Preseason coaches poll
August 1st, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^
They lost of the core of their defense. Their offense will be better. I was surprised how well their OL played last season. I hope Michigan can make a big turnaround on the OL? MSU just seems to play tougher football when they play against us, and we seemed to have lost that toughness since the RR era!
August 1st, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^
They lost of the core of their defense. Their offense will be better. I was surprised how well their OL played last season. I hope Michigan can make a big turnaround on the OL? MSU just seems to play tougher football when they play against us, and we seemed to have lost that toughness since the RR era!
August 1st, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^
They lost of the core of their defense. Their offense will be better. I was surprised how well their OL played last season. I hope Michigan can make a big turnaround on the OL? MSU just seems to play tougher football when they play against us, and we seemed to have lost that toughness since the RR era!
August 1st, 2014 at 12:57 AM ^
My computer went spasmic on me?
is worth saying twelve times. This once.
Just win. I wan Michigan to earn their lofty ranking at the end of the season.
Any preseason ranking based on a previous year's performance by a college football team is kind of a wild guess.
Based on last year, sure, this is to be expected.
#32... Much like our good friend Jordan Kovacs... Oh let's not worry about that little #32 over there... THWACK BANG KACHOW.
#32 can become #11 in the course of a pregame ceremony!
Like others, I can't wince at Michigan's position here - I actually would have been surprised (pleasantly, mind you, but still) if we had been ranked.
That being said, however, do keep in mind one important shift in the meaning / weight of the poll now that we are no longer under the cruel thumb of the BCS. The Coaches' Poll, while it may undoubtedly sway the Committee, no longer has any predetermined, cleanly measurable effect on what happens bowl-wise at the end of the season. This poll, however, still determines who gets the Crystal Football, which will still get handed out as one of many prizes in addition to the new NC Trophy.
One of the talking points after the Big Ten Media Days was how MSU was being "disrespected" despite being reigning champs and Rose Bowl winners. I know it was mostly manufactured just to have something to talk about, but I found it it hilarious. Picked second in the division with 1/3 of the first place votes. #8 in the country. It's not disrespectful to be picked behind a team most believe can also compete for a National Title.
As for Michigan, I'm fine with #32. Though I do think we'll finish much better. Pre-season buzz is guilty of juding teams based too much off last season. I've said it before. I think our defense will be A-/A based on depth, experience, talent, and coaching. I think our offense will be B at worst. There's enough talent, and a new/simpler scheme. At minimum I think they'll be much less erratic.
Can't wait for the season.
I would say B/B+ defense this season.
C- offense but that could be good coming off a D- last season!
is that Michigan can show the world that this No. 32 ranking is undeserved.....by playing......Appalachian State?....errr....nevermind.
FWIW those still with delirium tremours about Armanti Edwards. he really has been replaced 7 years later by a kid named Kam Bryant... Hurray!?
August 1st, 2014 at 12:40 AM ^
In 2006, Appy St was the AA National Champion, finishing 14-1 and ranked #53 overall by Sagarin. A loss to a ~50ish team is not that unusual an even, even if the opponent is labeled a AA team.
In 2013, Appy St finished 4-8 and ranked #175 by Sagarin.
So Appy St finished somewhere between the 2013 Connecticut/Akron range (#121 and #137, respectively) and the 2009 BabySealU/Delaware St (#206, 4-6).
I suppose the 2013 Connecticut and Akron games should give us some reason for concern, but I gotta think that a Michigan program going into 2014 with its coach near the hot seat will be focused for its opener.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/2006/team/
Oh, they finished somehwere around what UConn/Akron was? That makes me feel much better, since we handled them with such ease last year...
The one thing we know is that starting 2-0 with a win over Notre Dame will get us in the top 25. Starting 6-0 (AND PLAYING WELL) going into Penn State would be a huge boost for the program with the biggest 2014 recruiting night upon us.
... Just to be clear, there are only 126 FBS teams, so our being in the 50s would require that you assume we'll play even worse than we did last year. If we're talking about teams that were in the 50s at the end of last season, we're probably talking about someone like an Arkansas State, a Pittsburgh, or a Buffalo. Our deficiencies notwithstanding, I can't quite see the logic of a team with our coordinators and our talent--even if in some places still young--being ranked that low.
;-)
But seriously--well, that was partly serious--you have to put the games in which the team looked its worst (Akron and UConn) alongside the games in which they looked their best (ND, OSU, Central, Minnesota). If UM didn't look as good as a top 35 team in the games you mentioned, I'd argue that they looked better than no. 55 in eight of them, and they looked like a top 20 team in four of those eight. In the end, neither the Akron nor the ND games were fair representations of this team (and yet, to some extent, were fair) since both games were extremes for a team that was characterized by being wildly inconsistent. I don't think the o-line can take much of a step back this year, even though I'm not wildly optimistic about them making much of a jump forward. As has been said ad naseum, I'm expecting fewer plays ending in negative yardage... although I doubt we'll be an above-average running team.
and I'll say it again...the value of a preseason poll isn't worth two cents. Any poll taken doesn't have any real value until at least, AT LEAST, week 5 of the season.
just win the game... and you will be ranked.
Interesting to read which coaches are on the panel. Dantonio, Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly are all on there (guess we figured out how OSU got that 1st place vote). As is Rich Rodriguez.
I agree. I see this as the best of both worlds actually:
1) Totally unranked puts a chip on the kids' shoulders. Makes them hungry hopefully; and
2) Since Michigan is a traditional power, nobody's going to over-look us if we DO in fact start to rack up the wins. Just as the media loves to see the big upsets, they also love to tout the "return" of powerhouse programs when they finally get back on track. It isn't like we're NIU or Fresno State or Boise State, so any danger of being totally unranked in preseason is pretty much zero.
No....
August 1st, 2014 at 12:46 AM ^
I remember more often being ranked in the preseason top 10 but finishing with a 4 loss season.
The ranking looks just about right considering what KSU did to us in our last game. There's hope we will improve on offense and I think our defense will be better. But if we finish with 4 losses again and a bowl loss, then the # 32 ranking will be right on the mark and Brady will be on the hot seat in 2015!
Here's hoping for only 3 losses, an upset win against MSU or OSU and bowl win, then we will be ranked in the top 20!