ESPN Way Too Early Top 25-Michigan #3

Submitted by Davymac97. on

Title says it all.  Brief write up about our recruiting class and how Rashan Gary and Devin Bush could step in right away.

I think this is the highest I've seen Michigan ranked in any of the "way too early" polls. 

Personally, I don't get as excited as I used to about being highly ranked early on in the year but the there's no turning back the locomotive now!!
 

Thoughts?

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14742276/alabama-crimson…

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denardogasm

February 9th, 2016 at 12:47 PM ^

It's obviously way too early, hence the title, but we're replacing a QB who became awesome late after being bad with a QB who was already good and will have had twice as long with Harbaugh coaching him up. The LB corps was bad, and is unlikely to get worse. Hopefully Brown can get them going since that's his jam.

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Perkis-Size Me

February 9th, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^

Depends on the DL as well and if they can stay healthy.

If we enter the OSU game next year as banged up on the DL as we were this season (Mone, Ojemudia, Glasgow all out off the top of my head), we may have to watch them gash us for another 300+ yards. And a season ending loss like that would be crushing for any hopes of a playoff. Which I still think we're a year or two away from anyway.



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ryebreadboy

February 9th, 2016 at 1:01 PM ^

The higher we are in the preseason the easier it is to make the playoffs. A loss doesn't drop you as far, and makes the climb back much more doable. That said, nothing matters as long as you just win, baby.



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the noid

February 9th, 2016 at 1:22 PM ^

I think 3 might be too high for the initial, and I think we will see that when the pre-season AP and Coaches Polls come out but look at it this way.

Pros:

-A lot of Returning Starters

-O'Korn-He has spent a year learning Harbaugh's system and working with the man himself.  His first season at Houston was better than most of what Ruddock showed prior to both joining the good guys.  He also has spring practice to be "The Guy" where Ruddock did not.  I don't see this as a hole in the line up but a strength

-Another year of continuity for most of the OL

-Don Brown-Killer Coach finally paired with tier 1 talent, look out world.

-B1G Best DL-Compared to who returns for everyone else and Blue, plus the Gary addition makes our DL early favorites for top unit in the Big Ten

-Best Secondary-Lewis and Clark, the CBs not the explorers look to be the best CB tandem in the Big Ten, pair them with Peppers as a HSP and promising safeties in Hill and Thomas.  This secondary excites me.

-First 7 games of the 2016 Season - 6 of the first 7 games are at home with the lone away contest in New Jersey, which I'm pretty sure at this time has officially been recognized as East Ann Arbor.

-Staff Continuity-For the most part the staff has resisted major changes, and where there were changes I think we improved Brown>Durkin.

Cons:

-RBs-No one seperated for me, outside of a few good games by the likes of Smith, Johnson, and Isaac, we were very unimpressive.  This could change if Smith is healthy, Isaac gets his head on straight, and Walker comes in ready to work with a chip on his shoulder from his late slide.

-LBs-Very little experience, but some potential in the returning group if they are healthy.  Don Brown I think makes a difference here and I think Devin Bush Jr. makes All Big Ten-Freshman Team.

-Special Teams-We lose one of the most entertaining Special Teams players that I can remember in Blake O'Neill as well as Special Teams Coordinator extraordinaire John Baxter.

-MSU and OSU away-Both lose a lot of players but will always be formidable opponents.

TL:DR-Fewer question marks than last year, better more expereinced talent, easier schedule, Top 5-6 initially feels right to me. 

 

 

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DrewGOBLUE

February 9th, 2016 at 1:38 PM ^

Yeah, I'm also optimistic that O'Korn will play well from the get go.

But for the sake of easing in a new QB, it's a good year to start off with some pretty awful non-conference teams. Hawaii and UCF are hot garbage, while Colorado is probably on par with Rutgers.

And given that O'Korn (assuming he wins the job) should know the playbook and have a better rapport with his receivers than Rudock initially did, hopefully any growing pains will be worked out before B1G play.

Plus he'll have had over a year of some guy named Jim Harbaugh coaching him up.

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gmgoblue1205

February 9th, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^

#3 is too high but my main concerns is the LBs on the defense that is the biggest weakness on the team. QBs are the last thing we all should worry about. If Harbaugh is the HC of the team that QB situation will be handled.

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The Oracle

February 9th, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^

Things look very promising, but the great unknown is what kind of QB play are they going to get, because that's obviously going to make a huge difference. If good Ruddock had been there at the beginning of the season, they would've beaten Utah and MSU fairly easily, I believe.

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Blukon Cornelius

February 9th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^

I understand that in response to being advised that his team is ranked #14 in ESPN's "Too Early" rankings, Markie D tweeted "Others are ranked on promise, while we are egregiously under-ranked based on our results."  He has since deleted the tweet.

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Ty Butterfield

February 9th, 2016 at 3:59 PM ^

Do not want. Ranked way too high. Schedule is brutal with both rivals on the road and Harbaugh is under even more pressure to win these games because of what happened last year. I seriously want to kill Brandon for letting the Big Ten fuck Michigan on scheduling.

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