Angelique: 6-6, starting 0-2. Beat MSU/PSU.

lol.. her reason for us to lose to ND..  A new coach and a New QB.. Cause i guess Clausen wasn't good enough of a QB last year..

This is perhaps the most likely scenario and most realistic AT THIS MOMENT.

Until we start playing we really don't know how good this team will be. The first game will be telling, the second will determine how our season will end up, because as a team, you make your biggest improvement between the first and second week of play.

I agree that 6-6 is very ideal at this point, could we do better? We'll have to wait and see...

Excellent thread title. 

I think we'll beat UConn, though.

And I wouldn't be shocked at all if we start 0-2. But beating PSU and losing to PU? No way. We haven't lost three times in a row to PU since the mid-60s.

Angelique doesn't deserve the piling on she's getting in this thread, either. She is light-years away from the asshats at the Freep.

As for those who don't believe that we consistently have trouble down in South Bend, just consult the record. It ain't pretty. We've gone down there with vastly better teams than we have now, playing lowly-ranked ND squads coached by guys inferior to Brian Kelly, and lost. Sometimes badly.

what she predicted for M last year at this point?

THAT would be very telling.

She is a very good journalist, she provides fair and balanced coverage and she asks good questions at press conferences, that is the role of a beat reporter and she excels at it. 

Prediction pieces are nothing more than gimmicks (probably required by teh editors), and do not count as "real" journalism, accuracy (or innacuuracy) in such articles hold no bearing on her abilities as a reporter.  

She is not, or has never shown herself to be, particularly knowledgable regarding x's and o's or schemes but that could be for a variety of reasons such as 1) the common fan wouldn't be interested or understand that kind of writing 2) she doesn't understand it herself  3) the paper tells her not to write extensively on such things or 4) a combination of all of the above. 

I think you have to temper your expectations in MSM coverage of Michigan or any football, they can do a good job of covering the simple facts such as what is said in interviews and press conferences but if you want in depth breakdown of on-field play you have to go to a more specialized outlet such as MGoblog.

I hope she is wrong but her predictions are not without logic.  I assume she is basing this on our defense being shaky to start and getting better as the season goes on.  PSU doesn't have a QB so that one makes sense.

The UConn game is huge, obviously.  We win this game and Angelique's prediction is shot, along with many others.

I'm saying we win but I think the Huskies are starting to get a little too unfairly maligned here over the last few weeks.  I'm as much a UM homer as anyone but I also expect UConn to show up with their A-Game.  They are experienced and well coached, and that means a lot.

This one is big, and I think we win, but it has to be a solid effort all around.  RR knows that and will have them ready.

Expect this to be a very entertaining game.

We lose to ND, but beat MSU and PSU? Usually Angelique is pretty good but this makes no sense. We beat ND last year. What has changed? Well, ND lost its superstar QB and second best receiver. They also just went through a coaching change to a whole new system and are starting a new QB who is coming off of a major injury. All of these would go in our favor. How about the changes at M? We have a more experienced QB (either one), a way better O-line, more experienced WRs, and another year in the same system. This would cut in our favor. Now the only thing that I see hurting us is our loss of BG, DW and our entire secondary, but that should have no impact, because even with those players, ND scored pretty much at will through the air. How much worse is our #2 CB going to be than Cissoko? Don't know why, but this game doesn't scare me much.

It's possible...our biggest strength on offense is speed, which happens to be ND biggest defensive weakness.  Did you see how Tate ran down the middle of that defense last year?  Sure it was a great play but Tate is a burner and the guys on the defense are slow!!!!  We have a decided offensive advantage when we have the football.  Of course our defenseive weakness is...defense so...shootout anyone?