Is 9-4 possible? Could this bridge us into B!G championship runs in 2014/2015?

Read the transcript of Hoke's press conference on the front page - it's like this coaching staff refuses to acknowledge what's wrong with the gameplan. Until they recognize their shortcomings and do something to actually attempt to fix them, this team isn't going anywhere or beating anybody.

Northwestern? Sure, they're 0-5, but I guarantee you Fitzgerald smells blood in the water with this program.

Iowa? They have a very good front 7, so hello another negative rushing performance.

OSU? Haha, no chance.

Bowl game? Depends against who, but with the Big Ten being bad overall, we'll get bumped up a spot or two above where we should be and will likely draw a team better than us. Plus, they'll get a month to prepare their defense to sit with 9 in the box because it's obvious we refuse to take advantage of defenses cheating against certain formations.

7-5 at best. With or without Borges and his epic fail play calling. 

Go home, Mary Sue

That depends, are you on crack? "Michigan will always be Michigan". That is true, problem is we are not the Michiganof Bo's era or even from the 1990s and early 2000s. When I was growing up and going to school, fielding great teams and dominating the Big Ten was a given. With the benefit of hindsight I see how special that era was. Michigan hasn't won the big ten in a decade. Lost 5/6 to sparty and 9/10 to Ohio. We are Tennessee or ND, a once great program holding on to the past, except ND actually went to the title game last year. Football has changed, and is more competitive than ever. I see no signs that Michigan can be a consistently great program like in the past other than some recruiting success. Problem is, other teams have put up great recruiting (according to rankings only) for years with poor teams to show for it. We need transformational coaches. Rrod failed. Borges is a disaster and I am losing faith in Hoke fast. He is not transformational, but I thought he could be successful as a recruiter amd motivator with the right coordinators. I'll save the optimism for when we FIRE FUNK AMD BORGES and Fred Jackson retires.

Brady has to do a better job coaching them!

We still have 3 games left.  We could possibly win 2 of the 3.  More importantly we have Ohio coming in.  I do not want to be in the stadium like I  was in 2009 with 60% Ohio fans and a half empty student section.  This is our senior day.  Don't give up your seats.  Come out and thank the seniors for 4 years of dedication to the school and program in what was really trying times for most of them.  Go Blue!

We are Notre Dame. Hanging onto Bo and a 97. Good lord. 

2014: too many road games, lose the only 2 OLs that are any good. clearly this line needs at least 2 years so looks like it'll be...

2015: eh, breaking in a new starter @ QB, losing the LBing corps... maybe it'll be,..,

2016: ooof, MSU and OSU on the road again... how about...

2017: welp, Morris is out of eligibility at this point...

2018: [looks at the 2014 recruiting class shaping up..] eh only 15-18 guys some of whom will be gone by 2018 due to attrition, let's try...

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I think we might get to the B10 title game sometime around the time cold fusion becomes sustainable.

 

 

"This is Michigan and will always be Michigan." 

We all need to think about what that means nowadays. We have had one season above mediocrity since 2006. We have had one undefeated season in what, 25 years now? And that was the first one since 1948 (with no ties)! I am coming to terms with the fact that we are a mediocre program. We have been for years. We are nowhere near Ohio State any longer. They beat us for years before Meyer, and Meyer now has their program miles above where Hoke has ours. OSU has surpassed us and is not looking back. The reasons don't matter. Its time to start facing the music - we are a middle-range Big Ten program. We should start hoping for middle-range performance, and then anything above that is gravy. That's where my fandom is moving. Its time to face reality. And I hope I am very, very wrong. 

It's going to be hard to win a game against anyone when the entire world knows you can't run the ball. It will be even harder when we're on the road and then back at home against a team that hasn't lost since we beat them two years ago. Could we do it? Yes anythings possible. At this point if be happy if we split the road games and have Ohio all they can handle. A win would be amazing.

What have you seen so far this year that makes you believe we will an adjustment? Nebraska's defense was as bad as anyone in the B1G and we made them look good.  We will do this with any team, no matter how bad they are.  

As long as Borges keeps calling games like he has, we won't beat anyone. Everyone and their mother knows that we can't run the ball, but Borges will keep insisting that we can and will have no problems running into a stacked box.

Unless there are some major star alingments, injuries, etc. Urban has that program humming beautifully and they are in excellent shape; we've got RR recruiting issues, playcalling issues, and look sluggish and confused.

I am hoping the last four games serve as a real platform for next season, getting a W at Northwestern is the key. We need some confidence, it is hard to be aggressive when you don't know what you are doing (coaching or playing). Playing Ohio State tough and winning a bowl game would help tremendously.

I think that has to be the fan's measure of success right now (since our old measures got thrown down the toilet the last two weeks).  Personally, if they went 9-4, which likely implies a bowl win in a not God awful bowl, I would be ecstatic with how the season ended post the Nebraska debacle (unless we lose by 40+ or more to OSU).

For the team, I am hoping they are still diluting themselves into thinking about winning everyone, however, unlikely that may be.

 

Either this team rallies, the coaches finally coach to the realities of this team, and the seniors keep their last season from sinking into the toilet, or we will finish 0-3. Pretty clear. I will be at the game cheering for the former and fearing the latter.

Let us assume that we beat NW and Iowa and lose to OSU.   That puts us at 4-4 in the conference and most likely 5th place in the standings order.  We travel well and bowls will pick us over other teams in conference if there are ties.  This means we will most likely be matched up against a the 5-7th SEC team.   So a possible bowl matchup could be a LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M.  If we are so bad that were talking about grinding victories against NW & Iowa, what are the odds of a victory against a good SEC team?  I would say zero.

here in Columbus they are giddy over the struggles that Michigan is having. The sports talk radio is talking about how Mchigan's recruiting prowess will stop if we don't win big games, go to good bowl games, and if Hoke doesn't develop talent. They see nothing on the field that makes them believe that we will be better next year. Hard to disagree. They also think that Hoke will be coaching for his job next year when The Game is played. Oh, and they were nice enough to remind everyone that The Game will be in Columbus next year, with a senior quarterback in Miller. I shudder at the thought of another 3 game losing streak to these assholes.

Are you still drunk from Saturday/Sunday? Wow.

Honestly, it's hard to say.  I thought we were going to demolish Nebraska.  I was obviously wrong there, and we may just be broken beyond repair for this season.  Who knows, I'm just going to watch and cheer for Michigan.

Time to face the facts my fellow fans. Michigan is no longer an elite program or even a good one. We've had 3 good seasons in the past 10 years; 2004, 2006 and 2011. We've barely sniffed the NC and the one time we did our nemesis stopped us cold.

Worst 2 games in a decade? Must have missed the Akron and UConn games just from this season. Must have missed almost every OSU game in the past decade. Must have missed 2008 or how about the Appy ST/Oregon back to back disasters of 2007. Fact is in the past decade we've had more disasterous games than great ones. Even the best game in recent  memory was a loss, OSU game in 2006.

This program is in a hot mess of being rebuilt. I think the question is are we heading in the right direction? Until this season the vast majority of us trusted whole-heartedly in Hoke and had some semblance of hoping Borges would prove us wrong. Now the vast majority want Borges kicked to the curb yesterday and Funk along with him and many are voicing misgivings in Hoke and perhaps even the direction of the team. I still have a hope that Hoke's vision is the way to go but man is it getting hard. I was a big supporter of RR and going through this again is not something I look forward too.

To answer the question, can Michigan finish 9-3? Not unless we can bring back our former NFL players. Any DC with a brain will be blitzing the snot out of us the rest of the year. OSU has to be salivating right now knowing how to beat us. NW may not be good, but they still have a scary spread offense. With our horrific offense it'll leave our defense in a lot of bad spots. Our recent history at Kinnick says we will not have a good or easy day there as well and OSU, it'll be an ugly day for Wolverine fans. Fact is our offense has nothing; no OL that can block outside maybe Lewan and he's a head case now, our QB is banged up and running for his life, our RB's can't run or block, our WR's can't get open or the play is dead before they can get 10 yards and our play calling is horrific on a good day. Our defense and ST's would be ok if our offense could do anything but like 2008 they're being put in some bad spots and are suffering the consequences. Fact is we'll be lucky to make the BWW Bowl and more than likely will get crushed to finish the seaosn at 6-7.

I've not felt this pessimistic since the back to back disasters of 2007-2008. Wanna help the settle down the fanbase Hoke? Fire Borges immediately.

Go home OP, you're drunk