5-7 in 2018?

Submitted by Decatur Jack on

I was talking with a friend I trust on things related to Michigan football and he laid out what I thought was a fairly convincing scenario in which we go 5-7 this year, with losses to ND, Nebraska, Maryland, Wisconsin, MSU, Penn State, and OSU.

The crux of his argument boils down to the OL failing to develop significantly (they need to be a lot better), Shea is not ruled eligible and Peters continues his performance from the South Carolina game. An opening loss to Notre Dame makes the mgocommunity restless and there are calls for McCaffrey, who is pushed into the starting job and doesn't show to be demonstrably better than Peters. Our inability to pass protect puts all of our QBs in a bad spot, and we still can't run the ball when we need to. Wide receivers continue to drop key passes on third downs, failing to develop one iota under Pep/McElwain. We defense our way to 5 wins but against tougher teams we stumble, and we go 0-3 against the rivals.

I wanted to throw this up to the mgoboard and see what you all think, if this is just an outlier position or if it sounds realistic or plausible.

Decatur Jack

February 16th, 2018 at 3:46 PM ^

Definitely depressed.

The way we lost to South Carolina, the way we finished our recruiting class, and the fact that we just hired a shark humper have me in a fairly gloomy mood.

I was hoping people would actually offer insight on how things are going to be better, rather than just be like "No that's wrong."

Longballs Dong…

February 16th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^

The easiest defense is that every piece of information you cited (bad OL, bad QB, etc) happened in 17 and we still went 8-4.  Of those position groups there is no reason to think they will go backwards since they are all older and more experienced in 18.  Those groups were certainly shitty at times, but should be better after another year so I guess it boils down to the fact that you were convinced that players will get worse as they get more experience and coaching from this staff.  That doesn't seem plausible to me.  Don't forget we'll probably have a top 5 defense in 18. 

GoBlueInAlabama

February 16th, 2018 at 4:21 PM ^

I went back and looked at the last 2 years of Hoke's recruiting and the first year of Hoke/Harbaugh. A potential reason last year was so bad offensively might be the lack of WRs and offensive lineman over that 3 year stretch. These classes ended up being completely empty (minus Cole, Kugler, and Perry). This forced Michigan to insert freshmen and sophomore WRs into action. The offensive line not developing certainly did not help matters once Speight went down for the year.

Look, last year was not fun and at times the offense was painful to watch, but that doesn't mean 2018 will be the same.

You asked what happens if Patterson is not eligible. Speight is still on campus. If Patterson is out then perhaps Speight is the answer (assuming he would stay). This offensive line is close to turning the corner. The interior should/could be very good. Yes, the have to come up with a LT. They also have roughly 6.5 months to solve for that. The WRs gained valuable experience last year and will continue to develop and gain strength along with fine tuning routes/situational awareness.

The defense is losing 1 very good player and 1 good college player. I feel very confident on that side of the ball. I do think the system needs a couple of tweaks as it seems like some teams have figured out how to use the aggressiveness against them a little bit with dump of passes to the RB. Again, if I can see it, I know Don Brown sees it and will fix it.

Don't be a Debbie Downer.

Lakeyale13

February 16th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^

Fan base doesn't suck, we are just tired of losing to MSU and OSU and looking fairly crappy. Then said "unsucky" fan base increases in frustration when we hire $8,000,000 man to save our program and his first 4 years don't look much different than Hoke.

I'm in no way saying Harbaugh is even in Hokes vicinity of ineptitude, but things are gonna be frustrating until things actually change. Results cure all woes. I hope Jimmy makes all of us look like morons for our grumbling and not prophets.

Squash34

February 17th, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^

Your post is exactly why this fan base sucks. To many people simply have no idea what they are talking about, or refuse to take a step back and look at Jim's time here.
Either way, to think he has not done much better than hoke is laughable. He has two top ten wins, and 3 more top 25 wins. All of these were 10 win teams and 4 won at least their division. However, after a rebuilding year where they replaced 18 starters with largely first 2 year guys because Hoke left the roster a mess, and people act like Jim hasn't turned the program around.
8-5 is the floor for him, but was the ceiling for Hoke in a season like last year.

Longballs Dong…

February 16th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^

Some people on here are the worst.  We might go 5-7.  We might go 15-0.  No one fucking knows right now.  Your reliable friend doesn't know shit about the future.  Football teams often have high variances of results.  Just look at ND and MSU over the past 3 seasons.  ND went 10-3, 4-8, 10-3.  MSU went 12-2, 3-9, 10-3.  Enough of this, "hey a buddy of mine (which is actually just me but I want to deflect any criticism toward my made up friend) thinks the future sucks... do any of you know the future?" posts.  

DrMantisToboggan

February 16th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^

Does your boy live in Decatur too? Tell him I’ll see him in 5, and get better bring them hands.





No this is idiotic. I’ll cut my own foot off on Facebook live if we only win 5 games.