11. OSU
12. Nebraska
14. MSU
16. Wisconsin
21. ND
I was just going to say that, if those rankings were end-of-season rankings, Michigan would have the most difficult schedule in the country by far! Brutal.
That is one hell of a brutal schedule.
I like LSU in that game though, but I don't know how they'll do against the rest of the SEC West.
Actually I do not envy Ole Miss. The one unranked team in the SEC West, which would have contained the #'s 3, 4, 13, 18, and 22nd ranked teams. Plus South Carolina is ranked #8 in the East, I don't know if Ole Miss plays them or not.
Ole Miss draws Kentucky, Vandy, and Georgia from the East and play no BCS teams OOC.
LSU draw Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee fromt he East and plays WVU and Oregon OOC.
That is a nasty schedule, but I'm just picturing looking up at the rest of your division being the only unranked team among several potential contenders. The OOC/OOD games you list aren't anything special, obviously, but at least LSU seems like a good team for next year. Ole Miss is just going to get obliterated by everyone in the West.
I was just going to say that, if those rankings were end-of-season rankings, Michigan would have the most difficult schedule in the country by far! Brutal.Not really. We don't play Wisconsin, so we only play four ranked teams out of 12 games, three of them at home. That's nothing out of the ordinary.
Not to mention the fact that MSU is vastly overrated and looking at a likely 6-6 season. I don't blame the national press though. Looking at the record alone from last year, one would think that State is a solid program.
Giving up 31 at home against a walking wounded Purdue team does not instill confidence in one's defense, not to mention falling to Alabama 7-49.
What tells you they will be 6-6? Who are the six teams which will beat MSU?
ND, OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa.
There you go. That's literally every not terrible team they play (plus NW, who I would not call terrible, but isn't necessarily "good," though, either).
They play OSU without their top five players and their coach, and I'm not sure what makes you think Iowa will be good this year. Michigan fans hate MSU, but they return a lot this year from an 11 win team.
Oh, I don't think they'll go 6-6, but if they do it'll more than likely be to those 6 teams. (By the way, I specifically said "not terrible" teams. OSU will still have their typical solid defense, even if their offense struggles, and Iowa is a team, even on bad years, you shouldn't dismiss.)
I think MSU is way overrated, though. I think they were overrated last year (i.e., not as good as their 11-2 record would suggest). And as I said below, I think people are underestimating the impact of losing a lot of their O-Line will have. And I believe (I could easily be wrong) they lost a most of their top defensive players.
But yes, I hate MSU, and hope they fail miserably.
Do they return a lot though? Not really actually. They lost 11 starters. 3 OL from a good running game plus their starting TE and leading receiver. They lose 6 guys from their defense.
MSU isn't Alabama that can afford to lose like 18 starters or significant contributors and still be a double digit win team because they're bringing in studs every year (oversigning doesn't provide a competitive advantage my ass).
I would wager a pretty decent amount of money that MSU won't win more than 8 games this year, and 7 seems more likely.
Defense and the OL are definite question marks. I don't think losing Dell or the TE will hurt them that much, though. A lot of WRs and TEs saw action for them last year, and Cousins is pretty good at spreading the ball around. The real rebuilding year will be 2012.
The defense will take a hit, but their D-line will be stout and they are replacing O-linemen with guys who have much higher ceilings than the ones they're replacing. The O-line is from a pretty impressive class, and should be superior to the ones they replace once they get going.
Edit: I guess I really didn't think about just how nasty their schedule is next year.
I think these games are all possible losses for MSU.
@ND (State isn't used to going on the road before Nov.)
@Ohio State (another road game will be hard for sparty coming off the CMU festivities)
v Michigan (could be my homerism as we might be a year off still)
v Wisconsin (revenge game)
@Nebraska
@Iowa (they could have Alabama'ed State last year if they wanted)
@NW (State should have lost last year at home)
I think State loses 6 of those 7 games. Don't forget that State trick played/lucked their way into 3 wins last season. They're just as easily an 8-win team as an 11-win team last year. Now, they lose their O-line and best defenders? It's not a big leap to forecast a 6-6 season.
They played Evanston at Ryan Field last year. It's the new scheduling, but it gives NU two home games in a row against MSU.
Point still stands though, IMO.
I remember reading somewhere a while back that NW was looking to play more games at Wrigley, despite the poor planning of last year's Illinois game. Is that true or did I make that up? How are they going to make Wrigley big enough to fit the field?
I have no idea; I'm from the pretty immediate area, but like most people I don't follow NU a lot.
I can tell you that Soldier Field would be killer for Illinois, Michigan, OSU, PSU. The amount of Big Ten alums around here is just ridiculous, and Soldier Field would be pretty awesome at night. Much better than a jerryrigged Wrigley during the day, IMO.
Over the last 10-15 years MSU has had a ton of success in South Bend. Not saying it continues but MSU going to South Bend in September and winning has been fairly common.
It's also worth considering that State has followed every 9+ win season (in the last 40 years) with a flop:
1987: 9-2-1
1988: 6-5-1
1999: 10-2
2000: 5-6
2008: 9-4
2009: 6-7
Sparty on.
I don't think MSU can match last year's record, but I can't see them losing all those games either. They've got a very good QB who is in his third year as a starter. Cousins is probably going to find a way to will them to victory in some of their tougher games. He was terrific in pressure situations last year.
but not quality. He came through in most games for them
But Sparty snuck up on people last year, and didn't face any real national pressure until Iowa. They were undefeated and being talked about (they had a very small glimpse of what it feels like to be Michigan). And Cousins literally threw the ball and the game to the Hawkeyes.
The only other pressure game they faced was Alabama (PSU locally, but the rest of the country had gone back to ignoring them after Iowa), and they were obliterated. Cousins again played poorly.
He's a good QB, no doubt. And they've got Top 15 talent at the skill positions. But not on D
Any tight game is a pressure situation. MSU swept its close games last year. Now, it's not likely that they'll do that again, but Cousins has a cool under pressure that almost none of his Spartan predecessors had.
While I like Cousins as a QB, I don't think it was his work that got MSU the close wins last year. ND was a special teams trick play. I think that NW or Purdue was a special teams trick play...and the other was a complete breakdown and blocked punt that allowed State to win. Maybe my recollection is off, but I recall the special teams making the big difference for them.
I agree with you on MSU at 6-6. They might even win seven, but I doubt it. Hope they like Pizza in December.
Let me say up front, that I AM a UM fan, but I would be pretty surprised if UM ends up with a better record in 2011 than Sparty. MSU will probably be 8-4 or 9-3 next year.
OSU will be interesting to keep an eye on. I don't see any game in the 5-game suspension that they couldn't conceivably win; game 6 against Nebraska will probably be their first real test. I could see they doing anything from going undefeated, to a complete chaotic collapse.
Nebraska has been so bad or inconsistent on offense the past few years, I wouldn't put too much stock in them down the stretch at this point. But with Martinez a year older and a better offensive scheme, they could be very tough, but that's too up in the air at this point.
MSU is way overrated. They were overrated last year, and I think people are really ignoring their O-line situation. All their offensive skill players will be good, but I see them losing more than a couple games because of poor line play.
Didn't Wisconsin graduate a huge number of players? How many starters are they returning, aside from those two RBs?
ND I could actually see finishing the season pretty high. They finished last season on a solid streak. Year 2 under Kelly, and I don't think they really lost any key players; they should improve from last year.
In sum, Michigan will dominate all to the extent that at the end of the season, Michigan will be ranked not only #1, but numbers 2 and 3 as well, just for good measure.
That tsio's suspension of tressel ends when they play Nebraska. Wow ... how lucky for them that it ended the week before. Whew ... what a break !!! /s
Go Blue !
Personally, I don't know how big of an impact Tressel's suspension will really have. He'll be with the team all week for practice and prepping for opponents. He just won't be on the sideline calling the plays, which is something that I don't think he's all the exceptional at.
If anything, I think the Nebraska game will be tough specifically because the offense will probably have some of that first game rust teams tend to have week 1 (assuming the suspended players regain their starting spots).
But like I said, I could see anything from a total implosion to them scratching and clawing by until the suspended players start clicking with the rest of the team again.
i have also thought the same thing and discussed this with some of the various janitors and hobos (osu fans) i run across. when pushed for an example, i can't come up with any examples of "bad plays" just situations where had he made a different call and stepped outside of his own style would have paid off more than staying within the style.
Right, I don't think Tressel is necessarily bad at playcalling. He doesn't make bad calls, but he's extremely conservative in a way that I think a competent replacement (I forget who's taking over for him on game day) could do just as well. If anything OSU's offense might stop trying to run the clock out at the start of the 3rd.
Agree that this game will be interesting for OSU. The suspended players probably won't be getting many, if any, reps in practice with the starters while they're suspended. There could be an adjustment period once they come back. Running back might be the one spot where that might not be that be of a deal.
UM gets no wiscy this year
The teams in the SEC West have a brutal schedule. Look at LSU's schedule:
2 non-conference teams ranked in the Top 25: Oregon and WVU. Alabama, Arkansas, Miss St, Auburn.
Arkansas has 4 teams in the Top 10: Bama, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M. They have to go to both Bama and LSU and play A&M on a neutral field.
In the SEC west Florida has brutal cross over games with the West. Florida also has 4 teams in the Top 10: Bama, LSU, South Carolina and FSU as well as Auburn.
Can someone please make these uniforms stop at some point? I don't know how much more of the ducks uniforms I can take.
I llike how the yellow stripes on the LT's arm sort of resemble a corporal's bars. The Nike swooshes and camo--to honor the troops, of course--really amp up the classiness as well. The Nike tradition is a deep and powerful one, indeed.
I just feel like their uniforms could be so much better if they toned it down a notch with the camo and the feathers they always use. Just simple and clean? Whats wrong with that?
It's their thing as newcomers to the powerhouse block. USC and Stanford and Washington and Michigan and OSU and on and on already have timeless uniforms. Oregon has almost zero tradition, but does have Nike bankrolling "cool" new uniforms every week.
It's their way of establishing something new, because they can't compete on the traditional uniform front. I would probably do the same thing if I were Oregon.
It is their look and I respect that. I actually love Oregon's jersey combos. Its unique to them and a great recruiting tool. I would hate it for Michigan, we need the clean slick look. I think all the different jerseys in college football are part of what makes college football amazing. There is a place for both traditional and modern jersey combos.
It's taken on a life of its own at this point. As long as Knight/Nike keep pouring in the money, and the wins in a newly expanded--and weakened--Pac-12 keep rolling in, there is no need for Oregon to change their formula, such as it is. This IS their tradition, for better or for worse.
The only reason they don't have a yellow field is that they already have a green field.
Real feathers!! Now that would be sweet!