Michigan #8 in USA Today Preseason Coaches' Poll
Seems a little high, but I guess this is moot because of the opener against Alabama will have a large influence on our ranking moving forward.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm
Just take it for what it is man, preseason rankings.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^
for not having a defensive front 4 that's a pretty good ranking!
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
Craig Roh is like a 6 year starter, Will Campbell has abs instead of flabs, Beyer and Black are undersized and inexperienced but have shown they can hang. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm starting to feel a little more confident in them.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
How did that turn out? Again, these polls should not exist until week 6.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
Do you really not have anything better to do?
a high ranking means we are going to do terribly. Where did you read that? I simply stated that a high ranking for this team is unjustified. You are treating it like a high ranking means we will win them all. Neither is true, and I have faith... what I don't subscribe to is blind faith. As a realistic "fan" of the team, I just don't see more than 8 wins in the regular season. I hope I'm wrong.
2007 turned out well? Really? For Appy State, Oregon, Wisconsin and OSU it turned out pretty well. We didn't beat our #1 rival, we didn't win a Big Ten Championship and we beat a 9 win Florida team that lost interest in their season when they dropped out of NC contention. I don't think anyone on that team or Brady Hoke for that matter would say that season turned out... "pretty well". None of the team goals were accomplished.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:49 PM ^
Sounds about right to me. I think we're selling ourselves a little short here. We've returned, what, 15 starters from an 11-2 team? Yes, we lost some key guys, but so did everyone else.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^
not really sure how stanford is ahead of Virginia Tech, even my friend who is a major Stanford homer thinks Stanford is at best 8-4 this year. Also Boise State is still ranked? Not sure how that works....
Even thought they lost Kellen Moore and a good chunk of their offense, Boise St. doesn't really play much of a schedule outside of their opener against MSU so #22 seems justified. Do you honestly see more than 2 losses on this list?
http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-12/wac/2012-boise-state-broncos-footbal…
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
They can't be in the poll, since it's used for BCS calculations. I wouldn't be surprised for the AP to put them at 19 or something, though.
I agree that it is a bit high, but probably only a couple of spots. It will be hard to get a read on this team until at least the ND game, and even then who knows.
MSU feels about right, but FSU - sheesh! When was the last time FSU legitimately good at football? 2003? I'm not kidding - they've been a mediocre team nationally for over a decade. People bitch about ND getting undue love every year, but Peter Warrick, Charlie Ward, and Derrick Brooks are not walking through those doors.
Too high. Unless we beat Alabama, the ranking, in this man's humble opinion, is unjustified.
I also think MSU is ranked too low. I know I will receive some flak on this, and having an unproven QB is a concern for them, but that team is fresh off of knocking off an SEC power, and their defense will be among the best in the country. It would not be unreasonable to have them in the top 10.
And Georgia an SEC powerhouse? A great team yes, powerhouse, no.
Eight starters returning on a top ten defense, an All-American at QB, an elite LT and one of 2010's best athletes seeing receiver duty, coupled with a returning thousand yard rusher.
Especially when talking about the eight spot, there isn't a team in the country that deserves it more than we do. The Coaches Poll agrees with us; we're closer to placing sixth than we are falling to ninth.
UGA is a great team. I wouldn't consider them a powerhouse, because their conference doesn't allow them that luxury. Sure, more than not they will run through their division, but they have to play LSU and/or Alabama in the SEC championship game. The only tough games on their schedule is South Carolina and Florida. Take a look at their schedule this year. I would be surprised if they didn't run the table in the regular season. Let's not forget though, they outplayed LSU in the SEC championship game for a half and some of the 3rd quarter. Their defense is comparable to the best in the nation. If they can score points, they'll be a scary team to deal with.
They were 7-1 and played for the confernece championship.
played for the confernece championship.That's like Wisconsin bragging this upcoming year if they make the SEC Championship. The SEC East was/is a joke. You had Georgia and SCAR at the top with 7-1 and 6-2, then it's Florida at 3-5, Vandy and Kentucky at 2-6, and Tennessee at 1-7.
If Wisconsin makes the SEC Championship, I suppose they do get some kind of bragging rights.
Georgia has lost 21 games in the last 5 years. I'm not sure I would consider them an SEC powerhouse.
First, I will say that, out of sheer curiosity, I went back to the prediction thread for this very thing from last evening and found that, of those who fronted some predictions, five got this one right.
This is pretty fair for a preseason rank, in my opinion - we return most of our starters overall, and they have even more time in the current system under their belt. We lose some key players, but the players in their spots now have shown that they should work nicely as well. I believe we're returning 8 of 11 on what was statistically a pretty damn good defense, and most of a pretty potent offense energized by Dilithium.
We return "most" starters, unfortunately the ones we lose were some of the best players on the team, and their leadership cannot be denied. Hemingway will be tough to replace... period. Even with Gardner at WR, he is unproven. We don't even know if he can catch or run routes. Molk: Anchor of the O-line, best player besides Denard on offense. More of a leader than you may think, and on the o-line, that's a significant loss. Just look at the Sugar Bowl when he was out. We had negative total yardage for those 2 series. Koger: beast of a blocker and a threat inside the 20... our TEs have shown the propensity to drop alot of passes. Hell, McColgan has better hands than those TEs. Martin (let's not even try to just plug in a the heir apparent) and RVB: best 2 players on Defense. Replaced by BWC (still unproven). These are not just "spots" to fill. These were anchors of leadership and character. Don't get too cocky with your position that this team should be better. We are still very thin and unproven at many positions that matter. And god forbid something happens to Denard, you'll be praying for 8 wins at that point.
Finally: "We lose some key players, but the players in their spots now have shown that they should work nicely as well". When exactly did they show they should work? Did you not see the Spring Game? That, by the way, is the only thing we have to make predictions on, and if they were so "good" last season, they would have played more. Let's just relax a little with the 11-2, 12-1 talk... until 13 games have been played.
Someone is a fun governor.
Losing your starting QB is a huge hurdle. We'll have to deal with that next year. Losing their entire WR corps on top of that suggests the passing game could be very problematic.
Also, while their D should still be very good, Worthy was arguably the best player on the unit and will be hard to replace.
Losing your QB in that offense isn't a huge deal, they will just focus on the run early until Maxwell is more comfortable. They are down some receivers, but will get a boost from Arnett coming in and playing right away.
Huh? I don't think Bell was ever a problematic fumbler for them.. that was Baker and he left after last season. That's also largely why he was demoted and Bell took over the starting spot.
But ya, they'll be turning a lot to their run game because most of the returning offense experience is on their line and running game. Their QB will know the receivers from the scout team, I'm sure, and he's supposed to be an alright QB, but no one will know until the season revs up.
*in before my stalker marks this as trolling*
pre-season ranking, and not in a good way. We lose to Alabama and the haterz (sic) will be happy to demote us to something equally unreasonable, like 30th; we'll spend the season grinding our way out of there toward some kind of Tupperware Bowl.
Rankings should not come out until the second or third week; nothing but Old Boy foolishness.
You know the best part of being in the Big Ten? Even if we lose to Alabama, hell even if we lose every non-conference game, we control our own destiny on going to the Rose Bowl. So we won't be "scraping for the Tupperware Bowl" if we earn our way into the Rose Bowl,
Oh darn it! We're ranked too high what ever can we do?
Legends will be a dogfight. To the end.
UM, MSU, and NU all are very good teams with flaws.
Good luck to you guys, have a great season (except when you're in Lincoln).
Nevermind replied to the wrong spot.