Mr. McGibblets

August 4th, 2016 at 12:26 PM ^

I love when people get so pissed off by a preseason poll. Who cares where you are ranked before you start the season. Win the damn games and we will be where we need to be at the end.

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mGrowOld

August 4th, 2016 at 12:28 PM ^

Completely useless and nothing to pay any attention to unless you care what grad assistants think about other teams.  Coaches themselves almost never vote.

All you need to know about that poll was presented following the 1997 season when the coaches voted Tom Osborne a "National Championship going away present" and fucked over an undefeated Michigan team that had just won the Rose Bowl.

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Hab

August 4th, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^

Most interesting piece of information in that poll:  Tennessee's first place vote.

 

Best thing about that poll:  Football is almost here!

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Mitchamaniac

August 4th, 2016 at 12:34 PM ^

I'm ok with #8. Room to prove ourselves and move up rather than lose a game at #3 and drop hard. Well see how it turns out. I would always be pissed when we would be higher ranked only to fall by the end of the season.



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MGoCarolinaBlue

August 4th, 2016 at 12:34 PM ^

Good, lower is better.

8 might even be too high.

After all we don't even know who will be starting at quarterback, and I sure as hell don't want to be dropping any early games because our players are complacent and/or aren't taking their opponent seriously.

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stephenrjking

August 4th, 2016 at 12:37 PM ^

Surprised we're that low, but whatever. It's a poll that has no bearing on final results. And if we are anywhere close to as good as we think, we will be in a playoff spot by the end of October when the tough games start rolling. And then only our results will matter. If we lose, the polls were right to be skeptical. If we win, they'll rank us high.

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Gatorade_Cereal

August 4th, 2016 at 12:43 PM ^

This year is only year 2. We were not at all on the top 25 radar last year and look how far we have come. #8 is a nice starting spot and once we keep winning we'll end up in the top 4.

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cletus318

August 4th, 2016 at 12:44 PM ^

Ehhh, the Tennessee first place vote is comical, but by and large, the top 10 isn't unreasonable. Once you get past Bama and Clemson, you could make logical arguments for and against the next half dozen or so teams being ranked in the top 5.

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AZBlue

August 4th, 2016 at 1:09 PM ^

Yes but we have an easier early schedule and could have won 11 last year even with Rudddddock looking below average for most of the first 3/4 of the season. Barring a turnover fest at QB (finds wood and knocks on it...) this appears to be a 9 win team in a worst-case scenario. Plus JH seems to have pretty good success with QBs up to this point.

8 is fine. I might not order the top-10 the same but don't disagree with any of the teams there.

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turtleboy

August 4th, 2016 at 12:53 PM ^

LOL! They're still ranking Baylor. I don't agree with LSU over Michigan, but it's hard to disagree with who's in the top 10, except maybe Tennessee. I'd expect Miami to end up in the rankings by seasons end, as well.

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turtleboy

August 4th, 2016 at 12:53 PM ^

LOL! They're still ranking Baylor. I don't agree with LSU over Michigan, but it's hard to disagree with who's in the top 10, except maybe Tennessee. I'd expect Miami to end up in the rankings by seasons end, as well.

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UNCWolverine

August 4th, 2016 at 1:05 PM ^

why would anyone get worked up about this? 

The only thing that would disappoint me is if we were ranked out of the top 10 as it's tougher to climb into the top 4 by year's end if you start lower. 8 is a good spot to start. The team will have every chance to prove themselves a top 4 team.

I guess the Vegas odds have set expectations way too high for a portion of our fanbase. I'm fine with a top 10 preseason ranking.

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LSAClassOf2000

August 4th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^

I was never a huge fan of the Coaches' Poll only because it never seemed like they have the time to do the one thing that you would think you need to do in order to rank teams intelligently - actually watch a good sampling of their games. It always seems to me that this becomes apparent as the season goes on and some teams take on genuinely awkward positions in that poll. 

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legalblue

August 4th, 2016 at 1:15 PM ^

Is that these are more like rough guidlines of what a team might be capable of.  Any team in the top 5 is likely to be a national title contender.  Any team in the top 12-14ish should be a conference title contender. Any team in the top 25 is a division title contender.  

If we're being very honest this poll isn't really that crazy.  Michigan seems like a top ten team, but we have some question marks like QB that might mean a less than optimal season.   On the other hand a team like OSU has lost a lot of players, but as mentioned above has proven that reloading isn't something that is going to slow them down much.  ND recieves the normal ND coaches poll bump because ND, and MSU seems like they probably are a little higher than they should be, but again if you keep the rough estiamtes above in mind I wouldn't count them out of a potential conference title if things broke the right way for them. 

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Michology 101

August 4th, 2016 at 1:19 PM ^

I don't think the coaches showed any jealously or bad feelings toward Harbaugh at all with these preseason rankings. If anything, I think they gave us much respect by ranking us at number 8th in the country. I mean, out of the 7 teams that are in front of us, which one should we be ranked ahead of without question? I thought about Stanford, but they're bringing back some strong talent. I still expect for the AP poll to have us slightly higher. We may be ahead of most of these teams by week 6, because they all have a tougher early season schedule.

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Kevin13

August 4th, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^

They are concerned with their own team and don't have time to watch other teams play or know or care what is going on with them in off seasons. You might as well put a bunch of teams in a hat and pull them out in a random order and be as accurate.

They are just going off what teams did last year.

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WolverineHistorian

August 4th, 2016 at 1:45 PM ^

I'm fine with 8. Months ago, some media folks were putting us at #3, for GOD's sake. Preseason polls are meaningless either way. That's always the bottom line. No need for cheering or anger.

I will say this, though. Given everything that MSU lost (which includes the best QB in their history) and the fact that coaches still rank them 11th means Dantonio can no longer play the disrespect card....but he will anyway.



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Hail Harbo

August 4th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

In 1997 Michigan was AP preseason #14.  They then dropped to 15 when Syracuse destroyed Wisconsin (34-0) in the Kickoff Classic and subsequently leaped ahead of Michigan.  It wouldn't be until the 9/15 poll that Michigan would crack the top 10 (#8) following their victory over Colorado. 

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michiganinmd

August 4th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

The change in the program in the last year and a half is amazing.  If you would have told me the day Hoke was fired people would be upset at "only" being ranked 8th in the 2016 pre-season poll I would have laughed.   Harbaugh has totally rebuilt the program and now the team gets to prove it on the field in a month.  Who's got it better than us?

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