Tell Right Now - How Many Victories This Year

This is a tough one, because very few outcomes would surprise me. I don't think we win fewer than 7 games. Given how easy it would be to lose at least three more games, and the fact that I have faith that Harbaugh will do his best to prevent us from getting upended in games we should win, I'm predicting 8-4.

GO BLUE!

7-5 due to QB play.

8-5. No idea whether we win the bowl game or not

8-5, including the bowl. We have to improve our turnover margin though, or it could be worse. Stribling's INT was exciting, but we need more than that to beat better teams consistently, especially if our offense turns it over like they have.

but 7 is more likely than 9 so I guess 7.5 rounds up to 8. I really thought the short passing game and running game would be more consistent already. Defense is as expected. Special teams a little better than expected.

Think we beat OSU and MSU and take an L in happy valley.

Same.

.

Still there.  Getting better every week.

9-3 and sticking with it. 

7-5.
Losses to Utah, BYU, MSU, OSU and NW.
Aka all the decent teams we play this year.
We arent as close as many here hope.

It is way too early to know how good they really are. We have played two terrible teams and lost to the one good one. We will not know how good they are until October 17th.

Not good enough to overcome offensive mistakes.

14-1

Excluding a bowl game. I think Rudock is. Great scapegoat and he's not very good, but our WR's are poor and our RB play isn't good enough to make up for this.

9-4

9

10-2, beating both MSU and OSU. 

I'll never change my pre-season prediction. 

I am sticking to my prediction from the beginning of the year. We lose to UTAH and to no one else until the playoffs. I can't tell who would that be, so I can't guess. I just watched the BYU game again. No way Rudock plays worse than Rosen. On that last drive, UCLA did not throw once and they got the TD. Our Def is better than UCLA's. I would be surprised if we lose to BYU. Cook is pretty good. He can make all the throws unless someone is in his face. I am banking on our CBs to improve, which I already see it. Peppers need to get better, which he can in 4 games. If we take away their running game, we have a chance. If Isaac emerges and Drake is full strength, we have a good chance. OSU will be good. I expect JT to be QB going forward. But this is a rivalry game that nobody knows what will happen. I am expecting us to be much improved by then. I am drinking the cool aid. Go Blue!

The Knowledge already spoke

"Michigan will finish the regular season 10-2"

I need to see Jake play well. If he plays well, I can easily see 10-2. If he has another meh (or worse) game, then we'll just have to prepare ourselves for 7-5.

7-5

11. Go Blue!

The BYU QB can be gotten to (UCLA sacked him 4 times, plus 4 TFL's), so the M DL will make it a long day for him. Conversely, BYU had no sacks on Rosen and only 2 TFL's.  I expect Rudock to be comfortable in the pocket, all of which bodes well to make M the favorite.  Minnesota and Penn State look like eminently winnable road games. MN beat Kent State 10-7.  That's the same team that Illinois beat 52-3.  PSU showed some improvement in their 28-3 home win over a decimated Rutgers team that was woeful to begin with. Curiously simliar to M's win over UNLV (21-0 at halftime, a long TD run, exchange of 4Q scores).  In the end, Hackenberg also can and must be gotten to for a victory there.  The rising concern IMHO now is Northwestern, and fortunately M has them at home. So that keeps it at a toss-up to making M a marginal home dog.  From there, if M  continues to show steady improvement, it's conceivable to steal one of MSU or OSU, who have both shown their foibles in the early going.  But let's not be fooled again... what were we thinking about OSU this time last year?

Pessimistically stalled progress after a BYU loss: 7-5. Realistically, 8-4.  Cautious optimism toying with 9-3.

against PSU and I'm thinking we can take the Gophers. This leads Northwestern as a toss up along with BYU. It will be tough to defeat MSU and OSU at home but not impossible. If we win our toss ups at home I think we go 9-3. If we win one of the big games against MSU or OSU we could go 10-2. If Harbaugh, Harbaughs and we win both those game we could go undefeated the rest of the year and make the playoffs!

The thing that is troubling me and messing with my earlier prediction of 8-4 with either a bowl win or bowl loss (go into bowl with 3 losses, we get a tougher Capital/Outback-ish opponent; go in with 4 losses we beat the lesser Holiday/Pinstripe-ish opponent) is that in all three games, the one position that has probably played the worst is quarterback. There were certainly some OL issues against Utah but so far you would resoundingly identify Rudock as the player who had the most bad plays (interceptions, blatant overthrows comparable to dropped passes, missed tackles, torched on coverage in other positions). And this was supposed to be Harbaugh and Fisch's area of expertise.

14

After the Utah loss I though 5 to 6 wins. But I've been impressed by the leaps the team has taken each week -  especially after week 2. I think this team continues to improve and reaches 9 wins. 

1-1 would be best to hope for.