New opinions on schedule
September 6th, 2015 at 9:32 AM ^
Hard to say off of one game. Our offense looked much better than last year, there were plays to be made vs last year where there was nothing, but our OL will need to mature in a big way in a short amount of time. The next two weeks should give everyone a chance to really cement the things they learned in camp and hopefully they can make a leap forward in confidence against an easier schedule.
I had 9-3 as my expected out come but I'm dropping that to 8-4. I'm not positive we beat Minny anymore.
September 6th, 2015 at 9:36 AM ^
With the offense I saw Thursday this is a 6-6 or 7-5 team at best. If the line improves its run blocking, a RB emerges who can hit a hole with speed and the QB stops being a turnover machine we may win 8. Those are pretty big ifs though considering these were the exact same problems the offense had last season.
September 6th, 2015 at 9:36 AM ^
With the offense I saw Thursday this is a 6-6 or 7-5 team at best. If the line improves its run blocking, a RB emerges who can hit a hole with speed and the QB stops being a turnover machine we may win 8. Those are pretty big ifs though considering these were the exact same problems the offense had last season.
September 6th, 2015 at 11:22 AM ^
Ive moved BYU to the L column...doesnt matter which QB they are GOOD they are going to pick apart our secondary left and right and they are BIG
One other concern now is NW...they could be problimatic. I havent changed it YET because it seems no matter how bad weve been we always find a way to beat them
Im at 8-4 but starting to lean to 7-5..Im figuring Harbaugh engineers one big upset
September 6th, 2015 at 1:42 PM ^
September 6th, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
Everyone is forgetting that Utah on the road was the third hardest game on our schedule going into the year. I'm still thinking 9-3, maybe 8-4. Don't overreact.
BYU looked impressive, but losing those players to injury will be big. MSU will still be good, but they did not look like a top 5 team at all. More like top 15, and their pass defense is bad. Last year it was average. This year it looks bad. We need to expose that.
Minnesota looked better than expected, meanwhile Penn State is basically Michigan 2014.
Realistically, I see us losing 2 of MSU/OSU/BYU/Minnesota, and nothing more.
September 6th, 2015 at 11:34 AM ^
I know I will get neg-banged for this opinion (which is a dumb thing to do), but I am much more bearish than other folks are. I think its going to get worse before it gets better. I see this as a 6 win team. The team performed ok against Utah, but it felt a lot like a team that was very much under construction. It reminded me of RR's first game here - not the system, but the feel of it. But unlike RR, I think the future is very bright. I think this season will be pretty painful yet also auspicious.
September 6th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
You might not have meant it this way, but 6 wins would actually be improvement, not getting worse before it gets better.
September 6th, 2015 at 12:34 PM ^
PSU confirmed what I thought they would be. MSU week 1 on the road at WMU played a game where they were never truely threatened, and it did not change my opinion. Only worry is if we are Not Stanford Good Yet (TM) how do we beat NU?
September 6th, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^
September 6th, 2015 at 1:41 PM ^
Always felt Penn State and Hack were being over-hyped - never got it. The game last year was ugly but Penn State isn't very good and has no depth.
BYU on that Hail Mary was classic college football and as a lifelong fan NOT of Nebraska, pretty awesome. Not as good as 62-36 loss to Colorado when ranked #1 in the nation, but close. BYU was always going to be a tough opponent for MICHIGAN but now they get UCLA and Boise St before coming to Ann Arbor, in addition to the injuries ...super tall receivers
The spin I got this morning from a State fan was that they weren't showing anything on Offense because of Oregon next week - that Sparty was keeping the play calling vanilla and still dominated WMU the whole game.. whatever. Oregon is good and State is too.
The Wisconsin - Alabama game was almost a replay of Michigan - Alabama at Jerry World. Dull, not ever competitive and another bit of "evidence" that the BigTen is "inferior" ...
Big first weekend for college football for the state of Utah
September 6th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^
September 6th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^
September 6th, 2015 at 5:10 PM ^
I didn't watch the MSU game. Did they dissapoint?
September 6th, 2015 at 7:00 PM ^
They still looked good.
They did not, however, look top 5/"Playoff contender" good. Offense is as strong as it was. Run defense is too, maybe a tiny, tiny bit of regression. But pass defense is much, much worse. Also, their special teams looked weak. (Western had 200 yards just in kick returns).
MSU won by 13, but the game was closer than the score indicated. Western missed a FG, had a receiver drop a wide open pass in the endzone (literally hit him in both hands and not an MSU defender touching him), and with 3 min left WMU drove 80 yards down the field but then threw an interception from the 5 yard line into the end zone, on first and goal. Their defense gave up significantly more yards and points to Western than we did to Utah. This should've been a one possession win over a MAC team, which is definitely some cause for concern among the Spartans I know.
Before this last game I thought MSU had about a 75% chance to beat Oregon. Now I think Oregon has about a 75% chance to beat MSU. We'll see.
September 6th, 2015 at 7:25 PM ^