Yes, it sucks, but I'll still be rooting for M next year (2020 Roster and Reasons for Optimism)

Like the title says, I'm looking forward to next year because that's what we do. If you don't wanna do that, don't comment. "This is unacceptable. Same shit next year. Blah blah blah." Yes, there are plenty of concerns for next year and the future, but you're not going to share anything insightful or new with that, so don't bother.

I think Michigan should be better next year, and I'm doing it in the format Brian does. I feel like these are rational takes, although some may need a little explanation

 

DEFENSE (more than 11 b/c packages)

CB Ambry = Ambry

CB Gray < Hill

Hill was good, but he wasn't Jourdan Lewis. Gray is by no means a burner, but he has size and length, and his weaknesses seemed to be playing physical against the run and technique in coverage. Those both seem entirely fixable. If he improves both significantly, he'll be as good as Hill. Did Gray get burned by OSU at all? OSU caught a deep pass on him but he was there and just didn't play the ball well. Seems the weaknesses were Hudson and Metellus.

Nickel DJ Turner = Gray

S Hawkins > Hawkins

S Hill > Metellus

Metellus wasn't bad but was not a boring safety versus Indiana and OSU. Dax will still be young, but the potential is through the roof.

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LB McGrone > McGrone

LB Ross > Glasgow

Viper Barrett = Hudson

Hudson also had a bad game against OSU. A very good blizter, but a weakness in more traditional LB roles and sometimes in coverage. I thought I've read Barrett is stronger, but he's only 7 pounds heavier on the roster (207 to 200). Not much game experience as a viper, but he's been around a couple years.

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DT Dwumfour > resorting to a DE

Weird year for Dwumfour. He was injured for a lot of it, and then seemed to be coming on. Someone on Twitter thinks he may have gotten hurt against OSU because he didn't notice him later in the game. Anyone know? In Jdue's Twitter game review, Dwumfour seemed to be doing OK in the 1st half and then it seemed he was gone.

DT 2020 Hinton > 2019 Kemp

Backup DTs 2020 Kemp / Mazi > 2019 Hinton

These are a bit more based on hope than what we've actually seen, but Mazi and Hinton were 2 5-star or near 5-star talents in exactly the worst position on the field for Michigan. We absolutely need them to step up, and they absolutely have the talent to do so. Hinton showed flashes. Mazi started getting in later in the season. Not sure if Kemp will be around, but he should be. Losing him is more troublesome from a numbers perspective than play on the field though anyway.

DE Hutchinson = Hutchinson/Uche/Danna

DE Kemp = Kemp/Uche/Danna

Backup DEs Vilain/Welschof/Upshaw < Uche/Danna

Losing Uche's pass rush is a big one, but he also still didn't even play half of the snaps. It sucks losing Danna as a backup, but he wasn't better than the starters. It's easy to forget Vilain was a top-100 recruit because he's been injured. Seems he was healthy all year, so hopefully he can finally play. If he takes a significant leap he could definitely replace Uche in passing downs. The first sentence of Vilain's recruiting profile, "Luiji Vilain is a prototype edge rusher who packs the letter I into his name four times in eleven characters. Universally hailed by scouting services, Vilain's Army game surge nearly took him to five star status on 24/7." IIRC, Lorenz said the staff was high on Welschof but probably not gonna happen until next year. Obviously he was super raw when he came in.

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Seniors not losing their minds against OSU >>> Losing their minds

Brown = Brown (hopefully more evenly distributed)

Last year was definitely a scheme issue that got exposed too late for Michigan to do anything about. This year it was more personnel-driven. The lack of DTs absolutely killed us against good OLs.

That's quite a few '>' with the loss of Danna and Uche the main '<'. You could argue losing Hill will be bigger. You could argue losing Uche will be bigger, but you could also argue we'll be just as good there, especially if Vilain can stay healthy. Dax, Hinton, and Mazi could take bigger leaps than I posit here.

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OFFENSE

QB McCaffrey = Shea

Shea was throwing very well by the end, but we still sorely missed a functional QB running game. Brian didn't talk about it, but Magnus said Shea missed a lot of opportunities to cut upfield and instead kept trying to get the edge against OSU. Dylan has shown himself to be a more willing runner and has good speed. Hopefully concussions aren't an issue. We still don't really know how good of a passer he is, but he didn't get to be a solid 4 star just by being able to run. He'll have plenty of experience in the system. Of course Milton could get the job, but either way you have to figure the winner will be a good QB.

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RB Charbonnet > Charbonnet

RB Evans >> Tru

RB Haskins = Haskins

RB Turner > fumbling Turner

A lot of people have speculated Charbonnet has been playing hurt, and it's hard to disagree. We were already salivating at the idea of Evans in a Gattis offense. It really sucks Turner had a couple fumbles, and I hope he gets a fresh start in the offseason and doesn't transfer (nothing heard, just depth chart worries). He was faster than the others and ran hard. The fumbles were probably just bad luck.

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I'm assuming only Collins leaves.

WR DPJ = DPJ

WR Bell > Bell

WR Black = Black

WR Cornelius Johnson < Collins

Surely Collins this year is a much better WR than Johnson will be next year. I'm basing this largely off of how Collins was utilized. It's hard to make a comparison with Collins because he was the most talented guy on the offense, made a huge impact when he was targeted...but was usually only targeted a couple times a game. So does it suck to lose Collins? Absolutely. Is 681 yards (800 with PIs?) irreplaceable? Definitely not. Also, Collins didn't always seem to be the most enthusiastic blocker.

SLOT Sainristil/Jackson > Sainristil/Jackson

TE Eubanks = Eubanks

TE All > McKeon

Our TEs have been fine blocking, but man I really wish we had kept Asiasi. All doesn't have his size, but he's talented and seems to love blocking.

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C Ruiz = Ruiz

LT 2020 Mayfield = Runyan

RT Steuber = 2019 Mayfield

LG Whoever < Bredeson

RG Whoever < Onwenu

I have no idea who the guards will be, but the team has a lot of talented bullets in the chamber. They will almost surely be good guards but probably a bit behind this year's guards.

Gattis >>>>>>>>>>>> Gattis

I don't think the personnel will be better next year, but I don't see a drop off, except maybe at WR if there's an exodus. Either way, I think this will be made up and then some by the offense being coherent right from spring practice. They can build off of this year, instead of figuring things out halfway through the season. That should make for a much better offense overall. Yes, things were clicking before The Game, but Michigan needed to do that early in the year to really become an unstoppable TD machine by the end of the year. At the end we were still just starting to get a taste of what they could do with guys like Jackson.

 

OSU being just really really good >> OSU as maybe the best team in 30 years according to SP+

I wasn't as upset about the loss as last year. It shouldn't have been that bad, but OSU is insanely good this year, Michigan was sort of a paper tiger all year on defense without DTs, and the offense needed to do more than just start clicking before OSU.