What's your biggest fear for this upcoming season
For me, it's a loss of momentum. Essentially we become the Spartans. They got absolutely soul stomped in their lone playoff experience and then went on to recruit horrible, struggle with winning games, and deal with locker room problems. My biggest fear is that we have moved the bar up, and now we want to see it continued and we won't. Whether you want to argue the affect of Harbaugh's NFL dance this offseason on recruiting etc..., it absolutely detracted from the season we just had. I am an amateur fan. I love Michigan and everything it does in sports, but I don't follow recruiting, don't analyze every published article, don't put all my effort into it, so my perspective is more of an outside view, but the recruiting stuff is worrisome. The amount of talent we have to replace is massive. A ton of unknowns.
Quit being such a gigantic pussy. Let’s go. These guys are coming back with some leadership and desire to do it again. Nails for breakfast. Steaks and whole milk.
My “fear” is I won’t make it to enough games. There are many other “fears” in my life that outweigh that one.
“Why do people say ‘grow some balls?…’ Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough grow a vagina."
-Betty White
"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine."
-Abraham Lincoln
I get that OP's post is overly negative. But in fairness to him, he did make a thread about "biggest fear this upcoming season" and he lays out a worst case scenario that I hadn't thought of before. Everyone (myself included) assumes the positive momentum will continue for years to come. I don't quite understand all the downvotes for him. We're in the doldrums of summer - it's not like he's taking away from productive conversation otherwise.
Not sure why you think our momentum will continue for years. In terms of recruiting it looks to me like the NIL+Vikings BS has hindered that already.
We should be able to roll into Cbus this year with the division on the line. If we can do that and hope the NIL fiasco gets sorted out in the next year or two we should be able to weather the storm.
Mostly because I'm an idiot football fan. We've been waiting since Harbaugh arrived for us to finally get over the hump - beating OSU and winning the Big Ten. Now that it finally happened, why wouldn't it keep happening? Not saying it's smart, but that's how a lot of fans think. At least fans that don't live and breathe recruiting - aka ppl on the blog.
WTF the recruiting has to do with the next season? It is not like they are going to make or break the next season. Another post to whine about Michigan and recruiting.
My biggest fear is the Iowa game. If that’s a nice win that really helps going into the mid season challenge.
Injuries are always a concern.
Kinnick is a tough place to play, but they lost a ton of productivity to graduation. My biggest fear is that we won't average 40 points per game.
I think your 40 point comment is sarcasm, but I actually do agree with it (or something similar). Looking at our depth chart, we are starting NFL-caliber players at every position on offense, give or take a QB decision. My biggest fear is we look back at how we started 10-11 NFL players and only averaged 34 PPG or something like that when we should have a top 5 offense in the country. Similar to how we looked back on the DPJ, Collins, Black, and Bell WR seasons.
I think our offense will need to win us a couple games as the defense progresses. Ultimately, I think the defense ends up taking a step back given what we lost w/ the pass rush. Offense will need to be elite for us to get back to the playoff.
I was going to say injuries. It sucks for the athletes who sacrifice so much time for the sport. You can say "next man up", but there is a reason why players are "ranked" on depth charts.
Getting blown out by Ohio state
My biggest fear is that when they update the James Earl Jones entrance video, they only use 6 video clips from the 42-27 trouncing of Ohio State instead of the requisite 8.
Show the hurdle at least twice.
I'm extremely optimistic. Team should be good and they'll win a lot of games thru virtue of an easy schedule. Also helps that we literally are coming off a dream season.
If I had to point to one thing, I will say I am mildly concerned about defensive tackle depth. I like our starters but I feel like we are counting one or two of the young guys to hit (or the transfer). Which as we know we'll is not a sure thing...
But it's a mild concern mostly born out of past trauma. 3/10
I agree with everything you said but substitute DT with Edge. Hutch and Ojabo covered a lot of weaknesses.
As for the OPs, calm your tits. We have a favorable schedule, loaded offense, and a defense with some intriguing pieces. When we start winning games we will pick up flips, decommits, and late risers.
Yep this.
Can't replace Hutch & Ojabo, hopefully the back end will pick up some of that.
Haskins is tough to replace as well. He was almost guaranteed to gash tough yards up the middle in key game situations.
CARNIES
Small hands. Smell of cabbage.
The defense is the only thing that concerns me, especially early in the season. Too soon to think about The Game.
/did the copyright The Game also???
LOL. I wouldn't put it past those insecure f***ers.
That there's a monsoon during one of the games I attend.
9/3/11 ... Never forget.
And don't take Sparty lightly.
Once they announced the delay the 4 of us were so drenched we headed for the car. Most of those in attendance had enough as well. Was so glad we already had a good 40 minute head start after they called the game anyway. Surreal experience-always felt for those that were wiling to remain only to have the game called.
The hit on that Western M QB - thought he was dead.
Exactly. I am hoping the 2021-22 season is replicable, or at least very close. Talking specifics, I think the offense this season will be extremely good. The defense? Who knows...we lost some really good players and we have a new DC but I am forever hopeful. The schedule is pretty forgiving and we may again be playing OSU for a trip to the B1G championship game.
Fear itself.
Go Blue!
Snow blindness in cats.
We are the reigning B1G champs. Relax and try and enjoy.
The Good Old Days are just memories of now.
I think your post is sincere, so I honor that. But a little bit of data to show that there is some reason for your fears could have made this a worthier post.
I'm concerned about the power running or tough yards with Hassan gone on the O.
On the D side we all know it is the pass rush.
We need the young guns to step up like Rod(hot rod) Moore did last year. He was outstanding.
Ain't none. Which means by week 3 there will be roughly 27.
Or 42. Amirite?
The NFL dalliance did not detract from the season, especially when Harbaugh stayed. As John U Bacon has said, UM fans are not happy unless they’re unhappy.
MSU paying off the refs, replay officials, scoreboard operator, and beating us again.
poseidon7902, you lost me a little bit here: "For me, it's a loss of momentum."
Any time I see / hear momentum used in a sports context I have a hard time taking the source seriously. It's a very overrated idea in big-time sports. Ask anyone who plays.
Other than having to see 999 threads on Michigan's NIL "game" I don't have any great fears about the upcoming season. There will be several new starters on defense but there are some good players available as replacements.
Given the still-large talent differential, I wouldn't *expect* Michigan to win in Columbus, but I think they can make the game competitive.
While momentum is sometimes overused in sports, it’s definitely a thing, both in games and seasons. You don’t think there was a momentum swing against IU in the B1G tournament? We dominated early, and then they got a few calls due to their coach whining, and then we couldn’t do anything. They got confidence and we lost ours. I consider that momentum. Or a hockey team getting hot and ripping off a string of wins far above their talent level. Feels like momentum. Or, I hate to say it, the overturned TD against MSU last year. Instead of a death blow, it gave them a little sliver of hope.
My biggest fear is that we don't go all in on the right QB, and instead split time between the both of them.
Mishandling the QB situation is a top concern for me as well. What that staff did in 2020 is even more mind-boggling after watching Milton's post-Michigan career.
'DoubleB' - appropriate handle for seconding a post!
Nonetheless, I'll third this particular concern. The handling of QB's has been both ridiculously subtle and adept at keeping the guy cool and steady, while also mind-numbingly stoopid - at the same time! I feel that JH determines his favorite guy early on and sticks with him until the bitter end, despite what may seem obvious to casual observers. And again at the same time, I'm not sure he'll commit to either Cade or JJ this season and we'll see part-timers again, neither being able to grow into the leader a UGA-type team needs. If you have two jobs, you can't do either one worth a shit. And if two people are doing the same thing, neither person can really make the job work.
Watching Harbaugh handle quarterbacks is a study in the frustration of joy...
We were 12-1 with wins vs OSU and one ref job away from undefeated.
Post covid I was just about done with Harbaugh but last year? What could any of you arm chair coaches done to top that? Beat an NFL defense? Come on. Overrule an MSU replay official? I wish.
Point is the two complaints I see on this board is "ran too much" and "2 QBs". If you run 1000 scenarios I bet almost all of them end up being equal or worse than 12-1.
I actually started typing this in the original post and decided I had been negative enough and others would bring it up. We've seen great QB outcomes to head scratching bad ones. I think last year we saw that Harbaugh had given over the offense to Gattis. My fear is that he will pull it back and try to do what he knows best and we've seen that that doesn't necessarily play out well.
At least you can watch the glory that will be the MIami (YTM) offense.
Michigan community burying their collective heads in the sand and falling further behind in the legal NIL-era.
My biggest fear is Harbaugh goes for two to make it 50-0 in Columbus and the fans that are left in the stadium will begin throwing stuff at our players and staff. I hope our guys are ready for that because it could get ugly. Have the buses ready to go in case they need to make a quick escape.
My biggest fear under this scenario is that no reporter will have the guts after the game to ask JH why he went for two.
Uh, MSU post playoff went 3-9 with wins over Furman, Rutgers and Notre Dame. They had immense luck in 2015 to even win the conference, including the infamous punt debacle in A2. 2016 also included multiple roid incidents that further exposed a basic element of Dantonio’s program.
This UM might bottom out at 9-3 or a bunch of injuries to dip to 8-4. The more likely outcome is a potent offense and 10-2 or 11-1.
The program will also snag a handful of flips late in the cycle as other teams have issues and the momentum at UM continues. Book it, Ryback.
Right, it was events after the 2016 season that led to MSU's recruiting cratering. First, 3 freshman from the 2016 recruiting class are arrested for sexual assault & kicked off the team, then Dantonio fires Curtis Blackwell, then Austin Robertson is arrested for rape.
Such a glass half empty stupid post. Already looking for things to complain about and we’re a month out from fall camp.
Michigan just won the Big10 championship and has great chance to repeat. Yet someone posts what is your greatest fear for this season? Good grief.
After the first 2 sentences I stopped reading 😂😅
Going to Kinnick at night and running the ball on 1st and 2nd down every play into a ten man box and screaming fans.
JJ hits the portal.
Losing a game