Of all the things I hope for next season, wailing Purdue isn't too high on the list--it's there, but OSU, MSU, PSU, ND, Wisky, and Iowa are all higher.
We need to put MSU, Purdue, Illinois back in their places before going after the "big boys". Those 3 games are near the top of my list.
Illinois is going to be really interesting next year. I half expect an overachiever that wins 7-8 games ugly. The other half expects a truly epic meltdown--like John Mackovic at Arizona bad.
To get back to being "Michigan," they have to beat those three teams; simply improving to a point where the team is better than Illinois, Purdue, and MSU should result in eight or nine wins and a nice trip to Florida for New Year's Day. Besides, I am sick of seeing all of those schools beat Michigan and then celebrate like they just won the Super Bowl.
Then there is the little matter of Saint Dantonio and Danny Hopeless. Of the three coaches, though, I really have nothing against Zook; he is just a goober who had a good year or two with a decent QB, and I don't remember him saying or doing anything inflammatory towards UM.
Anyway, the increment of improvement neccessary to beat the mid-level teams isn't nearly as much as the MSM would have us believe. Even with the crappy defense, a healthy Forcier and Molk would have enabled Michigan to beat those teams last year. With a bigger offensive line, depth at QB, and reinforcements coming fast on defense, it should be enough to, as WW says, "put" them "back in their places."
Those three schools have done more than a decade's worth of celebrating the last three years; it's time for Michigan to give them what they deserve for the rest of this decade.
I dislike Zook more than Danny and probably on the same level as Dantonio. Why? Because he inexplicably ranked the Wolverines #4 in 2006 (#1 OSU, #2 Florida, #3 Arkansas) which is what kept us out of the national championship game. He justified that vote by saying "nobody wants to watch a rematch." Another shot at an OSU team that beat us by 3 in the Shoe and I think we could've done it, especially if they came out equally flat against us as they did against Florida that year.
And I agree with this post.
A healthy Forcier probably enables UM to beat Iowa as well.
I believe MSU was the 2nd team out after Ferris State. So if anything, we screwed Ferris.
Us sweeping MSU kept them from getting an at-large bid. Ferris St. was probably the first team out, then MSU, then Duluth
Edit: beat me to it
Hanging 100 on Purdue won't be the hard part. Preventing them from scoring 101 will be.
How can something be so hilarious and so accurate in a rusty-spike-in-the-temple sort of way at the same time?
+1 regardless.
Sheer genius in one simple sentence.
Now THAT'S some great message boarding.
MSU was out regardless of what happened last weekend. However, the reason for this is because we swept them. Had they won one game, they probably would have made it (by winning comparisons against Michigan and Vermont). Had they won two, they would easily be in.
Either way, U-M is in the tournament and knocked MSU out of it. And my heart bleeds.
If we plan to be considered as one of the top teams again. We need to start picking it up on those teams. Of course we came close to Iowa last year, but we lost because Denard wasn't quite a QB yet. If Denard gets better at QB, which I am pretty sure he will, we could beat Iowa, Illinois and Purdue if we improve on our defense.