^
And NorthWestern
November 15th, 2015 at 8:06 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:49 AM ^
What's interesting to be but not at all surprising is that we still maintain a slightly higher Sagarin rating than Iowa (#12 versus #16), but we are well below them (#9 versus #22) on Massey. Predictive algorithms are funny like that.
Iowa's porjected SOS was a big point of discussion in Big Ten circles back in August, and missing all the tougher matchups in the Big Ten East really have helped them out in ways I don't think we considered then. In some respects, that 10-0 record might be the lion's share of their current argument, because as others have mentioned, it hasn't exactly been a difficult 10-0.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:04 AM ^
Now, a bye week, several injuries and three WINS later and I feel very different. Even if we miraculously pull off two more wins (unlikely), I have to believe we would get mauled by anyone in the playoff.
You never know. Let's just show up and play hard.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:09 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:22 AM ^
Year one was going to have some tough transitions, and it makes a little sense that we struggle yesterday when the lynchpin of our DL, and maybe our whole defense, is now done for the year.
It sucks, but good teams find ways to keep winning. That's what happened.
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:44 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 9:18 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 9:57 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^
Hoke would have blathered about execution and then fallen asleep on a recruits couch.
Realize that Harbaugh is working with Hoke's team that went 5-7 last year. Come on, they won a game against Indiana. The Hoosiers took Ohio State to the last play of the game.
I'm not promising wins or championships, but be realistic. Hoke can't even dream of being the coach Harbaugh is.
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^
Did someone just get fired from Toys R Us.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:12 AM ^
Repair the damage to the D-line by the huge loss of Glasgow, and don't jump offsides 10 times. They do control their destiny amidst all this chaos.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:59 AM ^
Those penalties were killers. Made our Defense look worse than it was.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:21 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 8:23 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 9:00 AM ^
The number of people bashing Harbaugh was unbelievable, but the game wasn't going as well as expected. Sometimes, I am so glad I don't watch games in a bar. I would be in Jail because I punched out some a**hole for calling Harbaugh a bad coach.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:24 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 8:59 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 9:02 AM ^
As someone said, NorthWestern. And our offense is not swiss cheese either. And we would have beaten the Almight OSU.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:18 AM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 8:29 AM ^
After seven years (excepting 2011) of wondering whether we'd even be bowl-eligible entering into November, I'll take any serious or preposterous conversations about the CFP. Does anyone doubt that regardless of this season's outcome, we'll be consistently in said conversations going forward?
All I know is, this weird feeling's come over me during the MSU, Minny, and Indiana games. A strange, phantom feeling that's been missing for a long time. A feeling of confidence in our coaches. A feeling that they will do what it takes to put the team in a position to win. Not a feeling that for the next week I'll hear about how we practiced hard and tried to win the game, but came up short.
Combined with my overwhelming belief that this is a terminal gig for Harbaugh, I'm going to enjoy this catharsis to getting excited about our team, coaches, and prospects.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^