U-M finally enters Big Ten play unbeaten in top 10

Submitted by Human Torpedo on

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2016/09/michigans_undefeated_…

This is significant as this article suggests as this is just the fourth time in 30 years U-M has done that (excluding years we've started the season with a conference game). Starting in 1960, the results of years we finished undefeated in the non-conference as a current top 10 team as follows:

1961: 6-3 and unranked

1964: 9-1, won Rose Bowl, won Rose Bowl

1970: 9-1 and ranked #9

1985: 10-1-1, won Fiesta Bowl, ranked #2 

1986: 11-2 and ranked #8

1997: 12-0, won Rose Bowl, AP National Champions

1999: 10-2, won Orange Bowl, ranked #5

2006: 11-2 and ranked #8

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Michigan4Life

September 19th, 2016 at 8:29 PM ^

Colorado has never had a winning record since 2005. The roster aside from one player are pretty bad and that is with the same QB who supposedly "good".  Colorado has never won more than 2 Pac-12 games since 2007.

They beat two shitty teams. Good for them but Pac-12 are a lot better than Colorado State and Idaho State.

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jmblue

September 19th, 2016 at 8:48 PM ^

Any history before 2013 is irrelevant, since none of their current players or coach would have been involved.  It's more instructive to look at last season and this season.

Colorado went 4-9 last year but had numerous close losses.  This year they returned a huge number of starters (9 on offense, 8 on defense) including their QB, who looked pretty good against us.  You can't possibly see them winning more than five games?  If their QB can't return, that could be, but assuming he'll be back soon, they look like a bowl team.

 

 

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Michigan4Life

September 19th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^

Michigan is a function of Michigan making them look good for a quarter and half than Colorado being good. Harbaugh put out a pretty bad gameplan and Peppers saved his ass in that game.

Returning starters doesn't matter if they sucked. They're not a bowl team. Last season, they lost to a 1 win Hawaii team and Hawaii is one of the worst team in the country.

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jmblue

September 19th, 2016 at 9:40 PM ^

Did Michigan also make them look good against Colorado State?  CSU is generally one of the better Group of Five programs, but CSU destroyed them (44-7).  

I get the sense that you have some sort of ax to grind against them that you're not telling us about.  I'm not saying they're one of our best opponents, but I think they looked pretty well-coached and I could see them make a bowl.

 

 

 

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UMxWolverines

September 19th, 2016 at 5:47 PM ^

Good. This is a step towards an elite season. Even though we had a pretty weak nonconference schedule too often with talented teams we've flubbed a nonconference game to Notre Dame or Oregon or someone else taking us out of national title contention early.

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funkywolve

September 19th, 2016 at 5:49 PM ^

but all those years in the 70s when Bo and Woody went head to head, 1970 was the only year UM was undefeated and ranked in the Top 10 when conference play started?

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1974

September 19th, 2016 at 5:50 PM ^

Looking at the last four instances ..... 1986: Painful and inexplicable loss to a mediocre Big Ten team (Minnesota). 1997: Bliss. That team is underrated by most external observers. 1999: Painful and inexplicable loss to a mediocre Big Ten team (Illinois). 2006: Unreasonable expectations and internal rating based on beating an overrated Notre Dame team. (Is Notre Dame ever underrated?) I think Iowa (at 20-something) was the only other ranked team Michigan played prior to OSU. (Interestingly, OSU's ranking was also buoyed by beating an overrated team, Texas, which ultimately scraped by a 6-6 Iowa team in the Alamo Bowl.) So, several possible outcomes ...

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MGB

September 19th, 2016 at 5:55 PM ^

People absolutely need to pump their breaks! In a parallel universe where skip bayless has his own 24/7 sports network, Colorado QB's are immune to injury, and the Scott Frost invented game of ' run and hit ' has become the new national pastime.. We're only 1-2!!

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Wee-Bey Brice

September 19th, 2016 at 6:25 PM ^

You keep saying things that apply to every highly ranked team in the beginning of the season. Why isnt that occuring to you? And it's not like the Colorado starting QB wasnt playing just by chance. He got HIT....by OUR defense. Then hit again and again, until they were forced to replace him. You might have also heard that we have injured players.

Clemson barely beat Auburn who is looking into buying out it's coach, struggled against Troy and beat up on a SCState team who lost 38-0 to the UCF team you are looking down on. You dont believe in the team, that's fine but give the bs justifications a rest. 

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ghostofhoke

September 19th, 2016 at 6:41 PM ^

I'm usually one of the first to tell people to pump their brakes but I've seen enough to be fairly optimistic this team has a puncher's chance against every team on our schedule. Our defense is trouble for everyone and every QB, even JT Barrett. If/when healthy, I'm not worried about us at least having a chance to beat everyone. Wins against good teams on the road are never a given, wins against elite teams will always a crapshoot. We've got as good of a chance as we can ask for at this point. Putting a bunch of wins in a row together always require some miracles or fortune, let's see how it goes. 

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Wee-Bey Brice

September 19th, 2016 at 6:49 PM ^

It's one thing to be overly-optimistic but being overly-pessimistic is also a thing. Every team in the top 10 has struggled at some point in the season save for Louisville. Saban said the win over Western KY was the ugliest in his tenure. It happens.

Seems like too many people on the board want to compare our lows to other program's highs and it doesnt work like that. 

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Hailtothevictors1997

September 19th, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^

Speaking of top 10, the Alabama/Ole Miss score was noticeably absent from the out of town scores at the game on Saturday.  Are we not showing the scores of teams ahead of us? Seems odd, but who knows?

 

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Steves_Wolverines

September 19th, 2016 at 6:05 PM ^

Offtopic, but looking at what kind of offense the rest of the teams in the Top 10 run, how many do we think Michigan could stop?

Offenses I'm deathly afraid of:

Alabama, Ohio State, Louisville, Clemson, Houston

Offenses that will score on us, but not every possession:

Stanford, MSU, Washington, Texas A&M

Other offenses outside of the Top 10 I'm deathly afraid of:

Florida State, Baylor, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas Tech, Arizona, and Texas.

Hint: I'm deathly afraid of uptempo and/or mobile QB offenses...

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Ruffneck61

September 19th, 2016 at 6:15 PM ^

The thing is Steves, is that football has changed. No longer are the days defense wins championships. No one can stop these offenses. Just like Alabama couldn't hold Clemson under 40 last year. Ohio st won, not because of defense but because they stretched the field. In today's football you need to score and score a shitload and hope your defense stops the offense 50 percent of the time.



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Steves_Wolverines

September 19th, 2016 at 8:37 PM ^

From what I've seen so far, Don Brown has had some boggling assignments on WR trips, screens, and slants. 

Having McCray cover any slot receiver is a loss. Having 1 defender cover 3 is a loss. Having 2 defenders cover 3 is a loss. 

Having Thomas or Hill cover a slot receiver one v one is a loss. Having deep safeties taking bad angles, misreading plays, and missing tackles is a loss. 

If we faced any of the teams I've listed as deathly afraid of, our defense likely gives up 50+ points. 

No way could I see us stopping Louisville, Houston, Clemson, OSU, etc, etc, etc. in weeks 1-3. Maybe by week 10 we'll be ready; but right now, no way could we stop them. 

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Ali G Bomaye

September 20th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^

We had two big coverage busts against Colorado. Other than those, we allowed 218 yards and seven points to an offense that had been averaging 588 yards and 50 points per game.

Let's cool the panic regarding spread offenses. It's not like Don Brown has never faced one before.

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Ali G Bomaye

September 20th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^

The B1G, outside of Michigan and Ohio State, was also really bad for most of the 70s. Michigan and OSU were legitimately great teams during that decade, but we got virtually no competition from in the conference.

The entire conference, besides Michigan and OSU, combined for a total of three seasons during the entire decade with fewer than four losses (7-3-1 seasons by MSU in 1974 and 1977, and a 9-2-1 season by Purdue in 1978).

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LSAClassOf2000

September 19th, 2016 at 8:23 PM ^

Three ties that season, as I recall, the OOC one being the Notre Dame game. 

I think we got all the tie games out of our system that year, as the rules changes - quite sensibly - and allowed OT just a couple years later, and whoever thought the Las Vegas Bowl would be the test bed for that, eh?

 

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Richard75

September 19th, 2016 at 10:00 PM ^

Instead of "entering Big Ten play," it should be entering Week 4 or some such. Kinda silly to ignore all the 3-0, top-10 U-M teams that started with a conference game; the schedule wasn't their fault.



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