Steele: Michigan among rising teams for '13

Phil Steele looked at our team in-depth for 2 seasons and then looked at our schedule for next year and came up with a very logical and well thought out solution, and it scares me a little. 

I completely agree with him. We play much better at home, on offense at least, we play pretty good defense everywhere. our away games were lost by slim margins, and those should tip in our favor next year. I expect wins versus ND, Nebraska, and Ohio next year and it's not much of a reach.

Our away games are a different story, but like Phil Steele said (feels funny saying that) with our legitimate passing attack and stout defense they should improve our road record. They played pretty well in the bowl game missing key contributors, so with everyone in place they should be able to overcome lesser teams than South Carolina on the road next year.

Northwestern could be tough, they seem to be "in" just about every game they play. 

Penn State is a question mark. They played out of their minds last year, better than anyone expected, but eventually their performance will suffer from the sanctions.

Sparty loses everybody again, and it won't be easy to replace what they lost. Pass rushers DE Tom Gholston, and LB Chris Normon, CB Adams, plus RB Bell, and TE Sims leave for the draft, and 3 interior linemen graduate. They could still have a viable passing threat with Burbrige, and Arnett, but not enough to worry about.

Next year we could be having a very ND/Ohio 2012 type season. Good team, good defence, favorable schedule, and some luck. Still gotta beat Ohio at the end.

I am old school. First let me say Denard was one of the most exciting players ever BUT he also made a lot of mistakes. The Notre Dame game case in point. I often wondered what Bo would do after the 3rd or 4th turnover in a game. I think if Bo coached Denard would either be a running back or if at QB the attack would have been about 90% run option spread. I also think when you have a star like that, other players tend to watch him and wait for him to make something happen. I think next years offense will be better mainly due to less turnovers, a more of a balanced attack and other players stepping up. Also, maybe the coaches will have the number two QB ready if the starter goes down.

which is why I've bought it about 10 years running.

He tries to sell his predictive prowess so he can get bettors to pay for his "insight," but if you look closely at his claims he's not nearly as awesome as he portrays himself. I just ignore that part of his pub.