Blowout a good team?
I was watching highlights from the 2006 Notre Dame game, and it got me thinking about about how great it was to beat the hell out of a quality team.
Obviously its been rough the past couple years, but one thing that would really make me feel good would be destroying one of the following opponents:
- OSU
- MSU
- Iowa
- Wisconsin
- Penn State
- Northwestern (borderline)
Just curious what everyone's opinion is on the possibility of this happening.
Penn State seems like the most likely candidate to me because of the uncertainty at quarterback and their losses at LB.
I would be fine with this happening multiple times this year.
I think we have our best chances against MSU and Penn State.
Penn State will have hiccups this year, but blowing them out is far to much of a reach.
MSU however...
I agree that it is a reach, but I think we have a better chance to blow them out than the other teams on that list (besides MSU). NW should not be a part of the list. Like OP stated, they are borderline.
Do some of you really think UM has a chance to blow out MSU this year? Why?
I understand the Kool Aid factor and the blasphemy of losing three times in a row to MSU, but look at this matchup on paper for a second. MSU returns almost all of their offense which ranked as one of the best in the B10 last year. Almost all of their receivers, QB, and running backs are back against the UM defense that lost their two best players. That game has every possibility of being very ugly for UM.
NU should be a good chance to win strongly this year, right? Didn't they lose a ton of experience?
We don't play Northwestern this year
Yeah, I caught that after they posted it below. Looking over the schedule, I'm not sure there is a BigTen team we would blow out this year.
I know it didnt happen last year, but Illinois is just not that good. I know things havent been going our way lately but one of these years we will blow them out badly. They have virtually no talent on either side of the ball and they have an absolutely terrible coach.
Without Juice I worry a lot less about the Illini. For some reason he was able to beat the hell out of Michigan's defense regularly.
Forgetting the obvious (MSU and OSU): UConn. Nothing could spin 2010 in the right direction better than blowing UConn out of the stadium.
And I mean a complete dismantling. Like 42-10 or something ridiculous like that.
I don't think this is a fantasy, either. It seems entirely plausible (albeit kind of unlikely) that Michigan kills UConn on September 4.
So that's my vote.
I couldn't agree more with wanting a UConn big win to start the season. I don't think there would be a better way to get the team some confidence and answer some of our pre-season questions.... This day cannot come fast enough.
Northwestern would be fun and all, but I don't think they're on the schedule next year.
Yeah, that would be correct. They also weren't on the schedule last year, either.
They're not on the schedule THIS year.
...to unleash the hell.
My vote is November 13 at Purdue and we'll see what that punk Danny Hope has to say about that.
One of UConn, Illinois or MSU is gonna have 60 dropped on them.
RR pwned UConn when he was at WVU. He knows what to do to beat up Edsall's team.
Illinois is starting a RS frosh QB this year and switching to a more pro-style attack with Paul Petrino. Growing pains, and their best defenders are gone.
MSU is self-explanatory.
Someone's getting the beatdown, and I predict Denard rushes for 4 TDs in said beatdown game.
RR owned Cincinnati at WVU. He's since lost to Dantonio twice.
The difference is that Dantonio isn't at Cincinnati anymore - he's at MSU. Edsall was and is at UConn.
"MSU is self-explanatory."
Why? Do you have any good reasons for saying this? You could be in for a very disappointing month of October, my friend. See my other post and please elaborate why you think MSU should be taken lightly this year. They have an explosive offense returning (minus one WR) against an incredibly futile, young defense.
We were complete underdogs, and the ND offense was touted as incredibly explosive. I'll admit, I was pretty scared the whole game, even when we were up by two scores. Somewhere in the 4Q our lead started to grow, and ND started to look defeated. That's when the fear started to subside. What a great feeling that was.
In fact, I actually woke up around 8AM that day, hung over as shit, thinking "Shit, I'm late for the game." Then I saw the time and went back to sleep. Dreamed about the game for about 3 hours before stumbling out to the living room to watch.
Good times.
"Somewhere in the 4Q our lead started to grow, and ND started to look defeated"
I think that PSU is young enough that if we get a lead in Happy Valley, they may lack the mental toughness to overcome an-ND like defeated feeling.
I have always been impressed with a typical PSU team's mental toughness, even when we were owning them 1997-and-beyond. This doesn't appear to me to be a typical PSU team, though.
It's worth remembering that, even after that point, ND came back & reclaimed the lead. Can't count a team out until it's over, esp. when we're on the road.
ND never led in 2006. After the first quarter, they barely kept it within two scores.
but for the moment PSU looks like they might be headed into a lull. Youth on the team and advanced age leading it aren't strengthened by seemingly lackluster recruiting. This team seems to be leaking some blood into the water.
They have had some relly good classes the past couple years. The 2011 class looks like it may be a step down from that, but it is still very early in the process. I do sense that a lull is coming, though, but I don't expect to see it on the field for a couple more years.
The twilight of the Paterno years. With every year beginning with the question of whether your coach will be alive, let alone coaching, next season really has an impact on recruiting. Eventually, in the not too distant future, Paterno will retire and then they'll go through the transition phase of someone trying to "fill the shoes" of a legend. That never goes well.
I see PSU having two options: 1) get a coach with similar style to Joe Pa, have the possibility of building decent seasons with similar players, or 2) go the way of UM and Notre Dame and go for the spread coach. Suffer a few years of sucking bad in the hopes that when you emerge from the gutting/transition phase you are a solid team that produces at the level of the top national programs.
Most likely? Purdue or Illinois. The teams got a thing for both of them, and if we've truely gotten back to being Michigan, reflecting that on both of these two ought to be very possible.
Most desired? UConn or MSU. UConn because it means starting the year out with a bang and plenty of momentum. Kind of like how it was beating up WMU last year, only better. MSU because its time we put them back in their place. They've been talking all kinds of trash the last few years, and the best way to shut them up is to make up for the point descrepency of the last few years all at once (and then some).
I hate to do this, but was that 2006 Notre Dame team really that good of a team?
They played 4 ranked teams and went 1-3. All 3 losses were blowouts. They did blow out #25 Penn State, but the yardage was even, PSU just lost the turnover battle decidedly.
A lot of the teams they beat on their schedule had down years on top of that.
that good, but any ND beatdown is typcially fun for me.
not from the MAC that aren't named Delaware St....?
I will cackle with glee if DR and Tate lay the smackdown on a Big Ten team this year, especially Sparty.
often involve lopsided turnover margins, and Michigan has been on the wrong side of those margins the last couple of years. It's probably not unreasonable to expect be on the good end at some point this year.
fallacy.
It's too bad Minnesota isn't on our schedule. We would blow them out, along with every other team in the B10.
I'd like to see a sound win over Iowa, which some expect to win the Big 10 this year. It's UM's Homecoming, we played at their Homecoming last year. We seem to trade a lot of Homecomings with Iowa.
To me if we can just go out onto the field, execute correctly, and win soundly, I will consider any victory valid.
Yes I would love to see us blow out OSU and MSU and everyone in the BigTen, but if we can just get back to doing what we know and start executing plays correctly, playing fundamentally sound football, and winning, then I will be satisfied. Even if it's only by 7-10 points.
I hate msu football more than anything. I hope we embarrass them.
to be blown out at the big house. Though, true blowouts will probably not occur until our defense dramatically improves. I think we will take steps in that direction this season...and I hoping in another couple years the defense will be tops! Pair a good to great defense with an experience spread offense and you are looking at a recipe for plenty of blowouts down the road.
O LET DO IT!
I am a current student and entering my second year at Purdue. I love it except for Purdue athletics (lifelong UM fan @ PU due to rising OOS tuition and PU Engr). It all changed after the UM-PU game and post game shenanigans. No longer will I root for Purdue. I will only go to their games to watch college football, check out common UM opponents, and quietly snicker when Purdue falters. Do I lack school spirit? No. I like Purdue; however, I bleed only maize and blue.
Along with other notable dates come this fall, I have November 13 encrypted in my brain. I will be decked out in Maize and Blue in the pathetic Purdue student section.
I will wrap it up saying I have never had such built up hatred over such a quick amount of time for any person, place, or thing as I've had for Danny Hope and Purdue football. I literally hope Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines run a train over Purdue.
Boiler up. I graduated from Purdue class of 2005. I know exactly how you feel. Purdue athletics became dead to me last fall. I will still root for them against our common opponents but I hope Rich Rod pounds the living crap out of Hope. I will be in West Lafayette for the Michigan game. I will definitely wear Michigan gear. I am always up for having a mgotailgate for any other Michigan fans displaced in West Lafayette that want to skip breakfest club.
Michigan State has an ass-beatin coming their way this year. A bad one, a "damn, that is an ass-beatin'" type ass-beatin. Sparty and its fan base have talked all kinds of mess the last two years and the chickens will come home this season, take it to the bank. Of all the breeds of M-bashers, the Spartans are the least informed and most naive. At least OSU, PSU etc. fans know that their superiority to Michigan is only temporary, and that they should tread lightly to minimize retribution. Sparty just doesn't get it, not yet at least.
"At least OSU, PSU etc. fans know that their superiority to Michigan is only temporary"
I haven't seen a single buckeye fan that has said anything remotely along those lines. I dont know where you're pulling your facts from, but I'm calling shenanigans. I dont really know any PSU fans so I cant say either way regarding them but they're a big-time enough program that I'd be surprised if there were many willing to throw their school under the UM bus.
of both named schools. Almost to a person, they understand and appreciate the transition being made and also note the kind of athletes that are signing with Michigan. MSU fans on the other hand, actually believe that there has been a long term, perhaps permanent power shift in the State. They will tell you so, just ask.
I get that MSU is delusional. I'm not arguing that. What I am calling into question is whether OSU actually considers themselves only "temporarily superior" to us. Most OSU fans consider themselves currently, and historically, the best team in the Big Ten on average for the past 50 years. I have not run into any OSU fans that say anything remotely along the lines of "Michigan is probably the best team, but we're #2!"
perhaps "knowing that their superiority is temporary" was not well-worded. It was not my intention to imply that OSU, PSU, etc. envision a time in the future where Michigan is king and they are yesterdays news. I guess it may have been more apt to say that the fan bases of those schools know that Michigan will soon kick the shit out of MSU and the like on a regular basis while the MSU fan base has yet to realize it. Of course, OSU fan does not see themself as number 2, but most usually realize and admit that once the dust settles an any given periodic anomoly, it is OSU v. UM for conference superiority.
Fair enough and completely on board with the logic in this post. I think the one thing OSU and UM fans can always agree on is that OSU vs. UM is the Big Ten more often than not. PSU and to a lesser degree Iowa/Wisc (and in the future Neb) sometimes spice things up, but there's a reason why UM + OSU have won a combined 75+ Big Ten titles.
I can understand it, but hey, I've only been hearing it from recruits so what do I know, right?
Recruits specifically saying things like "MSU is where my friends want to be" and "UM has a lot of problems right now."
No, OF COURSE it is only some saying it and OF COURSE some kids want to join UM, but the quality of kids that have been committing to MSU in the last few years from Michigan and Ohio has increased dramatically. It is worth noting on the recruiting front that kids are taking a stronger look at MSU. One of the biggest reasons is because those old glory days of the 90s for UM football are now becoming irrelevent. Kids don't remember the 1997 national title because the kids being recruited now were only toddlers. If UM does not start seriously heading back to the top of the sport they risk slipping further in the minds of high schoolers.