Looking ahead to 2021 season
Well the since 2020 season is about to be taken off life support, let’s look ahead to next year’s schedule.
Home games against WMU, Washington, NIU, Rutgers, MSU, Northwestern, OSU
Away games against Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, Maryland, PSU
Obviously a ton will be different between now and when toe meets leather in the fall but, assuming Harbaugh is still the coach, what are your early thoughts and expectations.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
Three way QB battle between Milton, McNamara, and McCarthy. The worst one will win.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
So Milton then.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:14 PM ^
Go with McCarthy and build around him. However, Harbaugh will take coaching advice from Gardner and start Milton. There’s no doubt Milton is the starter week 1 next season.
December 2nd, 2020 at 9:45 PM ^
Why does everyone discount Cade? He had a ton of great offers and Bama really wanted him. When he was in (and healthy) the offense looked a lot like it did at the end of 2019 when we were scoring a bunch of points.
December 3rd, 2020 at 4:54 AM ^
Not discounting Cade. The point is Harbaugh wont start the best QB
December 3rd, 2020 at 11:00 AM ^
Realistically, I think Cade has already overtaken Milton in the coaches eyes. Milton could make great strides again next year but as things stand now Cade is the man.
I predict:
Cade to be QB1 next year, Milton QB2 (transfer possibility) and McCarthy to be QB3. I predict Cade to get hurt (because we are cursed) and for Milton to step in (because McCarthy isn't experienced enough). Milton struggles and people clamor to put McCarthy in. Harbaugh succumbs to the pressure and starts McCarthy, who looks lights out until he also gets knocked out with an injury (again, cue in curse), leaving us with a hobbled McNamara or a struggling Milton. Since injuries hobble our most promising players. 2022 ensues another QB battle, probably between Cade and McCarthy because neither player was able to separate themselves from the pack due to injuries. And the cycle continues.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
If Harbaugh is still the coach, next season will suck.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
I thought they were splitting up MSU and OSU home games.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
Maybe they do, I’m just going off what the current schedule reads.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
Yeah, the MSU game will be in East Lansing.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
Well shit. So that makes it even a tougher schedule now.
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
Idk, for some reason we do better there.
December 3rd, 2020 at 1:57 PM ^
We play better in the trash dumpster, so it's a bonus!
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:02 PM ^
That leaves six home games. Something has to be changed on the schedule.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:04 PM ^
I think Indiana may be a home game then
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:40 PM ^
You are right. Two years in Bloomington and back to Ann Arbor next year.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:47 PM ^
Smells like we'll be fighting for bowl eligibility. OSU, @Wisco, @PSU are surefire losses. @Indiana is a likely loss. Home against Washington and Northwestern will be tough games. I still think MSU will be garbage but that didn't stop them from beating us this year so who knows.
Year 7 and bowl eligibility is in question....
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
Hell, Nebraska and Maryland are on the road and Schaino will have a full year at Rutgers under his belt and he’s shown before he can turn it around there. So none of those games are looking like gimmes at this point.
JFC this sucks.
December 3rd, 2020 at 11:46 AM ^
You need to consider the possibility that some of your predictions will be wrong. You have the team having lost games that have not been played yet.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
Only way Harbaugh is still the coach is if he gets extended. How’s this fa base going to react when a long term deal is announced in a few weeks?
I see 6-6.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:07 PM ^
Sorry to disagree. There is no way that the U fires JH unless there are some gross violations. Will he leave to head to the NFL? It's hard to say as there are a handful of likely opportunities. There will be no discussion of a contract extension until next year depending on the circumstances.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:17 PM ^
If Harbaugh is staying then Michigan will have to announce a contact extension within the next month or so.
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:23 PM ^
It is unheard of for a university athletic director to not extend a coach's contract in the final year.
You know what else is unheard of? Going sailing and ignoring your phone when your top coaching candidate's agent is frantically calling you about the job because it's do or die time. Or waiting until after the bowl game to fire a coach. Or emailing fans like you're a drunk message board commentor.
So, yeah. I don't trust that Michigan's athletic department is down to earth enough to handle this the right way.
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:40 PM ^
The failings of Martin and Brandon don’t really reflect on Manuel though.
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:46 PM ^
Probably not. Hopefully not. It just feels like a culture thing to me. But maybe Warde will prove to be smarter about it.
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:48 PM ^
So BYU in the Holiday Bowl?
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
We’ll have Urban so OSU is a tossup
/s
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
Transfers out, transfers in.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
Sam Webb and the media will hype some players up before the season and we will reminisce about football before the year 2000.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
Sam Webb stinks. What has he done that gives him creditability on scouting anyone? Maybe he has a “gut feeling” Milton is the next cam Newton
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
He’s a program mouthpiece. The staff feeds him names of players they desperately need to perform (Jeter and Milton this year) and in exchange for access to the program he blows sunshine which a good chunk of people soak up and pound their chest about.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^
Sam Webb is a nice guy and an unreliable reporter. Like Bacon and other “insiders,” he’s at heart a fan who calls himself a reporter. He’s believes the hype and that’s why people feed him info. You won’t hear them spill any dirt until a coach is out the door.
December 2nd, 2020 at 9:16 PM ^
Who will be the September Heisman winner?
December 4th, 2020 at 8:47 AM ^
Whoever we think will disappoint us the most on offense next season.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
I just can't do this right now
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:53 PM ^
MSU will be an away game. We're not getting 3 straight home games against them,
As for a record prediction, if you took this year's team with that schedule I'd say 4 or 5 wins? WMU, NIU and Rutgers would all be wins. MSU, Nebraska, Maryland and PSU would be toss-ups or leaning losses, so give them 1 or 2 wins. Every other game I'd say is an easy loss.
Obviously next year will be vastly different. Rosters change, theoretically normal offseason, fans in stands, players improve (although how much faith do we have in that if the coaches remain in place). But I'm way too apathetic about football to think about all of that.
So I'll say 4 or 5 wins.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:34 PM ^
I wouldn't be so sure this years team beats WMU. Eleby is good and Eskridge is better than some WRs that torched UM so far.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:54 PM ^
Pain!
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:54 PM ^
The 2020 team is very young. I see losses to just Washington & OSU. I also see Derek Mason joining the staff as DC.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:54 PM ^
I'll be excited only to be let down again. Same shit differant year im sure
December 2nd, 2020 at 8:10 PM ^
Yep, I go through that shit every year. High hopes only to get crushed. Not biting anymore
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:55 PM ^
Unless Harbs has some kind of rebirth or come to jesus kind of moment, there will not be much to look forward to.
December 2nd, 2020 at 6:57 PM ^
7-5 with rival splits
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
The minute the team faces adversity they will collapse. So whenever that happens, it’ll get ugly from that point on.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
This *is* the 2021 team. We're seeing it right now. Sure, they'll get older and have a year of development, but we're gonna go from 2-4 to 7-5, maybe 8-4 best case scenario.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
5-7 with Harbaugh as the coach.
10-3 with a good coaching hire.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:08 PM ^
We should have a good O line with the youngsters having a year of playing time. We have good running backs. We need improved QB play and the O should be pretty good.
On the D side of the ball I'm afraid. All three levels of the D stink. If we can get Hutch back for next year it would be a great start on the line. We need a corner to go with Green. I have no idea what to do with the LB crew. LB is a Major disappointment.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:10 PM ^
Vaccine generally available by June dependent. I don’t see B1G Presidents signing up to another 2020 shit show.
December 2nd, 2020 at 7:58 PM ^
Hindsight is 20/20 but the BigTen made their own mess here. Even if the vaccine isn’t widely available yet, it’s hard to imagine them making the same delay mistakes again.
December 3rd, 2020 at 9:47 AM ^
Lol no it's not