For all the pain - we had a good season

While losing to 2/3 rivals, and watching them go undefeated, is not a good season. Sorry if I'm a downer. Am proud and always will be proud of our players and coaches, but I expect a lot more than 8-4.

Am happy with what Hoke has done so far, but I think Borges' lack of knowing how to use Denard really hurt us. Held us back Big time.

4 losses doesnt cut, with loses to ND and OSU. No Big Ten title or a Rose Bowl. Aren't those their main goals. It wasnt a disapiontoing or surprising year. This year could springboard us like the two seasons before the 97 did for that team. I expect a Rose Bowl next year. With a strong D, and a expirienced DG. 

This season is full of "what Ifs". Outside of Alabama which legitimately out played and beat us, all other games were winnable. It's a turrrrible feeling to have the "what ifs"

Hey! (emphatically points finger at OP), Brady Hoke disagrees with you. We not only didnt meet our goals, we fell way short. 

The bar has been set that UM plays for Big10 championships.  We failed to get to the championship game so the season is a failure.  If the Big10 were tough I might find accepting a 3rd place finish okay.   However, we only make 3rd because 2 of the tougher teams are on probation.  Worse, this is the weakest the conference has been in memory.  If this team played a 2009 or 2010 schedule it would have been squashed.  We barely beat a bad MSU team that was pretty much one man on offense.  Northwestern with their grand total of 3 four star recruits on the entire roster came into our House and only loss because of the greatest string of comical errors I had ever witnessed.  They lose less then we do and we have to play at their house next year.  Yet we have that game nailed down as a easy Michigan victory?  I would not depend on it.  This conference  other then OSU and perhaps Nebraska has devolved into Big Least level.  If you look at most of the Big Ten schools 5 year recruiting profiles it is an ongoing train wreck.  For that alone Michigan will be succesful in the future and we can build on our new rivalry with NW :(

Were most likely going to play either Florida or Texa AM, or perhaps LSU in our bowl game.  So chances of a victory are slim.   The more likely case is we will have our face stomped in and we will end up with 5 losses.  Next year will be more of the same.  We will beat the hordes of crummy teams and lose to any team with a pulse.  We will play another dominant SEC team in a bowl game and get squashed again.  If Borges does not scare off every single skill player of note perhaps we can do something beginning in 2014.   It would be nice if Gardner gets his redshirt.  Urban Meyer is bringing in 5 star RB's and WR's and the great line players.  I do not see any victories against OSU other then upsets in the near future.   So look for more of the same next year.  If we get lucky 8-4 with another stomping against an SEC team.  If were not so lucky 6-6 and we hold off a crummy Big East or ACC team in a bowl game.  Meanwhile Urban Meyer starts bowling for BCS.  Welcome to the last half of the Carr era 2.0

We still have a chance for some redemption versus a likely Top 10 team in the bowl game, but I think we'll be quite the underdog.

Was 1993 a "good season"? 1994?

That doesn't mean there weren't moments to remember, or player's efforts to applaud. 

Roundtree's catch versus NW.  Kenny Demens pancake stop. Denard to Dileo vs MSU.  Brunette Girls FTW. Jake Ryan's havoc.

But it doesn't add up to "a good season".

It was a good season.  Nothing fantastic, but a chance at 9 wins is nothing to sneeze at.  This team over-achieved last year and probably achieved at a fair level this year.  They'll be back in the mix most years, though I am still a bit worried about this offense going forward under Borges.

This won't be a season I remember particularly fondly, but that's how most football seasons go.  I do think that the future is brighter than some around here think.

This group played hard and stood their ground despite a talent deficit and no luck other than Roy's catch vs NU.. The injury and fumble karma from 2011 paid us back this year.

While the last 3 losses were frustrating, it's encouraging to know that all 3 were winnable. Turnovers and no running game are lethal in big games. Notably, Bama showed us the gap with the top tier that only disappears with superior recruiting and execution.

The team played with great effort, resiliency and class. A few more glorious wins would have been a nice reward for them, but they can hold up their heads and deserve our respect.

8-4 without a single victory over a legitimately good team, and we had tons of senior starters this year. If 8-4 against a weak schedule is considered a good year, than it is a sad testament to how far the standards have fallen at Michigan. 

As others have said, Team 132 overachieved and got lucky; Team 133 achieved about as was expected and mostly didn't get lucky. Turnovers: last year they got 'em all over the place and this year mostly gave them away.

I think what we're seeing is that after last year's incredible turnaround from the results of Team 131, there were expectations again. Unfortunately, i'm just not sure that the players and coaches were quite ready to meet those expectations fully. Yes, Team 133 still had Denard, but generally your greatest strenght is also your greatest weakness. The analysis at mgoblog has mostly ignored that what Denard does exceedingly well also forced Michigan into a one-dimensional offense ... which this year was compounded by serious issues with the offensive line. We found that the Oline looking good in pass protection was more a function of defenses gameplanning contain of the QB than Oline prowess, see what happened when Bellomy came in at NU.

No, this wasn't a "good" year and moral victories are hollow. This was another transition year that went more like a transition year would be expected to go. What people are forgetting is that a decent team wins the games it should win and has a chance even in games that it maybe shouldn't win. That's been Team 133, which fell far short of its own goals but we only hear the rah, rah goals that the coaching staff sets publicly.

The question that needs to be answered, but cannot yet be answered is whether Teams 134, etc. will progress from decent to good to great with some regularity.

There's a lot of banter on this board about how Michigan should play really tough, exciting OOC schedules, because "to be the best you have to beat the best". Now look at the teams in the hunt for the national championship. Alabama can do that. Pretty much nobody else can.

The virtue of a relatively easy OOC schedule goes well beyond wins. It's also the time where your second string QB (and other positions) gets signfiicant game experience. It's the time where you play with wrinkles and new concepts. It's valuable to player and team development in myriad ways.

Take Alabama off this schedule and Team 133 is 9-3, with intangible benefits that might have shown themselves against ND, and NU when Denard went down. The coaches might have found that they needed Devin ready as a backup based on watching Bellomy against cupcakes ... where he'd probably still be successful enough.

The kind of OOC that more than a few advocate will degrade all but great teams in terms of record and development. And then when it happens, just as many will jump up and complain about a terrible season.

We had 4 loses including 2 to our biggest rivals, one that cost us a shot at a B1G title and one that was an embarrassing romp. In no way shape or form is that a good season. Do you think people in Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Gainesville, Baton Rouge, Eugene or LA would think that this was a good season? This is loser talk.

Is there any chance that Borges will be fired?

Is there any chance that Borges will be fired?

It is nice to be back to expecting to win.

This season turned out much how I expected/feared it would.  I thought from the beginning that Michigan could be an improved team this year and still wind up with worse record than 2011 simply based on their schedule.  And then it turned out that their schedule was even more difficult than anyone's worst nightmare could have imagined.

Michigan's 4 losses come to teams with a combined record of 45-3.  That is ridiculous. All of those games were on the road and Michigan was missing key players in each of them.  In the end, the only game that they didn't have an excellent chance at winning was Alabama.  Notre Dame needed 5 consecutive interceptions to squeak out a home win, and you'll never convince me that Michigan loses to Nebraska if Denard doesn't go down in the first half.

It's easy to be disappointed and to think about what might have been, but its clear that Michigan is a program that is headed in the right direction.  We have already come light-years from the Rodriguez years.  It’s clear that we’re going to have a top 10 defense for at least as long as Mattison is in town, and while I am frustrated with some of what I saw on offense this year, everyone knows that the offense is in transition.   Keep your heads held high!