ESPN Top 25 for next year: We're ranked

Iowa at 21 is probably even more surprising to me than us at 24.  They are losing quite a bit, especially on defense (all three linebackers) so I'm not sure about that one.

IMO we need to win one of the three rival road games.  Just one.  The home schedule looks like revenge of the cupcakes so if we just one of the tough road games I could see us going 9-3 or even 10-2.  And that would be OK with me as long as the recruiting keeps loading up the cupboard.

Hokes next road win against a team with a pulse will be his first.

No sugarcoating that anymore....he has to do something on the road against a good team. Hell our last "good" road win was in 2010 in South Bend. That's 3 yrs of crap performances on the road.

I'll just hope and pray that Nuss is able to change all this and the offense shows up on the road for the first time under Hokes tenure.

improve on the o-line and d-line, we will win 9-10 games. Having a viable running game will help our offense IMMENSELY! We will play better on the road once we start running the ball better. For the past 2-3 seasons, nobody has respected our run game outside of Denard...then they didn't respect our passing game. We have been 1 dimensional on offense for the past 6 years.

I just hope we execute.

Being highly ranked coming into the season is usually a bad thing in my mind.  I'd rather find some bright spots and continue to build on those as the season progresses.

Witness Ms. U last year.  They struggled early especially on offense and weren't in the top25 for several weeks but they kept it going for the full season.

Something has to change on the road and I'm not sure what.  One idea is instead of just trying to grind out some runs, instead throw several deep passes early with the idea that the DL might be a little cold without a lot of pass rush and a quick strike might quiet down the opposing fanbase.  Then come back with a grinding drive. 

Its a tough nut to crack as obviously the home field advantage is well established in the B1G. 

The team needs some good leaders on the field as well.  I think the D lost a little bit of that with Jake Ryan's injury.  Its not a knock against him as he had an amazingly fast recovery but i think its really difficult to lead the team from the sidelines.

If I can wish for two things it would be...more consistent lineup in the OL.  The revolving door of last year, for whatever reason(s) never let the players work together enough to get their teamwork going.  And on D, I'd like to see the rate of substitutions go down a bit.  With complete deference to Mattison, at various times it looked like the field goal unit was coming in on 2nd down.  I feel certain he had logical reasons for this, hopefully some of the surrounding conditions will have changed for the better by fall.

Until we win a big game on the road I would assume that all of those games are losses. Other than that I think we could drop one of the Rutgers, Northwestern, Penn State, or Utah games next year. So honestly I think 8-4 or 9-3 next year honestly and we wouldn't have any real quality wins which might put us at the end of the top 25.

Let's face it:  Our expectations for next season correlate quite strongly with how much difference we think Nussmeier makes vs Borges.  

I think the shift from all the pulling guard stuff to a lot more inside zone (featuring an interior on which everyone returns one year stronger and more experienced) is going to go a long way toward eliminating the constant tackles for losses problem we faced last year.  This offense is also likely to throw short on early downs more often than previous.  So we're likely to be looking at more 2nd and manageable vs 2nd and long.

I think that Nussmeier as a QB guru is going to help at least a little bit when it comes to Gardner's consistency and fundamentals.  I think Devin may always be a guy that is prone to make an oddball decision here and there.  But as far as making good choices from play to play, I expect to see improvement.  I also think some of the quick, short throws we'll see in this offense will help Gardner a lot.

I expect it's also an asset that we have so many returning players on defense.  I don't know that it skyrockets us toward dominance, because we've yet to really find a difference-maker on that side of the ball.  But there is a lot of returning experience on that side of the ball, not only in returning starters but with rotation guys.  We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year that are going to benefit from that experience now.

7-6 doesn't seem a likely outcome anymore, even with a few glaring question marks going into 2014.  I have trouble being overly optimistic, because last season beat that out of me.  But I think we can halve our number of losses without being dramatically better, just by cleaning up a couple of our glaring issues from last year (which I think Nuss+experience on D will help to do.)  I don't know that we're thrilled with 9-3, but that sounds about right.  Hopefully those three-ish losses don't all come in rivarly games.  I won't rule out a better finish either, though I'm not placing any bets til at least October this year!

If Hoke doesn't go 9-3, atleast, he should be fired.  9-3 buys him another year.