are you referring to? I think most people are predicting a good rebound for us

8-4 is probably the ceiling for this team this year. I think anything more than 6 to 7 wins would be great. Considering we have to travel to MSU, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin it is very possible we could 6-6 or 7-5. Which would still be a great improvement over last year.

"If we don't beat [insert team] it would be a sign of the apocolypse." Don't take ANY team for granted. It just hurts more if the worst case happens.

I am excited and nervous. Excited about the new quarterbacks, other freshman, our receivers having a shot at good throws, the development of the running backs with an offensive line now highly rated in the Big Ten. I fear the defense. An analogy to last year's offense. Last summer, the offensive line was a question mark and then Boren left and Zirbel went down. Threet was highly rated, but the truth was evident in his spring game performance, his losing the starting job to Sheridan, and hints from Magee. I saw the signs and had the information, but I did not know how bad it could be. Weakness at one position had historically been shored up by strength elsewhere. There was no offensive strength last year to do that, and we suffered all year. Now, there are unproven new names on defense, and veterans that have not performed well. That's right; this year's defense may be worse than last year's defense. It could be 40 points every week, not just some weeks. Can the offense out score that? I think it will, some of the time. I say we win 5 games. But none of this worries me. This team will develop, and we will be better fans for having lived through the dark period. It will be glorious when we come out into the light. Maybe not this year.

How many more games would we have won last year if we could field kickoff returns?

I think we have to enjoy the, hopefully, small steps this team takes this year. Better quarterback play, which will hopefully lead to a more flowing offense. Yes, RR did go 9-3 in his second year with WVU, but they were playing in a less than impressive Big East that year. This is still the Big Ten, and our expectations should remain tempered, as such, 6-6 should be considered a good step in the right direction. From there we can continue to build the empire until Death Butterfly has been reached.

I agree that we'll do better than 5-7 or 6-6 as some (but not many) people are predicting. The part of this diary that I most disagree with though is this: "I think that without turnovers we will handle ND easier than Western" Now then, I like a good fat Charlie joke as much as the next bloke but in no way do I think that ND is inferior to Western. ND definitely has superior talent; Clausen, while very annoying can throw the ball and hit people. I do think that he's far from reaching his potential, but he's a fairly good QB. ND's receivers, especially since they have Golden Tate, are quite good. I'll give you that ND's running game isn't stellar. I know ND is returning a lot of RBs and some of them were okay last year, but I haven't been impressed with ND's running game for a while now. But, ND is returning a lot of their O-line if I'm correct so some more experience there could help the running game. The point of that last paragraph was just to show that ND has talent, and by this point they should have knowledgeable talent. As for ND's defense, I know a good deal less (I'm attracted to flashy things and thus focus on learning offenses instead of defenses). I do know that if ND wasn't a Christian school their fans would be calling Tenuta Jesus so that says a lot. The point of all this is to say that I highly doubt that we're going to have an easier time with ND than Western. I'm going to have to watch some more ND games from last year and hear some more reports on them before I make a firm prediction on that game.

I don't think you can accuse many people around here of having any irrational exuberance. Last season was bleak, and nobody around here is expecting a good or great season. Let's compare to the average case: A 0.740 win percentage translates to 9.62 wins in a 13 game season. Nobody is expecting that. Ten wins is a lot to expect from this team this season. In summary, we are excited to have football season coming. But we don't think that this team is going to be one of the truly great teams at Michigan (though we hope to be proven wrong on that!). After being punched in the gut from the get-go these past few seasons, I just want to see the Wolverines beat a dead Bronco. (pun intended...sorry everyone, I just can't resist)

Downed satellites inevitably break up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. After breaking up, most everything also burns up. Which, although it leaves behind the fat joke, still works as an analogy here I think. NERD ALERT!

ND>WMU

There are so many areas we can't predict. 1) The play of a freshman qb. Stats are not good here . . . look at the play of other freshman (Tebow, Pryor, et. al.) When freshmen have done well, they typically have many successful veterans surrounding them. Instead, we have . . . 2) An OL that was subpar. Can't predict they'll be great. And, we also have . . . 3) A secondary that was burned repeatedly. And, we have 4) Decent RB's, but still not great. All in all, it is impossible for me to predict. I just struggle to see have we could possibly do better than 8-4, and 7-5 seems more realistic. Assume 4 victories from bottom feeders, and one heartbreaking loss. I struggle to see how we get more than three wins from OSU, PSU, ND, MSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. If everything breaks our way, maybe four. And that's with a a lot o luck.

clavicle