Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line, Linebacker 

We have made it to the end of The Enemy, Ranked 2023. Just like last year, I'm counting DB-shaped HSPs as DBs, but in reality that really only affects one team on this ranking, which is Indiana's "HUSKY". Most teams here have five positions listed with the nickel being included because this is 2023 and most CFB teams play with 5 DBs most all of the time. At the end of the piece I will briefly drop in special teams rankings and then will wrap this whole series up by reviewing what we learned about the opponents on Michigan's 2023 schedule. 

 

12. East Carolina

CB	CB	S	S
Shavon Revel	Isaiah Brown-Murray	Teagan Wilk	Julius Wood
TyMir Brown	Jonathon Jones	Dontavius Nash

This is pretty grim. On the plus side of things, Teagan Wilk and Julius Wood are a pair of returning safeties, two-thirds of last year's safety rotation. On the down side, they weren't particularly special. More concerning: the top four corners from last season and nickel Gerard Stringer all are out the door. Yikes!! The wreckage that remains are the following names: Shavon Revel (ex-JUCO who played sparingly last year), Isaiah Brown-Murray (3*, RS last year), Jonathon Jones (good at FCS Campbell), and TyMir Brown (ex-3* UNC down-transfer who never played for North Carolina). Take your pick of those names, it's likely not going to be pretty! This is bad even for a Group of 5 program and in the context of this list, ECU is easily last. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more DB rooms]

 

[BGSU Athletics]

11. Bowling Green

CB	CB	S	S	NB
Jalen Burton	Jordan Oladokun	Trent Simms	Shamoun Duncan-Niusulu	Jordan Jackson
Jalen Huskey	Deshawn Jones Jr.	Steve Lubischer	Darius Lorfils	Patrick Day

BGSU's secondary is in a demonstrably better place than that of East Carolina, with a trio of returning corners, but still enough question marks to keep them below a more-sturdy UNLV room among non-conference opponents. Those corners are the primary reason for optimism, Jalen Burton, Jordan Oladokun, and Jordan Jackson. Of those three, Oladokun is the one approaching impact player status but there's nothing wrong with having three players with experience return and expecting further progression from each. Trent Simms is also back at safety, but like two of the corners he, too, has PFF grades in the 50s, indicating a level of play that will need to improve in order for this group to climb higher on the rankings. The other vacant starter spot may be Shamoun Duncan-Nisulu's, but nickel Patrick Day could give it a go, same with Steve Lubischer. 

 

10. UNLV

CB	CB	S	S	NB
Cameron Oliver	Ricky Johnson	Jonathan Baldwin	Jaxen Turner	Jarrae Williams
Jett Elad	Davone Walden Jr.		Jordyn Morgan	Jalen Frazier

I debated putting UNLV ahead of the next team on the list, because I do think it's close (and I wouldn't be surprised if they end up out-producing the team at #9), but for talent reasons, I opted to leave the Rebels here. That said, there are reasons to be optimistic about this DB room. They return four starters and add a P5 starter from Arizona in Jaxen Turner, who I do expect to supplant returner Jordyn Morgan (yes, it's spelled differently) as the starter at FS. The other returning safety, Jonathan Baldwin, is a quality Gof5 player who has a shot to be All-MWC this season. That's a nice place to start off. Jarrae Williams slots in as a returning nickel and Cameron Oliver as a returning outside corner, both of whom were fine for the team last season, while they are filling a hole at CB2. Options include Ricky Johnson and Jett Elad, the latter of whom had a strong spring. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

9. Indiana

CB	CB	S	S	HUSKY
Jamier Johnson	Kobee Minor	Josh Sanguinetti	Louis Moore	Noah Pierre
Nic Toomer	Jamari Sharpe		Tyrik McDaniel

Guess what, Michigan State? You're not last (among B1G opponents)! The decimated Indiana secondary gets docked one slot below a Spartan DB room that has been the worst in America the last couple seasons for purely continuity/experience reasons, though I did debate leaving them higher because of Tom Allen's better track record with DBs. That said, the aforementioned track record was called into some question when multiple multi-year starters got significantly worse last season for the Hoosiers and now all of the pieces that once constituted a weirdly good Hoosier secondary back in 2019 and 2020 (fake) have moved on. The only returning starter is their HSP Noah Pierre, who plays the "HUSKY", my favorite weird position name in college football. He's okay. 

The rest looks really grim at this time. Josh Sanguinetti at least has been a recurring background character on their depth chart for a few years but has yet to be starter caliber and then the other three spots are untested and/or transfers. S Louis Moore played two years at JUCO and then played only 33 snaps last season on defense for IU. He's a projected starter, with another JUCO transfer behind him as the third option. At corner, they fished Kobee Minor out of Texas Tech and Jamier Johnson out of Texas. The catch is, neither played a substantial role for their teams, both under 150 snaps.

And if either of them don't start, it may be Nic Toomer, who was a rotational corner at Stanford. When you toss in Jamari Sharpe, who redshirted in 2022, none of these guys have any substantial CFB experience (Toomer has the most), and none of the limited snaps they've played have demonstrated in any way that they are potential impact pieces. Also, only Jamier Johnson was inside the top 800 in the composite of the year they came out of HS(!) and now all but one have a transfer involved too. It's looking pretty terrible in Bloomington.  

 

[Bryan Fuller]

8. Michigan State

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Charles Brantley	Chester Kimbrough	Jaden Mangham	Dillon Tatum	Angelo Grose
Semar Melvin	Terry Roberts		Malik Spencer

In a world where any of the non-conference foes have competent Gof5 DB rooms, IU and MSU would be in the 11-10 range, but that's not the world we live in. Oh well, rejoice at being 8th, MSU fans! Michigan State loses some of the pieces off their defense last year, three nominal starters in Ameer Speed at corner and then Xavier Henderson and Kendell Brooks, but it's not like they soaked up all the snaps and many of these replacements did see some time, which is the case for ranking MSU ahead of Indiana. The two returning starters are Charles Brantley, a corner who has shown me little in two years at MSU except for the INT to seal the 2021 MSU-Michigan game. Angelo Grose was once a safety and is now a nickel, also not particularly good. "Multi-year starter in a DB room among the worst in the P5 for two years running" is not really a ringing endorsement. 

Chester Kimbrough was probably the best corner they had last year, so getting him back out of the portal was a bit of a win for Mel Tucker. Still not anywhere close to star territory. The transfer corners that MSU got to be reserves this season are moderately intriguing, Semar Melvin less so as a corner who struggled to get on the field at Wisconsin but Terry Roberts was once decent at Iowa. Not ideal to see a down-transfer in terms of secondary rooms, but if you want to get competent DBs, there are worse places to look than Iowa. That said, if Roberts is not beating out Brantley, it's likely not happening. 

The safeties are fresher faces. Jaden Mangham played some last year and didn't stand out to me in any major way but he is a 4* true sophomore, so improvement is expected. Speaking of 4* true sophomores, Dillon Tatum! The West Bloomfield product is a player Spartan Nation has pegged considerable hopes on, so development from him is crucial too. In totality, it's hard to see this group getting a ton better because it's a lot of the same faces, but there is perhaps upside to be tapped into with the safeties. And at the very least, comparing it to Indiana, MSU is internally promoting more than scouring the trash heap for transfer DBs. This room has more talent and a bit more continuity, so they edge ahead of Indiana for 8th. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

7. Purdue 

CB	CB	S	S
Marquis Wilson	Salim Turner-Muhammad	Cam Allen	Sanoussi Kane
Braxton Myers	Botros Alisandro		Anthony Brown

Ryan Walters strolls into Purdue and some of his DB sorcery is going to be needed in year one to get this group to where it needs to be. I should first note that there's no fifth box here because I'm not exactly sure how Purdue's defense will look under Walters. If it's like Illinois', they should have a fifth DB called the "STAR" but I haven't seen that noted on any of the online depth charts, so I'm holding off until we see them this year. Walters does have the benefit of a pair of returning starters at safety in Cam Allen and Sanoussi Kane, neither of whom were abject trainwrecks but neither were stars either. With Walters' coaching, perhaps they can progress forwards towards quality play in 2023. 

The corner position, though, is where help is definitely needed: not a single scholarship corner from last season returns for the Boilers in 2023. Salim Turner-Muhammad got some action at Stanford over four years, but never progressed into a true starter. I'm not terribly optimistic that he can progress into that sort of player, but if there's anyone who could try and coax it out of him, it's Ryan Walters. The recent exit of Jamari Brown means the other spot is a bit up in the air between a horde of transfers. I have Marquis Wilson listed as the starter, since he played 248 snaps at Penn State last season and PFF graded him out okay. When you're playing real snaps at one of the best secondaries in the country, that to me gives you reason for optimism. Especially because the other options are very much untested, a pair of Ole Miss transfers Braxton Myers and Markevious Brown, JUCO corner Botros Alisandro, or a 3* Tr Fr like Zion Gunn. These corners won't be good, but the safeties also shouldn't be terrible. They should have good coaching. That's enough to get them to 7th over Indiana and MSU. 

 

6. Nebraska

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Quinton Newsome	Malcolm Hartzog	Omar Brown	Marques Buford Jr.	Isaac Gifford
Tommi Hill		Corey Collier	Phalen Sanford

The most stable part of Nebraska's defense entering 2023 is the secondary room, which returns four out of five starters from last season and was planning on retaining the fifth until further off-the-field issues intervened with Myles Farmer. None of these players are stars, some toe the line of bad, but there were no cyans among these four players on last year's FFFF diagram when the Huskers came to Ann Arbor. That right there zooms Nebraska up above the three B1G opponents on this list previously! Quinton Newsome is a corner that Husker message boards don't seem to like but I had no problem with him in the game I charted last year and neither did PFF. Nickel Isaac Gifford is in the same boat as Newsome for me. Malcolm Hartzog is undersized and was clearly a cut below Newsome last season but for a Who Dat recruit starting in the P5 as a true freshman, nothing to scoff at.

Safety may have a few more questions, with Marques Buford Jr. mostly being fine. The one open spot on this depth chart may be won by Omar Brown, an FCS star at Northern Iowa who transferred to Nebraska last offseason but didn't play much last year for the Huskers. Idk, he's probably okay. If not, Corey Collier is a former top 150 recruit for Florida who saw little time in Gainesville and has transferred in. Unless Matt Rhule's staff can coach one of these guys up (which is possible), Nebraska doesn't project to have a star but no weak spots and plenty of returning production is more than enough to check in at #6 on the list. 

 

[Paul Sherman]

5. Rutgers

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Max Melton	Robert Longerbeam	Desmond Igbinosun	Flip Dixon	Shaquan Loyal
Eric Rogers	Kessawn Abraham		Thomas Amankwaa

Rutgers loses some good players at safety and corner, yet are still in a very reasonable position coming into this 2023 season in the secondary. The headliner of this DB room is Max Melton, a cornerback who has been able to move past off the field shenanigans to become a quality B1G starter for the Scarlet Knights. Though they lose the nominal starter opposite him from last season, Christian Braswell (who was also pretty good), both Robert Longerbeam and Kessawn Abraham have played 400+ snaps in one of the past two years. Longerbeam logged 475 for RU last season and was fine. Abraham was a legit starter who got some buzz in 2021 before injuries hit last year. I'd bet Greg Schiano is very comfortable with that competition, and that's going on at the outside while I project Shaquan Loyal as a plenty competent nickel (he could play safety too). 

Assuming Loyal is at nickel, I have safety being held down by Desmond Igbinosun and Flip Dixon, which is likely a real drop-off over last year's Christian Izien and Avery Young, but it shouldn't be a catastrophic drop. Igbinosun did play significant snaps and as a now-true junior, should be rounding into proper form. Rutgers somehow stole Dixon from Minnesota via the portal, who has the potential to be an adequate player in his own right after playing only 400 snaps for the Gophers last year (very close to starter status). Like Nebraska there may not be true stars here (though Melton may be), but I don't see obvious weak spots and I am a fan of what Schiano has built up here in the secondary for Rutgers, enough to take #5 on this list. 

 

4. Minnesota 

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Justin Walley	Tyler Bride	Tyler Nubin	Darius Green	Jack Henderson
Tariq Watson	Tre'Von Jones		Coleman Bryson

The Minnesota secondary has a case for having the best single DB on Michigan's schedule outside of a certain corner for Penn State at #1, and he may have a case over him. That would be S Tyler Nubin, and his star power is what ranks the Gophers at 4th on our list. He does everything you want a safety to do, find the ball, hit, don't miss a tackle, and that is what has him tracking towards the first round of the NFL Draft. Really good! Justin Walley returns at corner also and he showed good coverage skills in 2022, enough to be an asset in the Minnesota secondary in spite of tackling ups and downs. 

Those two players give Minnesota a reasonable floor, but there are some holes to plug through transfers. Tyler Bride comes in via Georgia Southern, while Tre'Von Jones arrives via Elon. RS Fr Tariq Watson is also an option to place the departed Terrell Smith at corner. I'm not sure which direction they go, the transfers have been solid in college but are facing a huge step up in competition, so they may need to be seen on the field before making a full decision. However, like with nickel Jack Henderson (elite FCS player at Southeastern Louisiana) and safety Darius Green (internal promotion), I'm giving some benefit of the doubt to Minnesota and the good defensive track record they've established under PJ Fleck. It's that track record, plus the return of Nubin, that puts them up to 4th on our list, but the margins aren't terribly wide between them or the teams at 5/6 (or frankly, 2/3). 

 

[Patrick Barron]

3. Maryland

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Ja'Quan Sheppard	Corey Coley Jr.	Dante Trader Jr.	Beau Brade	Tarheeb Still
Gavin Gibson	Lionell Whitaker		Avantae Williams

I wasn't terribly high on Maryland's DBs going into last season but then they really surprised me and had a pretty good year, sending both Jakorian Bennett (4th rounder) and Deonte Banks (1st rounder!!) off to the NFL. That means the cornerback room is a little uncertain, but they do still have three returning starters in the secondary overall and picked up a transfer starter from Cincinnati (nothing to scoff at). Let's start with the returners, safeties Dante Trader Jr. and Beau Brade, who finished as Maryland's top two tacklers last season (never something you want to say about safeties, but that's more of an indictment of the front seven to me). Brade was a favorite of mine last year, the Dangerman on FFFF, while Trader was cyan'd, but his PFF grades were much better later in the year, so I reckon if I'd done the diagram again in November, he'd have been freed from that distinction. One star and one player who should approach decency, with Miami transfer Avantae Williams as a third option. 

The corner position is a bit more uncertain but there are some talented players. Tarheeb Still returns as a nondescript nickel option, while the corner roles seem to be split between Cincy transfer and All-AAC selection Ja'Quan Sheppard and returners Corey Coley Jr. and Gavin Gibson, now 3rd and 2nd year players, respectively. Sheppard is an interesting case, lauded at Cincy but the PFF scores disagree and Seth (in HTTV) thinks the hardware was a function of Sheppard being thrown at a lot and thus racking up PBUs. Either way, he's a player who started at a legit program and that's not nothing. Coley and Gibson have both shown moments as underclassmen and now are looking to build on those performances. I am certainly not in love with Maryland's secondary, but it has a little more stability than Minnesota's and after putting two corners in the NFL, they are starting to build a bit more of a track record. Again, the margins between 6-2 on this list are very small, none of these rooms I'd really classify as "good", but 3rd was the spot I felt most comfortable placing the turtles. 

 

2. Ohio State

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Denzel Burke	Jordan Hancock	Ja'Had Carter	Lathan Ransom	Sonny Styles
Jyaire Brown	Davison Igbinosun	Josh Proctor	Cam Martinez

Man do I hate ranking OSU second given what happened to them at the end of last season but at the same time, was there a better argument? Iowa's not on the schedule, neither is Illinois, and I don't love any of the teams from 3-5 on this list. But neither do I love the Buckeye secondary by any means, and they are closer to 3 than 1 on this list. So keep that in mind. 

Ohio State's secondary returns two starters rather infamous for performances in The Game over the past two seasons, Lathan Ransom (everything that happened in 2022) and Denzel Burke (multiple devastating deep shots vs. Cornelius Johnson). Yeah. Now look, neither are outright bad players, at least not against most opponents in Ransom's case. For him, he has to figure out how to play against elite competition, as his three worst performances last season were against Michigan, Georgia, and PSU per PFF grades and the ole eye test. For Burke, it's a matter of taking a step forward after flatlining in 2022, a year that blunted hopes that his promising freshman 2021 campaign will end up with him in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. 

[Patrick Barron]

It's actually the other players in this secondary that I like a bit more than those returning starters. The Buckeyes fished Ja'Had Carter out of the portal from Syracuse and Davison Igbinosun from Ole Miss. Most mysterious to me is the fact that Igbinosun, who was a solid SEC starter at Ole Miss (who Michigan pursued in the portal), is battling Jordan Hancock in fall camp, a younger player who has not yet shown much at the FBS level. As for Carter, he was also an acceptable P5 starter at Syracuse and may have an inside track to a starting role over longtime OSU safety Josh Proctor, though Proctor is probably the first safety off the bench. If there is a player to somewhat spooked by here, it may be 5* sophomore Sonny Styles, a truly freakish athlete who could be a tremendous asset in covering TEs as a nickel. 

How do we tie this OSU DB room together? Burke, while not spectacular, is a multi-year starter with underlying talent. Igbinosun (if he starts) and Carter are both P5 starters who shouldn't be sore spots. Styles is a 5*, even Ransom was good against 9 of the 12 teams on the schedule. There is some experienced depth in the case of Martinez and Proctor. Is that better than Maryland? Idk, probably? The baseline talent and and the results of last year on the whole, against most teams on the schedule, were good enough to put OSU tentatively here among a general mid-off between teams ranked 2-6 on this list. Please bring on someone with an actually good secondary though!!! 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

1. Penn State

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Kalen King	Johnny Dixon	Keaton Ellis	Zakee Wheatley	Daequan Hardy
Cam Miller	Elliot Washington II		Jaylen Reed

Another defensive ranking where the Nittanys take the top spot. PSU was an elite pass defense last season and have a considerable amount of production returning. Some may look at the above chart and wonder how they return two starting corners given the departed Joey Porter Jr., but JPJ actually played fewer snaps than Johnny Dixon last season due to injury. Thus Dixon gets the nominal returning starter label. Also of note, Dixon played pretty well and when paired with Kalen King, one of the B1G's very best corners, that's an excellent 1-2 punch at an extremely important position. Nickel Daequan Hardy does bring the mood down a bit after a very bumpy season that saw him demoted at times, but it's not like he is inexperienced either. If needed, Cam Miller is a 4* player in his second year who got on the field some last year and Elliot Washington II is a 4* true freshman, at a position where young players can often succeed right away. 

Up at the safety level PSU loses Ji'Ayir Brown, which is a bummer, but the returning Keaton Ellis was fine and should take a step forward in his second year as a starter after taking over for Jaquan Brisker last season. Penn State under Franklin also has an excellent track record when it comes to developing safeties, so I have to think Ellis is in good hands. The same could be said for whoever wins the battle to replace Brown, be it Zakee Wheatley or Jaylen Reed (not to be confused with the ex-Spartan WR Jayden Reed). Both logged over 350 snaps last season and should continue to progress. The PSU DB room has everything you want, lots of players with experience, a bona fide stud/1st round pick caliber starter, and gaping weak spots (Hardy is the closest to it). They are first on this list by a considerable margin over the Bucks and will be the toughest pass defense JJ McCarthy sees this regular season. 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

Where would Michigan rank? 

Typically I don't do a chart for Michigan, because all of us Michigan fans are familiar with the depth chart, but let's do it just for the heck of it: 

CB	CB	S	S	Nk
Will Johnson	Josh Wallace	Rod Moore	Makari Paige	Mike Sainristil
Ja'Den McBurrows	Amorion Walker	Keon Sabb	Quinten Johnson	Zeke Berry

At least at the starter level, only Nebraska on this list brings back the same amount of production as Michigan. Will Johnson ended up playing more snaps than Gemon Green, so he gets the starter tag and then both safeties + Sainristil were all clear starters, meaning 4/5 return. Toss in Josh Wallace, a multi-year FBS starter (albeit not P5), and that's a pretty veteran place to be. Given that Moore/Paige are both All-B1G caliber safeties, Sainristil is as good as there is at nickel, and Will Johnson is a superstar in the making (if not already there), we should basically just be having a discussion of Michigan vs. PSU for the purpose of this list (again, Iowa's inclusion would make it more interesting but alas). 

Breaking down Michigan against Penn State, Will Johnson vs. Kalen King is probably close to a push, or at least merely a marginal advantage in some direction. Wallace vs. Dixon is similar too, but you likely lean Dixon given he's played in the B1G before. Michigan has the advantage at both safety spots and nickel. Depth-wise, I do think that PSU has the edge given that some of their backups have actually played real roles, while Michigan's are quite green (albeit very talented players). What's the summation? Like LBs I think it's pretty close but based on giving weight to the starters, I do lean towards Michigan, especially when both teams have one wobbly-ish spot, outside CB2 for Michigan and nickel for PSU. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

Special Teams???

I am not doing a full post on special teams because I don't have enough to say, nor will I say a ton here. But these are my special teams rankings so we can include them in the conclusion below:

1.) Indiana

2.) Penn State

3.) Ohio State

4.) Rutgers

5.) Nebraska

6.) Maryland

7.) Minnesota

8.) Bowling Green 

9.) Purdue

10.) MSU

11.) ECU

12.) UNLV 

The team that would no doubt be #1 but isn't on the schedule is Iowa. In which case, Indiana takes the top spot on this ranking after finishing 39th in the FEI special teams ranking last season and now they return punter James Evans and more importantly, 1st Team All-B1G return man Jaylin Lucas. There is a new kicker for the Hoosiers, but I liked what they offer a bit more than PSU, a team with a transfer kicker/punter, though both seem promising. PSU's ranking is bolstered by consistently good special teams ratings in the Franklin tenure, including a 27th-placed finish last season in the FEI numbers. 

Ohio State loses Noah Ruggles at K, who, outside of the devastating missed kick against Georgia, was an awesome kicker for them. The return of Jesse Mirco does keep them in the top five. Nebraska I expect to move up with lots of returning production and a new coach who should care vastly more about special teams than Scott Frost ever did. Taking up the rear are ECU and UNLV, both of whom finished beyond 100 in the FEI ratings last season and both see some new pieces sliding into the lineup. Among B1G foes, Michigan State ranks at the bottom after losing Bryce Baringer, the star punter who was the sole reason the Spartans were "only" 72nd in FEI. All new punter, kicker, and punt returners means the green & white have a lot to prove on special teams in 2023. 

If Michigan were on this list, I'd probably rate them second, slightly above Penn State. The Nittany Lions are the comparable for Michigan, new kicker/punter but a very strong record of special teams success. Michigan finished top 10 in FEI special teams ratings in each of the last four full seasons (not counting 2020) and it wouldn't shock me if it happens again given the recruiting hype for Tommy Doman and the level of play showed by James Turner in 2020 and 2022. Michigan's track record is superior to PSU, even if PSU's under Franklin is good, but I'll leave them just below Indiana out of deference for Indiana's returning production compared to a bit of an unknown with Michigan losing Moody, Robbins, and AJ Henning, even if there's a lot of reason to feel good about it. 

 

The Enemy, Wrapped 

Here is the condensed graphic showing the summary of my rankings in the 2023 The Enemy series: 

Last year I offered a ranking of opponents in the wrap-up, one that didn't end up being too useful because I was too low on Maryland/Illinois and too high on Nebraska/MSU but oh well, here we go again: 

1. PSU/OSU 

2. Minnesota/Maryland 

3. MSU/Purdue/Rutgers/Nebraska 

4. Indiana

5. ECU/UNLV/BGSU 

Perhaps my main takeaway from doing this exercise was the manner in which I got progressively less scared of the schedule. Not to say I was scared to begin with, but I definitely felt coming in that the schedule was harder than 2022. After going through each positional group, I'm not entirely sure. The 2023 schedule is probably harder, but only marginally so... if anything, the main way it's harder is probably that the second tier games + MSU are on the road this year whereas last year MSU, Illinois, and Maryland were all at home (though Iowa was on the road). But it's more splitting hairs than I expected. 

Michigan's schedule is easier in part because they miss Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, who are probably the top three in the B1G West this season (teams I will be breaking down in a separate post tomorrow). Those teams are the strongest in the trenches and have some of the best secondaries in the conference. Missing them is how OSU ended up 1st in OL and 2nd in DB even though I am in no way scared of those units (OL in particular could be a weak spot for that team). As I noted in those posts, I was decisively unenthused by the offerings that the schedule has at DL (DT especially) and OL, meaning that Michigan should be able to push their opponents around in the trenches week-in and week-out. The layout at QB (Michigan also got off the hook avoiding Tanner Mordecai (WIS) and Cade McNamara (IA)) as well is quite grim and the secondaries I ran through in this piece are not particularly inspiring. 

[Patrick Barron]

So back to the opponent rating overall, how do we feel? Penn State and Ohio State are pretty clearly the top two opponents on the schedule and after doing this, I'm not sure how far apart they are this season. Both teams have wildcards at QB, strong RB rooms, OSU obviously much better at WR, but OL/DL not too far apart either, while PSU is ahead at LB/DB. After those two teams there's a clear step down to Minnesota and Maryland, who are both decent teams but with flaws on their rosters, Maryland's in the trenches and Minnesota's being a team without obvious All-B1G players who can change a game outside of safety Tyler Nubin. If you want to toss Michigan State into that second tier given it's on the road and #rivalry (+ the spookiness that often happens in that game), go ahead, but in terms of talent, they look more like tier 3. 

I did come away with the belief that Purdue might not be in as dire of a position this season as I expected, but I still see them in an uphill battle to bowl eligibility much like their tier 3 compadres Rutgers/MSU/Nebraska. Indiana is rock bottom among B1G teams I looked at, the closest to the non-con foes, who all occupy a tier 5 of "bad!". If you made me pick which non-con foe might be the most dangerous, I would probably pick UNLV but all three of those teams are also in a battle for bowl eligibility. 

My final note here is about Michigan's place on this ranking. I said they would've ranked 1st on QB, RB, OL, DL, said they were at ~1.5 among LB/DB, and put them 2nd on special teams. Only on receivers did the Wolverines rank lower than top two and they still are far from a bad position on that rankings (I had them ~4th). Which is a long way of saying that at least in the first 12 games, Michigan is going to be better than every team they face this season. This is an All-In sort of year and based on talent, a B1G Championship should be the expectation.