Things to Ponder

Submitted by GoBlueScott on

As the season comes to a close this Saturday I thought about the last three months and started thinking of some questions.

I thought about how it may have turned out differently if one, two or an untold number of things would have fallen into place or turned out in a different way.

Of course, this serves no practical application other than the pure sport of conjecture and debate, but still, if you're bored at work or just desperate for something else to comment on, have at it.

1. What happens if Terrelle Pryor signs with Michigan? He obviously starts, but how much better does Michigan do?

2. If Lloyd Carr had not retired, what would our record be this year? Would Michigan be better or, given the departures last year, about the same?

3. If Michigan played Utah again at this point in the season, would we win or has Utah progressed that much more throughout the season?

4. If Threet starts from the opener and stays healthy throughout the season, does it get us another win or two?

5. What happens next year?

So, yea, just some things to think about.

This post is, by no means, a declaration of anger about what has transpired this season. I just like to think about how things may have worked out under different circumstances.

Go Blue!

Comments

Kolesar40

November 20th, 2008 at 12:24 PM ^

1) Pryor enables us to NOT lose to Toledo, and probably not NWU. ND could go either way. When you give up 40 a game, a frosh qb can only make a finite difference.
2) I think we win 6 games. We keep Boren, Mallet and maybe AA, although I doubt it.
3)No. They are legit and we made little if any progress. Heck that defensive performance we put up that game looks good comparatively. Also, we put up 25 that game, and we arent doing that much either (save Minny, and Purdue).
4)No.
5)No idea, but 7-5 is what I am hoping for.

PaulVB

November 20th, 2008 at 12:58 PM ^

I think Mallet was gone no matter what happened. From what I heard, most players on the team didn't like him. One time, some of the older guys told the bouncer at Scorekeepers not to let him in.

This is in addition to the reamings that Lloyd allegedly gave him. I think he was gone as soon as the bowl game was done, if not earlier.

sedieso

November 20th, 2008 at 1:39 PM ^

1. I think with Pryor we beat Toledo and Northwestern. I would like to say Purdue too, but we did good offensively in that game so I will put that loss on the defense. To go along with that point, I think regardless of whether we had Pryor or not if our defense played up to its potential in a number of these games we would be bowl eligible.
2. If Lloyd were here, there would not have been such a large learning curve for the older players and also I believe the defense would have been better with Ron English. On the other hand, the offense has a new qb and that does effect the timing and chemistry with the wr's, who have been plagued with the injury bug all season. Also, our offensive line would have sucked still. Given that our defense would have been better under Carr IMO, I say we beat Toledo, Purdue, MSU, and Northwestern (all games we had leads in).
3. If you remember, Utah made a lot of dumb mistakes early in that game and committed a lot of stupid penalties. Also they didn't capitalize on good field position throughout the first half so we were lucky to be so close as it is. Utah is a solid team, and given our knack for giving up big plays still, they would beat us IMO.
4. Maybe Utah, maybe.
5. Offense progresses by a lot, we cut down on costly turnovers, offensive line gels, defense can't be any worse than this year, given all that I say we win 8 games, and eek out a victory in the Outback Bowl against Auburn.