2010 Conference Predictions According to ESPN

Submitted by the_big_house 500th on

ESPN has their conference predictions already out it appears and it looks like they are really loving Ohio State in the All Big Ten team. Justin Boren? Really espn? really?....

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5345688

They have Michigan finishing 7th. I'd like to be higher up than that. At least 6th or 5th. Though all of us wish 1st but still have a bit till were up there.

Chester Copperpot

July 21st, 2010 at 3:20 AM ^

Interestingly, Mallett predicted to be SEC Offensive POY ahead of last year's Heisman winner Ingram.  Also noticed a blast from the past in Cobrani Mixon at Kent State being picked as an All-MAC LB, FWIW.

 

Edit: And they didn't even spell Mallett's name right...

cadmus2166

July 21st, 2010 at 9:58 AM ^

Trent Richardson is likely going to swipe some of Ingram's carries this year.  It's been pretty much acknowledged that Ingram isn't even the most talented back on his team.  Alabama will likely ride a two-headed rushing attack on its way to another SEC championship, although the loss of 10 starters on defense makes me think they'll actually lose a game or two this year. 

Mallett should be the best QB in the SEC by far, so a fairly safe choice.

cadmus2166

July 21st, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^

but I have to respectfully disagree.  They've got a lot of good players coming back.  DE Adrian Clayborn and S Tyler Sash are two of the best in the Big Ten at their positions.  They also bring back DJK and Marvin McNutt as their starting WR's and have a very deep 3-headed monster of Adam Robinson, Brandon Wegher, and Jewel Hampton at RB.  Yes, Stanzi makes some puzzling interceptions from time to time, but the Iowa offense was pretty lost without him last last year after he got hurt.  I think he just has the leadership and intangibles of an upper-tier quarterback.  I really think it's going to be a dogfight for 2nd place between Iowa and Wisconsin in the conference.

PhillipFulmersPants

July 21st, 2010 at 10:46 AM ^

... they lost key guys in Bulaga, Angerer, Edds and Spievey, for sure. But 8 starters back from the nation's #10 total D, and #8 Scoring D. Plus the schedule is set up. They get Wisco, MSU, Penn State and Ohio State at home, plus get a great road draw with the two weakest B10 in 2010 in Minny and Indiana. If this team isn't top 3 B10 by end of year, I would say they really underperformed.

NO SPARTY

July 21st, 2010 at 3:22 AM ^

I noticed they didn't have McGuffie being All C-USA. They have got to be on crack. He is going to shred Conference USA. I can't wait to watch our former Wolverine.

preed1

July 21st, 2010 at 6:55 AM ^

USC is picked #1, I wonder what bowl they will go to? Oh wait, you mean they cant get into a bowl this to for violations...well that would suck.

bluebyyou

July 21st, 2010 at 7:09 AM ^

I'd like to see us ranked higher also, but right now, there are too many "ifs" for too many positions.  As the season progresses, we will see just how much things have improved, but if I were doing the ranking, and if I were OBJECTIVE, it would be hard to justify placing Michigan near the top of the BT.

As for Ohio State, they are an experienced team with a lot of talent.  The fact that we hate them  does not negate the facts.  

Don

July 21st, 2010 at 7:31 AM ^

With a team this young and with so little experienced depth, the last thing we need is to be ranked highly. It's not unreasonable, after the last two seasons, that the media are not too impressed with our prospects.

What's more remarkable to me than the overall ranking is the fact that Michigan is the only conference school without at least one player on their all-conference list. That's a pretty dramatic fall in three years. Hopefully, the season will reveal that this list needed to include a bunch of Wolverines.

Not a Blue Fan

July 21st, 2010 at 7:56 AM ^

I'm curious, do you think any UM players should be on that list? There are some quality players (Roh and Molk immediately jump to mind), but there are better players at those positions on other teams (Clayborn and Kerrigan at DE, Wisniewski and Brewster at C). Being as objective as I can, right now it's hard to see any UM players who I would put on a preseason all-conference team (first team, anyway). By the end of the season that could change, of course.

Not a Blue Fan

July 21st, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^

Really? Honestly, I'm surprised that they picked the kid from NW. WI (and to a lesser extent PSU and Iowa) have owned that position in the conference for years. It seems as though WI has an endless cache of quality pass catchers at TE. Graham is gone from UW, and Kendricks is coming back - and he had a great year in 2009.

I guess I could see Koger stepping up to that next level, but he's only a JR.

JeepinBen

July 21st, 2010 at 1:14 PM ^

I was actually disappointed that he wasn't used as much in the 2nd half of last year. He was a redzone beast and is a terrible matchup problem for most defenses. 

He's got the skills, if he's well utilized this year I could easily see him making this list at the end of the year

PhillipFulmersPants

July 21st, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^

for a first team. As others have mentioned, Wisniewski's moving back to guard.  Center is likely a three-way race between Moffitt, Molk and Brewster. I wouldn't be surprised to see Moffitt take it by end of year with Wisconsin's power running game. I think they have the advantage over Molk in that their teams will likely have better records, and interior lineman isn't the type of position that you can just dust peers with individual stats.  I tend to look at Coach's selections versus the media on these picks at year end as they're the ones breaking down the film.

OSUMC Wolverine

July 21st, 2010 at 9:06 AM ^

TUOOS will go as TP goes.  If he goes down the toilet, they have a QB situation similar to Threet/Sheridan...  I hope for their sake he doesn't get hurt, but I bet he will be discouraged from leaving the pocked too much this year.  This will hurt his productivity just like last year, he runs like a gazell and should be allowed to do so...against everyone but us.

Logan88

July 21st, 2010 at 7:54 AM ^

I'm afraid that 7th is a pretty fair prediction. I don't see UM finishing any higher than 5th place next season and I expect to see them finish somewhere between 6th and 8th place.

My prediction for 2010:

  1. OSU
  2. Wisconsin
  3. Iowa
  4. Penn State
  5. MSU
  6. Michigan
  7. N'Western
  8. Purdue
  9. Illinois
  10. Minnesota
  11. Indiana

I think OSU through Purdue will all qualify for bowl games.

The most ridiculous prediction that I saw in that piece was Washington finishing 2nd in the Pac-10! I'll eat my hat if UW finishes any better than 6-6 in 2010. They were 5-7 last season, but were the beneficiary of two INCREDIBLY lucky wins last season against USC (in their annual "We Didn't Get Off the Bus" sleepwalk loss) and the Arizona game with the "Immaculate Interception" that won the game for UW.

Logan88

July 21st, 2010 at 10:06 AM ^

In my opinion Locker is being as improperly hyped as Pryor. This looks to be a REALLY weak year for QB's in CFB. Locker's on-field production has been decent but unspectacular (53.4% completion rate, 6.6 YPA, 36 TD to 26 INT in 2+ years as a starter; if you didn't know the name an only looked at the stats, would you think these were the numbers of a Heisman favorite?) and he is merely the "best available" Senior QB with any name recognition plus he was a 5 star QB recruit and they seem to always remain in the Heisman discussion throughout their college careers.

What has Sarkisian actually accomplished at this point to warrant any great expectations from him as a college coach?

UW's schedule is too difficult for them to have a good season unless they  made MASSIVE improvement from last year IMO.

  1. @ BYU - likely loss
  2. Syracuse - win
  3. Nebraska - likely loss
  4. @USC - loss
  5. Arizona St. - likely win
  6. Oregon St. - tossup
  7. @Arizona - likely loss
  8. Stanford - tossup
  9. @Oregon - loss
  10. UCLA - likely win
  11. @ Cal - likely loss
  12. @Wash St. - win

By my predictions, I see four likely wins, 6 likely losses and two tossups.

spam and beans

July 21st, 2010 at 10:54 AM ^

Decent list.  I am willing to go along with you for the most part.  But why have MSU higher than Michigan?  Even if I thought MSU would finish better, writing it down for all to see would give me the dry heaves.  But I respect the fact that you are trying to be objective.  I am trying to look at it objectively as well, and I see Michigan finishing higher than spartie.

Logan88

July 21st, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^

I think both MSU and UM will finish 4-4 in conference play, but I believe that MSU will win all of their non-conference games and finish 8-4 while UM will lose to ND and finish 7-5.

I think UM will beat MSU in AA, however, so I guess you could put them ahead of MSU because they would both be 4-4 in Big 10 play but UM would have the head-to-head win. I merely chose to go by overall record combined with conference record.

maizenbluenc

July 21st, 2010 at 8:02 AM ^

So I was at the neighborhood swim meet last night talking to my OSU and WVU alumni neighbors. We were talking about 45 days to go, and what games we might go to this year.

The WVU grad asked me how long it takes to get to Ann Arbor: 11 hours, and I have to drive through West Virginia and Columbus to get there. I joked that I'd probably have to take my Michigan sticker and plate frame off for the trip. Maize and Blue might fly in West Virginia, but a block M might get me shot. Then there's the Ohio state troopers.

Anyway, WVU grad says Michigan fans are OK, as long as they don't have "we love Rich Rod" stuff. (My, they really took this personal. He mentioned RIch has still not sold his house in WVA.) And then he asks me who I think we replace Rich with at the end of the season? Jim Harbaugh? Throwuing in how he can't beleive we hired GERG.

So OSU grad says, Jim Harbaugh is their worst nightmare. They actually hope Rich succeeds, because brining in Jim harbaugh is like bringing in Jim Tressell - a coach who gets it.So we talked about Jim Harbaugh and how Stanford seems to be on a lot of recruits lists, etc.

Then OSU grad mentions the rumors out of Columbus, and how the offensive players are saying how "sick" the offense will be this year: they'll still have the vanilla playbook for when they don't need the wide open one, but there will be more than we saw at the Rose Bowl. And oh by the way, Boren is really working out for them - thanks. I replied, yeah but you got a traitor, to which he countered Boren just recoginized the error of his ways an came home.

We talked a little about USC, UNC, toUSC, Florida, etc. How it is dawning on USC how much they have been smacked, and how they might take a more humble approach. OSU guy mentions our own NCAA outcome pales to all this recruiter gate stuff.

So we talk Michigan, and WVU asks if we have a QB this year. I respond that we have two, and one coming up in the wings. OSU guy says Shoelace is who they are worried about. Particularly if he masters the read option.

I should state that all the OSU fans I know are alumni, and while they talk smack, they are way more respectful (than WVU fans) of what we're going through, and worried about the possible outcomes. (They don't bring it up, but are based in the Cooper years.)

WVU fans will never forgoive Rich Rod. (Woe be the family who buys his house.) At least until they start loosing enough, and Rich is available to come back as the messiah.  In the meantime they just want Rich to fail totally. (And they watch our games when they don't conflict, and gloat everytime something bad happens.)

acs236

July 21st, 2010 at 8:48 AM ^

all the time about Coooper.  Cooper couldn't be Michiga because he didn't "get it"-- referring to the UM/OSU rivalry.  Nonsense if you ask me, but I guess it makes a convenient thing to criticize. 

bluenyc

July 21st, 2010 at 9:00 AM ^

Yeah, its such a bullcrap argument and excuse.  If Coach Rod didnt get it when he first came, I am sure he gets it now.  I grew up a ND fan, from NYC, before going to Michigan and I know how powerful the rivalry is.  I hate ND now, dont even want them in the BIG10.  Not everyone starts as a Michigan Man, its how you end up. 

Tater

July 21st, 2010 at 9:50 AM ^

Meyer certainly "got" the rivalry after getting beaten in the 2007 game, marked by Georgia's intentional excessive celebration penalty after their first touchdown. 

After one loss in any rivalry game, the coach can't help but "get it."  They take crap for the next 364 days or so.  I'm guessing RR fully "got" the OSU rivalry by Sunday morning after the 2008 game.  I would venture to say that there is nobody who wants to see Michigan beat OSU more than RR does, and nobody who understands the rivalry better now.

TrppWlbrnID

July 21st, 2010 at 10:02 AM ^

i would guess that RR "got" the game before he played it in 08, but then saw his qbs and realized that even though he "gets" its, there was nothing he could do to prevent him from getting it.  its not like UM-OSU is some sort of small rivalry, EVERYONE involved in college football "GETS" it!

Sam is not from Unicron, so he does not "get" the Decepticons and Autobots rivalry.

Kermit is not from Sesame Street, he does not "get" the Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch rivalry.

Rumsfeld is not from Baghdad, he does not "get" the Sunni and Shiite rivalry (maybe true).

Not a Blue Fan

July 21st, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^

It has nothing to do with your state of origin, it has everything to do with understanding the culture of the school. Tressel "gets it" because he understands how important it is to everyone here to beat Michigan. It was damn near the first thing he mentioned in public after being hired. RR doesn't seem to "get it" yet. Carr got it - he knew that beating OSU mattered to UM fans. Cooper never got it; he thought that just winning a lot of games would be enough. It's never enough. You have to beat your rivals. That's why Meyer and Brown are so loved (well, one of the reasons).

Personally, I don't think RR "gets it". I don't think he understands rivalries and how important they are. I mean, his team came out flat against a fired up Pitt team with a trip to the national title game on the line. He has to understand that it's not just another game. He doesn't seem to impart this sense of urgency to his players. It's a damn shame, too, because it's clear that he knows how to coach (offensive) football very well. Maybe he's a better coordinator than HC...I dunno. Either way, I, too, hope for his success, because I believe he would be just like Cooper: win a lot of games, but generally stink against OSU. I really don't want to see Harbaugh up there (not that I think he would take the job - he seems to love California).

Not a Blue Fan

July 21st, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^

That certainly would explain how the Wannstache utterly pantsed the far superior WVU team in the example that I used.

And what are you pissed off about? Providing insight into the rationale is the point. I'm amazed that people get so upset when you say that you think a guy is a good coach and wish him success while pointing out the one obvious flaw in his resume.