Here are my bold predictions ...just like the hype I cant substantiate it on facts:
1. The WR group is not gonna be as good as the hype. gallon is gone and it will take time to fill those shoes. I think we will see some key drops this year.
2. The defence is going to be better but we will not be a lockdown defence. There will be some frustration on the D Line as again there wont be any clear leaders.
3. The OL is gonna be average and thats gonna be an upgrade.
4. DG will be better this year ...but wont get better support from the rest of the team.
5. The running game will be better than last year but still a work in progress.
6. We will again get burnt by spread teams and do well against typical B1G teams...
7. J Pep will be good and will have 1-2 plays that will showup on highlight reels but will not be All B1G player this year.
Pls dont try and refute these with logic as these are gut feels. U are welcome to argue against this with ure gut feels though...
dont get me wrong ....i want to jump on that train asap...but till now its just been hype....after the last 2 years of unfulfilled promises ...ill believe the D when I see it ....
we have more depth almost everywhere ...but as Hoke points out hes still waiting for someone to take the lead at the DL...thats like having 4 deep of Q Wash -es ....
Ill be on the train when I see some NASTINESS somewhere in the defence...People breaking their tackles to see the RB/QB 5 yards up the field doesnt cut it as an AWESOME defence...
obviously i havent watched the scrimmage or attended the spring game...so I dont know if they visually look that BETTER than last year
I wish Braxton best of luck with the recovery and his future...
I am just not sold that braxton's absence will spell doom for the oh st season..
their backup qb's are quite talented (even though I didnt realize that the guiton guy is gone) ...cardale jones seems scary, but he hasnt figured out passing yet.....
however, j.t. barrett leads jones ....it will be nice to see a post comparing the remaining QBs on the buckeye roster. (pro/dual etc)
After seeing portions of scrimmage online and listening to reviews....i cant reconcile the statement by Gardner that he was sacked only 2 times in the first week and a half of fall camp.
i believe Nuss and DG are working on getting the football off DG's hands fast. Otherwise, I just cant see only 2 sacks in a week with a nonexistent OL...
jake ryan regressed last year ...albeit due to injury....
what has frank clark done exactly?
what has des morgan done exactly?
Funchess is the only one ill let you pass by with....but there is an argument that he does it because hes a physical mismatch ...not becoz of coaching...lets not make up arguments
I dont care who starts this year ....all i care abt is seeing the rise of atleast two players/gamechangers ...one on defence and one on offence preferably...if i dont see them this year ...i wud have lost faith in the coaching...
there is too much potential on this team for someone to not have a breakout season
As hoke wants us all to transform into sherlocks (with the fort hoke stuff) , im gonna attempt to solve the mystery and fail horribly
1. I still dont get the exact reasons as to why the team malfunctioned last year. I understand the inconsistencies but what was behind them? inexperience? lack of talent? bad coaching?... the easy answer is ALL of them...but is it accurate?
2. I still dont get why, if the OL is so bad, guys keep rotating like a carousel at all positions during practice...whats wrong with sticking to a position and playing it? if u cant get down one position right ...ull be better if u keep jumping from guard to tackle in practice??
3, The only explanation that makes sense abt jake ryan's position change is that the ACL tear made him lose some of his explosiveness at his prev position.
4. after 3 years at the helm... can somebody tell me if hoke and staff are good coaches or not? their resumes suggest they are good ...but the team's performance suggests they are not good.
It just doesnt add up ...unless we are making a mistake in our assumptions.
somethings that bother me without getting into plays:
1. after 4 years of spring practice under hoke, why dont we have a full game?
2. what's with the 1 hr 15 mins of drills? fans dont go there to watch drills
3. why isnt the DL dominating a majority of the times....i understand pushing bck the OL for 2-3 yrds is a psychological win...but where is the "shut down" mentality? maybe there were moments in the game where the "shutdown" did happen....i havent seen the plays yet.
4. I cant understand why hoke wants to cover everything in this curtain of secrecy...if you suck ...the first step is to admit it and then try and improve.
5. the biggest issue in my mind is ...even if we fire hoke after this year...can we take another 3-4 years of "rebuilding" under another coach?
2. the new guys are coming in and playing early but they have no one to look upto.
3. the teams missing guys like molk , van bergen, martin, kovacs who would inspire the young guys and keep them in check.
4. the coaches have been trying to get the leadership thing going but there is no reinforcement from the seniors.
5. lewan is an exception to this theory.
6. there is no accountability on the field...that shows from the fact that the defense and offense are lacklustre for the majority of the games and only get going when things are really critical.
7. obviously this is a theory and not the facts per se
1. It was the signature win michigan has been looking for through 2 .16 years.
2. DG was AWESOME apart from the ugly pick. But I am kinda happy for that ugly pick becuz it didnt hurt us too bad and it might be a tiny reason why dg might come back to mich next year.
3. I was surprised by the offense overall. I frankly thought mi might struggle this year a lil bit with a lack of proven big time receivers.
4. Defense got exposed a lil bit. We are still far from being national contenders. Maybe next years elite talent will help. Is there something in the scheme of our defense that makes DTs less effective?
5. I share the concern that fleet will never break one for a td in kick return. Ill be watching for it in the next 2 games becuz itll probably be the best opportunity for him.
6. Overall, a very satisfying win...they have already shown that the team is good to elite this year.,,,no matter what happens the rest of the year... i liked utl2 more than utl1 cuz it was slightly more methodical...
everytime we have had a clear road ahead of us (whether in bball or fball) late in the season we have muddled it up in the last 2-3 years. Just sounds like underconfidence to me....there is no other way to explain it.....btw go ahead and negbang it.
since hoke and mattison are already there ....um should focus on getting a great recruiter as Jerry's replacement. One who can get 1-2 elite recruits with him.
Although, this doesnt mean that UM should ignore the coaching ability altogether.
i saw he mentioned talking to mattison and montgomery. i just hope this doesnt reduce his liking of michigan. dashawn hand will be a great piece to the puzzle called national championships here at michigan
I would like to see more about the positions where michigan has "fixed" themselves based on recruiting alone...my take on it
OL ....fixed
LB...fixed
RB....fixed
QB....depends on shane morris
WR....not fixed
TE....would be nice to see jake butt do good
DL...not fixed yet ....i hope i am wrong
DB...i think they still need 1 more elite recruit here
Spl Teams ....dunno
Just to be clear ...fixed means hoke has addressed their needs in terms of recruiting...does not mean that they will definitely be good at those positions. would love to have this as its own post and see what other ppl think.
I know treadwell didnt pick michigan because of other reasons...
but the thing i am interested to know is whats really stopping elite receivers from coming to michigan.....although i am not an expert ...i see elite WRs not chosing us under 2 regimes now...(although its too early with hoke)
is it because elite WRs are a clan who generally tend to be not that high on academics?
seeing an article about the track record of the current offensive coaches when it comes to churning out top class linemen. I hear a lot about mattison and his crew. I am sure the o-lines coach is terrific. Is there any data/article on the relative competence of this off-coaching staff?
we shouldnt settle for mediocrity...i am not saying that any freshman should play at an elite level ...but i am not too high on the potential....(except lbers)
what I expected was some of this....
1. one or two highlight reel sacks from pipkins ....this would give me hope that he would be elite in the future.
2. one or two plays from the funch against elite competition in which he made them look silly.
3. kalis getting some more playing time towards the end which would signal hes ready to take over next year.....
because this is what we were made to believe from pre season hype.
just playing time doesnt cut it when we are talking about elite players.
i think what has happened as a fan base is we have become complacent and apologetic...
we have gotten used to mediocrity and greatness is something we dont demand. we need to change ....in our dreams we keep trying to push mediocrity to greatness ...but it falls down eventually...time to call apples as apples
that i think has not been talked about enough is the lack of any bright points from the 2012 freshman class except at line backer.
with the kind of fanfare the 2012 recruiting class came in ...i expected much better things...i know they are just freshman ...and give them time ...and blah blah....but overall i was dissapointed by the 2012 class till now (except the lb ers)
yet again we have proved that when it comes time to show character we fall down...
We are currently soft ...both in basketball and football and cant win the program defining games.....we need to retract our expectations from mich sports ...they are good but not great and lag behind the top echelon of sports programs in the country..(ready for a flamebait tag)
Recent Comments
I agree....screen to norfleet...who gets 10+ yards
It is obvious that DG is a great guy and his latest efforts in the community have been applaudable...
I just feel like hes an athlete thrust into a QB job...his instincts seem to be biased towards athleticism rather than a cold, methodical QB...
It seems like hes gonna play on Sundays but not as a QB ...any which way hes gonna have a good future ....go Devin
U Sir are an artist ...fergodsakes
Here are my bold predictions ...just like the hype I cant substantiate it on facts:
1. The WR group is not gonna be as good as the hype. gallon is gone and it will take time to fill those shoes. I think we will see some key drops this year.
2. The defence is going to be better but we will not be a lockdown defence. There will be some frustration on the D Line as again there wont be any clear leaders.
3. The OL is gonna be average and thats gonna be an upgrade.
4. DG will be better this year ...but wont get better support from the rest of the team.
5. The running game will be better than last year but still a work in progress.
6. We will again get burnt by spread teams and do well against typical B1G teams...
7. J Pep will be good and will have 1-2 plays that will showup on highlight reels but will not be All B1G player this year.
Pls dont try and refute these with logic as these are gut feels. U are welcome to argue against this with ure gut feels though...
dont get me wrong ....i want to jump on that train asap...but till now its just been hype....after the last 2 years of unfulfilled promises ...ill believe the D when I see it ....
we have more depth almost everywhere ...but as Hoke points out hes still waiting for someone to take the lead at the DL...thats like having 4 deep of Q Wash -es ....
Ill be on the train when I see some NASTINESS somewhere in the defence...People breaking their tackles to see the RB/QB 5 yards up the field doesnt cut it as an AWESOME defence...
I wish Braxton best of luck with the recovery and his future...
I am just not sold that braxton's absence will spell doom for the oh st season..
their backup qb's are quite talented (even though I didnt realize that the guiton guy is gone) ...cardale jones seems scary, but he hasnt figured out passing yet.....
however, j.t. barrett leads jones ....it will be nice to see a post comparing the remaining QBs on the buckeye roster. (pro/dual etc)
After seeing portions of scrimmage online and listening to reviews....i cant reconcile the statement by Gardner that he was sacked only 2 times in the first week and a half of fall camp.
i believe Nuss and DG are working on getting the football off DG's hands fast. Otherwise, I just cant see only 2 sacks in a week with a nonexistent OL...
I am stuck watching 2011 M reruns ...coz i cant possibly watch 2013. What happened to this team in 2 years?
gallon's gone ...and he was good before hoke
jake ryan regressed last year ...albeit due to injury....
what has frank clark done exactly?
what has des morgan done exactly?
Funchess is the only one ill let you pass by with....but there is an argument that he does it because hes a physical mismatch ...not becoz of coaching...lets not make up arguments
atleast 7 wins and a W against either sparty or ohio ...will give hoke another year
I dont care who starts this year ....all i care abt is seeing the rise of atleast two players/gamechangers ...one on defence and one on offence preferably...if i dont see them this year ...i wud have lost faith in the coaching...
there is too much potential on this team for someone to not have a breakout season
As hoke wants us all to transform into sherlocks (with the fort hoke stuff) , im gonna attempt to solve the mystery and fail horribly
1. I still dont get the exact reasons as to why the team malfunctioned last year. I understand the inconsistencies but what was behind them? inexperience? lack of talent? bad coaching?... the easy answer is ALL of them...but is it accurate?
2. I still dont get why, if the OL is so bad, guys keep rotating like a carousel at all positions during practice...whats wrong with sticking to a position and playing it? if u cant get down one position right ...ull be better if u keep jumping from guard to tackle in practice??
3, The only explanation that makes sense abt jake ryan's position change is that the ACL tear made him lose some of his explosiveness at his prev position.
4. after 3 years at the helm... can somebody tell me if hoke and staff are good coaches or not? their resumes suggest they are good ...but the team's performance suggests they are not good.
It just doesnt add up ...unless we are making a mistake in our assumptions.
2 things that were glaring to me:
1. We didnt have a single touchdown in the whole practice ...did we?
2. when did funchess become 6' 4'' from 6' 5 '' - 6''?
somethings that bother me without getting into plays:
1. after 4 years of spring practice under hoke, why dont we have a full game?
2. what's with the 1 hr 15 mins of drills? fans dont go there to watch drills
3. why isnt the DL dominating a majority of the times....i understand pushing bck the OL for 2-3 yrds is a psychological win...but where is the "shut down" mentality? maybe there were moments in the game where the "shutdown" did happen....i havent seen the plays yet.
4. I cant understand why hoke wants to cover everything in this curtain of secrecy...if you suck ...the first step is to admit it and then try and improve.
5. the biggest issue in my mind is ...even if we fire hoke after this year...can we take another 3-4 years of "rebuilding" under another coach?
wud love a stream that actually works .....
my theory on this team is a lack of leadership.
1. gardner is not a good leader ...yet.
2. the new guys are coming in and playing early but they have no one to look upto.
3. the teams missing guys like molk , van bergen, martin, kovacs who would inspire the young guys and keep them in check.
4. the coaches have been trying to get the leadership thing going but there is no reinforcement from the seniors.
5. lewan is an exception to this theory.
6. there is no accountability on the field...that shows from the fact that the defense and offense are lacklustre for the majority of the games and only get going when things are really critical.
7. obviously this is a theory and not the facts per se
1. It was the signature win michigan has been looking for through 2 .16 years.
2. DG was AWESOME apart from the ugly pick. But I am kinda happy for that ugly pick becuz it didnt hurt us too bad and it might be a tiny reason why dg might come back to mich next year.
3. I was surprised by the offense overall. I frankly thought mi might struggle this year a lil bit with a lack of proven big time receivers.
4. Defense got exposed a lil bit. We are still far from being national contenders. Maybe next years elite talent will help. Is there something in the scheme of our defense that makes DTs less effective?
5. I share the concern that fleet will never break one for a td in kick return. Ill be watching for it in the next 2 games becuz itll probably be the best opportunity for him.
6. Overall, a very satisfying win...they have already shown that the team is good to elite this year.,,,no matter what happens the rest of the year... i liked utl2 more than utl1 cuz it was slightly more methodical...
Its been a while since i posted something...
what does the blog think about the program defining win for hoke?
I personally think it hasnt happened yet and is coming this year...
Can anybody start a thread (as I cant) on what people think on this ...?
...thinks the reason why lawrence marshall is not a UM lean because UM is currently high on mcdowell and hand...is that true or am i being arrogant?
http://247sports.com/Player/Malik-McDowell-18662/PlayerInstitutionPredictions
whenever we have gotten our hopes up....our teams have laid an egg....
i seriously believe that we will end our run in the sweet 16. not bad either way.....
jake ryan ....i feel for you bro...
btw...can we get a gif for the play in which he ragdolled the qb to get to the ball carrier?
you know i was gonna say yesterday ....
everytime we have had a clear road ahead of us (whether in bball or fball) late in the season we have muddled it up in the last 2-3 years. Just sounds like underconfidence to me....there is no other way to explain it.....btw go ahead and negbang it.
any takers for greg robinson? :)
i heard hes coaching the defence of a hs in california....
since hoke and mattison are already there ....um should focus on getting a great recruiter as Jerry's replacement. One who can get 1-2 elite recruits with him.
Although, this doesnt mean that UM should ignore the coaching ability altogether.
looks like hoke has taken the midwest centric recruiting to heart.
this year we are seeing more out of state recruits till now...THIS IS MICHIGAN
can we please please please get dashawn hand..
i saw he mentioned talking to mattison and montgomery. i just hope this doesnt reduce his liking of michigan. dashawn hand will be a great piece to the puzzle called national championships here at michigan
hoke ...lets get him!
I would like to see more about the positions where michigan has "fixed" themselves based on recruiting alone...my take on it
OL ....fixed
LB...fixed
RB....fixed
QB....depends on shane morris
WR....not fixed
TE....would be nice to see jake butt do good
DL...not fixed yet ....i hope i am wrong
DB...i think they still need 1 more elite recruit here
Spl Teams ....dunno
Just to be clear ...fixed means hoke has addressed their needs in terms of recruiting...does not mean that they will definitely be good at those positions. would love to have this as its own post and see what other ppl think.
i had not heard this news before....hope he does ok...i give a 110/100 to him for effort
btw who are these guys ...the te is unrated on rivals and kyle is a 4* LB.
is there something that i dont know abt these guys?...wud love to party too...just give me a reason to.
@WolverineHistorian: Dude you do an awesome job!
thanks for all those vids.....considered switching to some other site?
dailymotion...hudl ....something like that
to people who say that this doesnt matter ....this loss makes big ten championsip that much tougher....?
if this was not an imp game and we lost it in the same way ...i wud be ok.
we shud have fouled .....up by 3 with 2.4 secs left............................................
i didnt watch the video...and I dont wanna watch it either...
still not over the loss.
dont worry mod...i did the scoring myself. :)
So...based on what i have seen in the last few years...
its very tough to beat even mediocre teams on the road..so in 2013
we get :
@UConn: Win
@PSU: Loss
@MSU: Loss (unless MSU implodes before this game)
@NW: this is the trap game
@Iowa: Loss (its unbelievably tough to go there and win)
Ohio is also a tossup
I think the biggest thing I wanna see from Hoke and his team is mental toughness on the road which is really a big task. Go Blue!
that was a choke job if there was ever one.
but i still think a loss here will serve mi better in the long run...
need to step up ...go blue!
probably hes just doing a background check on hoke before commiting to UM! :)
did anyone else see him listed as 5 ' 10 ''.
all the while i thought he was 6 feet - ish.
makes me respect the man more for qbing michigan at 5 10 for 3 years.
Denard was my fav player
and he did underachieve in his final year..
The road to that #1 spot is ckear now !!!
Just around the corner ....yeah baby
we should be #2 and hopefully #1 next week!!
I know treadwell didnt pick michigan because of other reasons...
but the thing i am interested to know is whats really stopping elite receivers from coming to michigan.....although i am not an expert ...i see elite WRs not chosing us under 2 regimes now...(although its too early with hoke)
is it because elite WRs are a clan who generally tend to be not that high on academics?
or is there a systemic problem?
the experts please chime in......
he was travelling....but it would have been still worth it if he was called....great dunk!
seeing an article about the track record of the current offensive coaches when it comes to churning out top class linemen. I hear a lot about mattison and his crew. I am sure the o-lines coach is terrific. Is there any data/article on the relative competence of this off-coaching staff?
thats refreshing analysis Seth....Could we get a similar analysis on DTs?...that would be really awesome...
thanks for the advice...
all i am saying is that the hype and the reality are different...if thats too much for kool aid drinkers ...so be it .
again ...michigan (right now) is good but not great....deal with it.
well as i said in another comment...
we shouldnt settle for mediocrity...i am not saying that any freshman should play at an elite level ...but i am not too high on the potential....(except lbers)
what I expected was some of this....
1. one or two highlight reel sacks from pipkins ....this would give me hope that he would be elite in the future.
2. one or two plays from the funch against elite competition in which he made them look silly.
3. kalis getting some more playing time towards the end which would signal hes ready to take over next year.....
because this is what we were made to believe from pre season hype.
just playing time doesnt cut it when we are talking about elite players.
i think what has happened as a fan base is we have become complacent and apologetic...
we have gotten used to mediocrity and greatness is something we dont demand. we need to change ....in our dreams we keep trying to push mediocrity to greatness ...but it falls down eventually...time to call apples as apples
that i think has not been talked about enough is the lack of any bright points from the 2012 freshman class except at line backer.
with the kind of fanfare the 2012 recruiting class came in ...i expected much better things...i know they are just freshman ...and give them time ...and blah blah....but overall i was dissapointed by the 2012 class till now (except the lb ers)
i wouldnt hate against greene if he decided to go somewhere else too....michigan doesnt have the mojo right now.....others are simply better currently
yet again we have proved that when it comes time to show character we fall down...
We are currently soft ...both in basketball and football and cant win the program defining games.....we need to retract our expectations from mich sports ...they are good but not great and lag behind the top echelon of sports programs in the country..(ready for a flamebait tag)