And I don't want to be. I see a lot of commentary on here about how in a couple years Michigan will be at the level of Bama. We need to be realistic. There will come a day, hopefully in two or three years where we can compete with a team like Bama or LSU, but we will never be loaded with that much NFL talent. IE, maybe we will have like a 35-40% chance of beating them in a one game setting, but year in and year out, on average, the best SEC team will be better than the best Big Ten team.
As well as Hoke is recruiting, Bama is a football factory that serves as a preparatory school for the NFL. Don't want to sound like a bitter, sore loser cynic, but that is not the "student athlete" model we are going to pursue at Michigan. They oversign, bring in jucos, and pull in a top class of recruits every year with little worry about students having issues in the classroom, or giving out "medical redshirts" and cutting. Once a decade or so there is a team like Bama. There were the 80's Canes, 90's Seminoles, USC of the 2000's. There is something all these teams have in common...They are usually cutting corners in the classroom at best, and involved with a bunch of shadier off fields scandals at worst.
When your 3 deep reads like a future NFL roster, something smells a bit off. Take nothing away from Saban as a brilliant game day coach, motivator, program operator, recruiter, etc. But the man has straight up said he thinks college players should be paid (not a moral indictment in its own right) but there is also a lot of smoke and rumor around the program around that very issue.
OSU tried to go the NFL factory route under Tressel, and will probably do the same under Meyer, and we all saw how that turned out. Yet even when cheating, OSU was still getting blown up by SEC teams in national title games.
Point being, to those saying give Hoke a few years and we will be like Bama because OMG look at his first two recruiting classes, just realize this is probably an unrealistic hope. I expect us to get significantly better and win the Big 10 repeatedly, and maybe one year pull off an upset in a bowl or playoff for a magical year (like when OSU beat a much better Miami squad in 02). But to expect Michigan football to perennially be what Alabama is now is an unrealistic goal as, IMO, it would require a program character tranformation that Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon would be unwilling to undergo. As much as I love winning, I wouldn't want to go that route.
I expect us to get much, much better, more physical, and competitive under Hoke. Our teams will be bigger and able to compete with offensive and defensive lines like Alabama, LSU, USC. But the Alabama model is not one I would wish to pursue for my Wolverines.
I have to add this link in as an edit to my post just so all the self-righteous, "just take it on the chin" types understand the concept of smoke can mean fire. http://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/agent-ralph-cindrich-nick-saban-pay-for-play/148079
Again, my point is not that Alabama didn't kick our ass. It's also not that we are the greatest non-cheating team in the world, and only if everyone played fair we would win every game. The point is when teams get this good, as Alabama is now, and there is such a huge disparity between a couple top programs in the country and the rest of college football you would be a moron not to wonder what's up. And recent history tends to support such skepticism.
The whole game I was thinking a lot of the same things that you posted. I feelike Michigan is a university forst with a great football tradition. I could not stop thinking about how the commentators were slobbing all over Bama and Saba. Even though there is so much shady activity down there.