For all the pain - we had a good season

I'd probably be happier if State hadn't turned out to be a fraud. That was a satisfying win at the time, but now it doesn't make up as much for the close losses (and could have beens).

However, I really love this class of kids. I don't know if I'll be as personally invested in group of players as much as these guys. I really wanted these guys to succeed, and as we get farther and farther from these years, I think everyone will look back and be very pleased with what we had, what we did, and how they did it.

Lewan comes back next year?

8-4 as a record is strange... at 7-5 you know you had a bad year and at 9-3 you know you had a good year. At 8-4, nobody really knows what to think and you're sort of waiting for the bowl game to validate you one way or the other.

But anyone calling this season awful probably hasn't been paying attention to Michigan football over the past 30 years. Because this has been kind of average for us over that stretch. 

It's hard to consider it a good season after you've lost to every top opponent you've played. Basically we only best second-tier teams. So the season was average at best.

People predicting we would field a better team this year than last year's and have a worse record.

Next year I predict we field a very similar team and win at least 2 more games.

We got fucked with this scheduling

The team and the seniors deserved better than this.  This conference is ripe for the picking this year.  With the defense playing the way that it is, and all of the experienced talent returning on offense, we should have won the Big Ten title.

Alabama was impossible, and the team's own mistakes killed hope of winning the ND game.

But Hoke and his staff made significant mistakes in the two Big Ten losses, and need to act quickly to fix some things:

1) Lack of ability to win any kind of big game on the road.

2) Stubborness bordering on foolishness in the play calling today.

3) Not trying something, anything different after the first few series of Bellomy at Nebraska.

4) Lack of any sort of step forward for the O-line all year, to the point of actual regression.

If these things do not get fixed quickly, we could be staring four losses in the face for the next couple of years.

and four losses against real teams.

FWIW, Sagarin's predictor isn't too impressed with tOSU

I'd like to think we were better than the production below.

Sagaring College Football 2012 Rankings
through games of Saturday, November 17

 Being honest here but there wasn't much that was good about this season.

  1-2 in rivalry games

No conference championship

No BCS bowl

 Didn't see much growth from any players cept Devin late at QB

We never used the few weapons we had ( How many targets did Funches have all season)

Our coaching staff looked incompetent and I'm sorry but you have to blame Hoke just as much as Borges he is the head coach after all.

 Borges should have to publicly appologize to Denard after that last game

by the standards we want for ourselves. But it wasn't a catastrophe either. Can we please wait until the bowl game before jumping to all these wild conclusions? The bowl will probably tell quite a bit.

I hope that it's entirely because of a talent deficit, if you know what I mean.

It is NEVER a good season when you lose to Ohio, and I bet the players to a man would agree.

Why is whenever MIchigan suffers a loss of some relative pain the threads split evenly into two camps everytime:

Camp 1 - "All is lost - coaches suck - fire people" group

Camp 2 - "Things really arent bad and now that I think about it it's probably a good thing we lost" group

Do all boards do this?  

Geez. Does anyone just enjoy watching sports anymore? We got to see a bunch of exciting games this year, we got to see Denard be Denard and do crazy stuff only he can do, and we even got the MSU monkey off our backs. 

Obviously we'd prefer our team wins every game, but good heavens people, take a minute to stop whining and picking nits.

... It's the Jimmy's and Joe's

Monster recruiting success is the main reason to not melt down. The schedule next year will be kind as well. Give Borges a full year with Gardner and then let's take stock of where this staff is.

Never forget the real tire fire season a few years ago.

Well, a good season just isn't good enough. You can be happy with it, but I want a great season.

Let's face the facts, this has turned into a horrible year. Not just based on the fact of Michigan's mediocre record, but the 2 teams that we hate the most are undefeated. That's just rubbing salt in the wound. Thank God for Ohio's sanctions or I would have to be on suicide watch right now haha

It was a very forgettable season in my opinion.  We lost to some very good teams, and we beat some very bad teams.  I wouldn't call that a good season.  It was a mediocre season.  The horrible home slate combined with the poor performances in prime time made it even worse.  

I don't know if this is heartening at all, but Notre Dame went 8-5 last year and they're in the national title game this year largely due to a suffocating defense and a mediocre offense. Wouldn't be surprised if Michigan made the same jump next year, and Michigan gets all their tough games at home.

We all knew this season was possible back in August. We knew the preseason ranking was too high, but it may be too low next year. I'm looking forward to it.

...500 team in contention late in the season, but these are the type of LLoyd seasons that will eventually get tiresome and get you fired fast. You have to win one or two the games we lost this year. We manufactured wins against lesser opponents this year....msu, northwestern, Air Force but fell flat in the big ones. All of them. Again, loved the make up of this team but technically the results indicate a work in progress. I am thinking a victory of a non-meddling bowl opponent could be a huge and unexpected step for us. Unlikely but I would prefer to give it go then face another 4 loss team.

In the Carr years, 8-4 was the floor. So at least we appear to be back in that neighborhood consistently. But this 8-4 feels about as hollow as 8-4 can get. We got back on the right side of  the MSU rivarly but after that there's not much except games that left me feeling kinda shitty.  Don't get me wrong--I love these players and, aside from Borges' playcalling in the big games, I love this coaching staff. The whole thing is headed back in the right direction. But the season itself was pretty lame, from the schedule with all the good stuff except State away from Michigan Stadium to losing a very winnable game in Ohio Toilet to back to some down-roster Florida bowl.

than Al "I like to call shitty plays" Borges! They should have been 10-2, 11-1 if Gardner had been ready vs Nebraska (I don't put all of that on Borges, Hoke is the head coach and clearly Gardner was a far better option).

8-4 and needed a miracle to beat NW, who also happens to be the signature win on the schedule, and you want me to call that good?  I am not ready to become that kind of fan.  Have we fallen so far that we forget....THIS IS MICHIGAN FERGODSAKES!

This isn't elementary school... we don't all get blue ribbons for participation.  This team was mediocre, is a mediocre conference.  Not good enough, no morale victories here.

1 decent team we beat. This season was a major disappointment. Our two best wins were against two mediocre teams, and both at home. We needed a heroic ending to beat freaking Northwestern at home for gods sake. Our other best win we couldn't even muster up a touchdown against a fucking 6-6 team whom lost to Iowa at home. To call this a nice season deserves a spot on a SNL skit about lowered expectations.

teams we played with a pulse, unless you throw in Northwestern who consistently plays above their expected level based on their talent pool.

I don't look back on this past season and think we did anything other than beat the teams that we clearly should have.