2010 Record - You Decide Our Fate
You have the power (You are kind of a Big Deal) to determine UM's 2010 football record, however, you have to pick from the following opions - which one and why?
a) 9-3, New Year's Day Bowl, BUT losses to ND, MSU, and OSU
b) 8-4, Beat ND and MSU, but losses to Iowa, Purdue, Wisco, and OSU (starting 8-1)
c) 7-5 and beating OSU
Hey, it's over a month away from the start of the season...
Any of the scenarios saves RR's job and establishes some stability necessary for recruiting, so I choose C for the following reasons:
1) get that monkey off our backs, stop all the trash talking, there is no longer one dominant Big Ten team
2) last game of the season - momentum going into 2011 season (I'm assuming a bowl win). And I do believe a win over OSU will get us a 2011 pre-season ranking - its all about potential, and winning that last game shows great potential
3) RR proves he can beat a team with more depth/talent - he can out-coach the top Big Ten coach
This is a great hypothetical.
It's close but I will take A.
To discount the others:
B) Finishing with three losses in a row would be brutal. After last year's terrible finish - I cannot take that again. The only good thing about this one (other than 8 wins) is beating two of our biggest three rivals (unfortunately one of those is not OSU).
C) The OSU rivalry is the most important, obviously. But is it more important than 2 extra wins and a new years day bowl game? I miss new years day bowl games.....
I would go for A. I think most recruits are more interested in overall record than beating your rival. As much as I hate OSU winning another year, I think A would put us more in line to start our own win streak against them.
If it means we are B10 Champs because in 2011 we will be in position to win the National Championship.
...unless we won the bowl game convincingly. Having a good start but a bad finish can hurt the team's mental state going into the next season, whereas a bad start but a strong finish could help it.
Option A would be the best: in all probability, everyone would write us off after the MSU game as we would be 4-2 with the tough part of our schedule still to come. Then, with back to back upsets over Iowa and PSU leading to a 5-game winning streak including a win over Wisconsin, everyone would be talking about how resilient this team is, how RR had saved his job, and how good we will be in 2011. Losing to OSU in a game we aren't supposed to win anyway wouldn't change this perception, especially if the game is close. Overall this would be very similar to the 1998 season, where we got off to a horrible start but finished strong before losing to OSU.
Def not A. I cant take another year of taunting from my MSU office mates. They won two in a row for the first time in a long time and now they think theyre going to rule the next 10 years. We need to show them that theyre still little brother. This for me is the most important game of the year.
I thought we were going undefeated this year.
That we're even considering it is reason to call us crazy.
But honestly: C.
Ohio State will have 0 to 2 losses at that point. They'll probably be in discussions for the National Championship. We will have one of our worst teams ever. Win that, and it's 1969 all over again.
Exactly. We might be in a position to play spoiler this year against OSU. I would really like to knock them out of a possible BCS game.
But do you really want to choose a hypothetical that has us having one of our worst seasons ever? We'd take a beating in the press all season before OSU. It wouldn't be 1969 all over again. In 1969, we won the Big Ten title and went to the Rose Bowl. This scenario would be a lot more like 1996, where we salvaged a disappointing season by upsetting OSU. That win, while satisfying, did not take the heat off Carr. Going 7-5 and beating OSU probably wouldn't get the heat off RR, either.
No question. Fuck ohio state, nothing better than going into their house and pissing on their cheerios.
Gun to my head answer: C (making up some of the 5 losses in my imagination and to tell you the truth, they're not that bad ... a couple heart breakers, some dumb luck, a bad call that jobbed the good guys, we outgain all of them, etc.)
OSU losing to a then 6-5 Michigan team in Columbus would be sweet like 90's decade sweet Michigan victories over OSU. At that point, 7-5 would likely put Michigan in a winnable bowl game and so would have a decent chance of ending up 8-5 with pretty good momentum for 2011.
I would rather take option C given it also includes a win over MSU aswell. I would also love to beat ND, winning aginst MSU and OSU are mroe important this year. Beating both of thsoe teams will set us up very nicely for recrutiing in both Michigan and Ohio (huge recruting year expected for 2012).
...then it changes the dynamic of it pretty drastically, no?
Beating OSU, plus a winning record and bowl game sounds awesome. Plus, it doesn't say who the rest of the wins and losses are against, so maybe we knock off Iowa or Wisconsin as well.
I'd have to go with A. This would mean we were 9-2 going into OSU, and ranked pretty high for most of the end of the season. It would mean wins against Iowa and Wisconsin as well as at PSU. It would mean a season opening win over UConn and revenge wins against Purdue and Illinois. It would mean playing in a major bowl game that a lot of recruits would be watching (probably the Capital One Bowl). It's the only option that gives us the possibility of a 10-win season and a top 15 finish.
I hate losing to all three of those teams, but with all the other good teams on our schedule this year, losing to only those three would be a great season.
Losing to all three of those teams would be a bummer, although I don't think UM would be ranked high all year. Starting the year off 1-1 would definitely have UM out of the Top 25, and winning 3 straight against BGSU, 1-AA and Indiana might not get them back in the Top 25. Even if they were in the Top 25 heading into the MSU game a loss there and they fall back out. However, if they were 9-2 heading into OSU, they would probably be around the Top 10.
As much as I would hate losing to the 3 rivals, this is the one option that has UM finishing the season strong and getting a lot of good national publicity at the end of the year and during bowl season. Both of those would hopefully go a long way in helping UM finish strong recruiting wise. The last thing I want to see is another fade down the stretch (option B I believe) or an up and down year (C I believe). I really want to exit the '10 season knowing that UM is solidly back on the right track.
If UM is 9-2 heading into OSU with one loss to ND, the only way UM isn't playing OSU for the right to get the Big Ten's automatic berth to the BCS is if MSU only has one conference loss and either Northwestern and/or Minnesota are having a miracle run through the big ten conference.
But since I'm in charge of things we beat MSU on the way. I'm not sure if I can take another year losing to them.
I want us to have the best season possible. 9-3 is better than 8-4 and 7-5, period. Let OSU and Sparty obsess about rivalries. My self-esteem can handle losing to them if it's in the midst of an otherwise good season.