What game are you much more optimistic about than the MSM?
For me, it's the UM-OSU game. Last year we out-played them with a starting QB who had half an arm and played like he had half a brain, not to mention the fact that our defense can't be worse this year than last year. OSU, on the other hand, still has one player that has not impressed me yet: Terrelle Pryor. I know that everyone in the MSM loves the Poet in Cleates, but I'm not enamored with his game yet. He didn't really look that great all year, and really didn't give the kind of performance against Oregon that (to me) makes me look at him and say "Oh mama, wake me up from this nightmare."
What about you guys?
If Death Roh, Big Will and the D-line could put some pressure on Pryor, he would start making mistakes we could hopefully capitalize off of.
It will depend on how well our D plays, if we have a real chance against OSU. I'm banking on our D improving dramatically by the end of the season and our offense playing well throughout the season. My prediction is that the OSU vs UM game will be close and the winner will have the fewest turnovers! We need to beat this team bad!!!!!
Lets hope our front four (and hopefully front 7) give Pryor some nice stiff D and that they go hard all the time until Pryor is begging them to stop.. and then go some more... Yea. that sounds nice.
For sure. That's not to say I think we're going 12-0, but I'm pretty sure I'm more confident than your typical college football talking head. If I have to pick one, I'll say Penn State. My guess is the MSM will be high on PSU, but they lost a lot on D and the word is that their QB situation is looking ugly.
At the moment, my list of games from most likely M will win to least:
U Mass, Bowling Green, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, MSU, U Conn, Penn State, ND, Iowa, Wisconsin, OSU.
Actually, I have no idea where to put ND.
Probably end up at 8-4 (I had been thinking 7-5, but I'm getting more optimistic for some reason). 9-3 wouldn't really surprise me, even though it should. I don't think there's a game on the schedule they can't win. And it would totally shock me if they didn't get to at least 7-5.
1. While the OSU QB's may be OK, the phrase "Pryor and Prayer" didn't occur by accident or because someone around OSU was so "brilliant" that he couldn't resist putting it out there. Consequently, I would infer that some around the program don't think very much of their chances if Pryor goes down with an injury.
2. On that "more optimistic than the MSM" thing: am I allowed to choose "all of them?" I think the same media that used to overrate Michigan are now underrating them. It's a lot better to be underrated because the "surprises" are pleasant instead of unpleasant, so this makes me happy. If I had to take one, though, it would be MSU. They are in for a thrashing.
The game I am looking forward to the most right now is PSU. Not only do I think we will win but we we may get a chance to kick around a former recruit who dissed us - QB Kevin Newsome. That would be a first for RR at Michigan. I have close relatives who are PSU people and they are intolerably obnoxious about the last two years.
On a humorous side note, these same relatives were equally obnoxious after the App State Horror, oblivious to the fact that they had yet to play us that year. We know how that went.
Next up for me is Purdue because of Danny Hope's ridiculous display of sleaze at the end of last year's game. He will of course never say it but I believe RR will absolutely have no mercy if he gets the chance in that game, or future games against Hope.
I have full confidence that we will slap Little Brother around in the Big House this year and put and end to the two year streak they have going on. Things clicked in the end of the 2nd half and we got back in the game to force overtime thanks to Forcier. That boy worked his ass off getting us down the field to tie it up. As for OSU I would love to say "Hell yeah our chances are great to knock those bastards off!" Sadly I'm actually fearing a blow out against them. Pryor may have a knee issue but Ohio State still beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Ohio State's defense is good. I know, I know I hate to admit it but it's true and it's why they are 2nd in country right now. Pryor has been a threat every time our defense has had to put up with him. In 2008 he and that offense picked us apart in the 2nd half and destroyed us badly.
If we aren't going to beat Ohio State we need to at least give them a tough game and compete all 4 quarters. I would love to see an early Michigan lead in the 1st quarter. Up 7-0 or even 3-0 would give our team some momentum and start to maybe think to themselves "if we can keep this up, we have a shot!" The crowd will be sold out, hostile and of course all scarlet and gray except for a few maize and blue figures in the masses. I want to beat OSU as much as the next Michigan fan and end that 2151 or whatever the days are since we last beat them is. I will say this though that if our secondary can puzzle Pryor and cover OSU's receivers well, then we have a good shot at an upset! We'll just have to wait and see.
To answer this question I'd have to, you know, pay attention to the MSM. Since I try to avoid doing so, it's difficult to do, but assuming the MSM is putting out the typical nonsense that they usually do, I'd probably say Ohio State and Notre Dame. Ohio State will be good, again, but I really think we have a shot to beat them in the Shoe this year. The only reason I include ND is because of the ND hype machine in general; I'm not really sure if people actually think ND will be good (for the record, I don't think they will be, but I think they'll definitely be better than 2008 Michigan), but I'm assuming that the MSM will push ND on us again regardless (no offense, Irish). I think we beat ND, which, in light of the aforementioned, sounds like it should be a given, but, as we all know, things are more often taken than given to us when we go to South Bend.
Iowa and Wisconsin. Last year we almost beat Iowa in their house without Molk. Tate wasn't very sharp in his first cold weather game and we still almost managed to pull it off. Wisconsin is going to be tough, but the game against them in 2008 was the only bright spot of that season and they come back to the Big House this year.. Our D line will be a little bigger this year with Will in there which should help us with their running game. If my understanding of the 3-3-5 is correct Obi won't be dropping into coverage which should help eliminate some of those easy 15-20 yard patterns over the middle they completed at will against us last year.
Two games: UConn and MSU.
UConn is a mediocre Big East team with a decent but not great running game and a pair of mediocre QB's. This is the first game of the 2010 Michigan Revenge tour and I believe UM will win this game by at least 10 points.
MSU will actually be a decent team next year (I predict an 8-4 year for the Spartans), but I still believe that UM will beat MSU in AA next season.
BONUS: I think UM has a very good chance of beating Iowa this season as well, not sure I will go so far as to guarantee victory, but I think this is a true "coin-flip" game. If UM beats Iowa they should finish at least 8-4 next season and go to a New Year's Day bowl.
but they have the most talented roster we face and its in Columbus, so I think there is almost no chance we win that game.
But Iowa on the other hand had a miraculous year last year and could have had several more losses including to us in a home night game. They lost more than we did in the off season and we are playing them in Ann Arbor. Some are picking them to be a top ten team and to finish second in the Big Ten. I think we beat them and fairly convincingly.
I thought MSM stood for Miami Sound Machine??
They had a great sound...but they looked off-the-charts awesome :)