WMU, ND, EMU in that order...
Just noticed the 2009 football schedule has dates attached to games:
Sept 5: Western Michigan
Sept 12: Notre Dame
Sept 19: Eastern Michigan
Oct 7th is the bye, six weeks into the season. I can't imagine they would put the 12th game in this weekend, which prolly means Capt. Bill is searching for an Aug. 29th opponent - Labor Day weekend. My wife will be thrilled.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:21 PM ^
Those are all winnable games, I don't care what anyone says.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:28 PM ^
I agree. If they don't go 3-0 to start the season I will be disappointed.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:01 PM ^
ND should be much improved. Jimmah is going to be a Junior, and looks like he might break out. I wouldnt assume they are gonna be awful.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:17 PM ^
I'm not assuming anything. It's an educated opinion having watched them quite a bit.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:56 PM ^
Weren't they saying the exact same thing going into this season? If it weren't for our crazy turning the ball over this year, ND would have been 5-7. I'd say we're likely going to improve more then they are between this season and next.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:26 PM ^
Schedule the citadel or army
December 9th, 2008 at 5:28 PM ^
No, I hate when teams blow out service academies. I've heard people badmouth us for that Navy game in the 70's all my life.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:30 PM ^
considering they play at Eastern on Sept. 5.
(OT - if you ever get the chance, go to a game at Michie Stadium. Tailgateing at West Point is amazing, as is interacting with the cadets)
December 9th, 2008 at 5:29 PM ^
Don't forget Sept. 26 is the Big Ten home opener against Indiana. 4-0 anyone?
December 9th, 2008 at 5:32 PM ^
Yes, 4 (maybe 5) wins to start the season shouldn't be impossible. Talking heads on ESPN talking about Michigan being back, only to call us disappointing when we start losing.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:33 PM ^
Eh, I don't know abou that. If they were to start off that well I actually don't see a losing streak on the schedule.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:38 PM ^
There's 4 or 5 loses in the Big Ten schedule.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:47 PM ^
No way. Tell me who you think the 4 or 5 losses are on the Big Ten schedule. And I don't mean teams that we might lose to, because then there's 8. I mean which 4 or 5 games you really think we'll lose.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:51 PM ^
Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin... State is iffy.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:54 PM ^
Iowa I disagree with - they really exceeded expectations this year, which I don't think they'll do next year. Shonne Greene is likely gone, am I right? State is really iffy. No Ringer or Hoyer puts us above them though. And do you think we lose to all three of PSU, OSU and Wisco? This would be about worst case scenario.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:58 PM ^
I think we've all learned this season there are no games to take for granted. I think it's very possible they go 8-4.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:01 PM ^
Right, all games are "loseable" but that's not really what I mean. Since we lost to Toledo, it's possible we go 0-12 next year, but that's not what anyone's predicting. 8-4 I'm cool with, and if that means winning all OOC games and losing 4 of those B10 games, then I see where you're going. I think the top teams in the B10 are losing enough that we could beat teams we lost to this year and take care of the rest.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:03 PM ^
I agree... this team could win anywhere from 6 to 10 games and I wouldn't be shocked.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:59 PM ^
i didnt know these things could get this small
December 10th, 2008 at 12:59 AM ^
weee!
December 10th, 2008 at 9:16 AM ^
it gets smaller than this...lol...just keep replying.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:17 AM ^
lets see how small we can get it
December 10th, 2008 at 9:27 AM ^
she would never say that.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:45 AM ^
Epic fail on my part.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:27 AM ^
ZING!
December 9th, 2008 at 7:19 PM ^
Don't sleep on Keith Nichol. He was VERY highly rated IICR. I think he's probably going to be better than Hoyer who is a walking turd. Ringer will be a big loss, but the improvement in QB play and a RB who can be serviceable can go a long way.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:22 PM ^
I agree that we shouldn't sleep on Keith Nichol, but I don't think a guy who has 1 year in the program and has never started a game is going to be an improvement over a multi-year starter. And how good can KN be? He couldn't even start over Sam Bradford.....
December 9th, 2008 at 6:04 PM ^
Iowa losses Shoone Green and won't be as good. Penn State is at home and they lose that group of Seniors, Williams, Norwood, etc., Ohio State is at home and probably without Beenie Wells (who has owned us the past 2 years, beyond him we have done pretty well against that offense), Wisconsin will be tough as Camp Randell is a tough place to play but until Wisconsin gets a solid QB, they will never compete for a NC and are always beatable (thing int TD this year!), State losses Hoyer/Ringer and I can't see BG letting the team lose again.
I'd say we lose max 2 of those games...probably OSU, Wisconsin.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:51 PM ^
I'll preface by saying that I think UM wins over State next year, and the loss of Ringer will hurt. However, I don't think losing Hoyer will have that much of an impact.
Kirk Cousins looked pretty good in spring practice and held up well in games from what I recall. He'll have experienced receivers in Mark Dell and Blair White (I think he's coming back), and Fred Smith is supposed to be pretty talented. All in all, I think he'll fill in for the loss of Hoyer. Read that to mean he will be servicable to good, but won't light the world on fire. But I don't think Cousins, Dell, White and Smith will make up for the loss in the ground game.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:29 PM ^
random OOC game in the middle of the conference season. They did it this year...
December 9th, 2008 at 5:31 PM ^
an Oct. 7 game means no off weeks from Sept 5 - to OSU week
December 9th, 2008 at 5:34 PM ^
i mis-remembered the schedule from this past season. Both of the open weeks for next year were games last year. That's where I got confused in thinking we WOULD schedule our 12th game on Oct. 7 weekend since we did it last year for a random OOC game
December 9th, 2008 at 5:34 PM ^
Also, if they don't play opening weekend, they have to start practice a week later. That was one thing ND fans added to complaints about the AD when they started a week late this year. I'm pretty sure next year's team could use all the practice it can get.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:41 PM ^
Okay, where is the industrious young fellow that posts all teams with open dates on the 29th so that we can all speculate. I know it is finals, but GO!
December 9th, 2008 at 5:54 PM ^
* Labor Day weekend is actually the WMU game. Labor Day--the actual day--is always in September. This year it is Monday Sept. 7. Two home games before Labor Day would be weird. Are we even sure the NCAA has any games scheduled on 8/29?
* WMU will be a tough out. Tim Hiller will be back at QB for WMU. If Toledo and Opelt can complete 20 balls to one guy on this D, then its safe to assume that Hiller can do some serious damage.
* I know we need wins, but I still want to see a compelling foe come onto the schedule.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:02 PM ^
Labor day is Sept. 7th, and a quick perusal of nationalchamps.net turned up no other college football schedules in August 2009. Which means one of two things for the 12th game - 1) we are going to play without a bye, or 2) we are going to play after Thanksgiving, which means after the OSU game. Both options suck.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:08 PM ^
What is the history on playing a post OSU game?
Anyone?
December 9th, 2008 at 6:11 PM ^
In 1998 we finished the year at Hawaii.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:11 PM ^
We played Hawaii in 1998 and I think in the 80's.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:12 PM ^
As of 2009, the Big Ten allows teams to play post Thanksgiving (Wisky is going to Hawaii in December next year).
I have no idea when the last time we played anyone but OSU for the last game of the year, and can't imagine that anyone in the AD office wants to mess with that tradition. Plus, the 12th game would have to be at home to make financial sense, and who wants to sit in the cold in Ann Arbor on Nov. 28th? Ergo and thusly I suspect it's Oct. 7th for the 12th game.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:14 PM ^
Can you imagine the calls for Rodriguez's head if we played a game post OSU? People would riot.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:14 PM ^
Yep, like what everyone said.
Hawaii, 1998 and 1986. The '98 game was the week after OSU, but the 1986 game, iirc, was at least two weeks later.....it was like a mini bowl game between the OSU and Rose Bowl that year.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:12 PM ^
to even check about August, so thanks for looking into that so quickly.
The conference has agreed to begin scheduling games after thanksgiving, so that is obviously a trend that will occur.
A few times in the early to mid 1990s, the OSU-UM game was after Thanksgiving (off the top of my head, the 1990, 1991 and 1995 games were after turkey day), but none since.....I always assumed the league putting games after Turkey Day meant a push back of the OSU-UM game to that weekend. I never thought of adding an OOC after playing OSU.
I could not agree with more with playing a game the week after The Game. I dislike the idea on pure principle.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:08 AM ^
I think the 2001 OSU game was after Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure I remember going back up to Ann Arbor really early on Saturday morning.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:10 PM ^
I wish would we do what USC does...schedule our toughest non-conference game right away and then have the bye.
So for example, next year we would play Notre Dame the 1st week of the season and then have our bye.
I like doing it that way because if you win it gives your season great momentum and usually the 1st game is ugly giving you the following week to work out the kinks. If you lose, it's really early and won't affect you as much with the "what have you done for me lately" voters if you win out. Plus you again have a whole week of practice to get everything back in order.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:20 PM ^
you have all summer to prepare for that one game. tons of time to watch game tape.
prediction for 2009: undefeated, bitches
December 9th, 2008 at 7:05 PM ^
Well, that's because USC has like 3 bye weeks every year because they play two weeks after Thanksgiving. Weather doesn't permit that for us, making it a little more difficult.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:17 PM ^
I don't see why the weather doesn't permit it. Sure it'd be cold, but it's football.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:39 PM ^
Pure and simple, they need to sell the seats. The season ticket holders will buy what they have to, but the cost benefit analysis for a casual fan is much different, as most don't want to sit in the rain/cold in late November for a MAC or D1-AA game. You're not gonna get many non-season ticket holder sales for Michigan-Florida Atlantic on Nov. 28.
The MAC-level games bring bunches of new faces, and lots of kids, to my section. The season ticket holders around me who are always there for B10 games get rid of the MAC tickets. People always take them cause it's nice to sit in the sun for a few hours in September. Not so much Nov. 28th in Ann Arbor.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:02 AM ^
tim hiller is good at football. WMU will keep it close at worst