UCONN Contender in BigEast

Submitted by formerlyanonymous on

No, DrSaturday's post isn't even up yet, but we all know what's going to happen after he says something like this:

Let me be the first to jump on the UConn bandwagon for the fall. Serious contender in the Big East.

There will be

  • a thread pop up where someone goes "Uh oh. Look out for UCONN in game one. How seething will the general Michigan Man™ fan base be if we lose the first game of the season to a team that's pretty good but doesn't have over 100 years of tradition to it?"
  • Then there will be minor hysteria between the slight pessimists.
  • Then there will be a group blowing UCONN off as nothing or a meh team that Rodriguez beat up consistently at WVU despite having what resembled a secondary and a long running system in place with depth (however dubious).
  • Then there will be more argument, more hysteria, a random photoshop, a link to FatWhiteGuy, and rabble.

There, I saved you guys the entire process.

rb4kb8

March 22nd, 2010 at 5:23 PM ^

is for real. Randy Edsall is doing a terrific job up there. Syracuse tried to get him a couple of different times, both when they hired GERG and now Marrone, but he stayed put.

I am praying to the football gods we can pull this one out, but realistically I'm not about to look past UCONN at all. No one should for obvious reasons, but even the unobvious, or is it inobvious? Anyway, the point is UCONN is and will be SOLID in 2010.

MWW6T7

March 22nd, 2010 at 5:46 PM ^

Did you not read the OP? you are supposed to start your own thread on this. He has got it broke down for you and you went and screwed it all up by just posting it in this thread. Way to go guy!

M2NASA

March 23rd, 2010 at 11:45 AM ^

I will never forgive Greg Robinson for destroying a proud program that has played for a national championship in the last 25 years, has three BCS bowls, and is one of the top-15 winningest programs of all time.

I can't believe his failure followed me to Michigan, and I can't believe that Michigan fans have talked themselves into believing he is anything but an abject failure of a football coach.

Dah!

willywill9

March 22nd, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^

We can very well lose this game, it is within the realm of possibility. Truthfully, as long as we play well and competent football, I can't say that I'd be all that concerned. The general Michigan fan base however, may freak out big time (as if we've never lost a home opener before.)

jamiemac

March 22nd, 2010 at 5:46 PM ^

With Calhoun getting an extension UCONN will remain a Big East contender, despite this year's average season.

Wait, what sport are we talking about?

In the end, I dont trust their QB situation and they have to rebuild their secondary. They can beat anybody on their schedule, but I still think they 8-4 and notch below the eventual Big East Champ

formerlyanonymous

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:11 PM ^

I mean, they're already 10-5 on the season with wins over 3 BigTen teams, at USC, and 3 of 4 at Cal State Northridge. I think they're up to #47 in RPI. They certainly aren't that bad of a team. Oh, yeah, football... nevermind.

Fat Mike

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:14 PM ^

dont trust there qb situation? I would love to have there qb situation.

they have a senior in zach frazer and a reliable backup in cody endres. together they threw for over 2700 yards and 16 touchdowns.

plus the fact that there OL is huge and doesnt give up a lot of sacks. they also have a pretty good running game to go with some good recievers.

joeyb

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:23 PM ^

Their situations look good going into every season. I have been watching them for about 3 or 4 years now thinking they were going to have breakout seasons. One year they returned something like 10 of 11 starters on Defense and 8 of 11 on Offense from a team that was second or third in the Big East. Did they win the conference the next year? No, they came in second or third.

I am not going to write this game off as a win yet, but I am being cautiously optimistic about our chances because UConn hasn't proven that they can be more than an 8-4 or 9-3 team yet.

Steve in PA

March 23rd, 2010 at 9:28 AM ^

"...but I am being cautiously optimistic about our chances because UConn hasn't proven that they can be more than an 8-4 or 9-3 team yet."

I know a lot of people that would be pleased with an 8-4 or 9-5 record including a coach that may or may not be playing for his future. The current incarnation of M football hasn't proven themselves to even be that good yet, but we all hope and pray that this is the year.

wildbackdunesman

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:28 PM ^

I do believe that UConn is a solid team and very well might beat UofM. However, I prefer our QBs over theirs hands down.

Sure they threw 16 Tds, but they also threw 13 picks. Their upperclassman starter (Frazer) had 10 of the Tds and 9 of the picks, which isn't that impressive. He also only averaged 6.7 yards per attempt.

True Freshman Forcier with a busted up throwing shoulder had a better TD/INT ratio (13/10) and a better yards per attempt 7.3.

WolvinLA2

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:20 PM ^

We're gonna smoke UConn, no doubt about it.

However, what a crazy world would it be when in the same year we beat UConn in basketball, we lose to them in football.

joeyb

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:31 PM ^

I think the advantage that we will have is that they will have very little film with which they could use to prepare for us. I would guess that we have at least double the plays available to us that we had last year. The option reads will probably be leaps and bounds ahead of last year as well.

I would venture a guess that our offense will smoke their defense, but the game will decide on how well our defense can bend and not break. We have failed miserably at that over the last 2 years.

zguy517

March 22nd, 2010 at 6:43 PM ^

I mean, they are on a what? 72 game win streak? They havent even been challenged in the last couple of years. I would be willing to bet that they will in fact challenge for the BE title.

Oh right, football...

They certainly aren't a pushover, but the team and stadium are going to be hyped for this game and I think they will take it somewhat easily.

Raback Omaba

March 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 PM ^

I'm not about to look past UConn at all. Not one bit. I am actually happy that we are playing them - it's not a cupcake game by any means, but it's a challenge and will tell us a lot about the RichRod program at Michigan.

UConn at home and ND on the road will be a great litmus test for this program. A solid team at home to open the season in Rod's third year, and then a rivalry/revenge game on the road will definitely tell us a lot about our mettle as a program.

Having said that, I expect to beat UConn. This is gonna sound arrogant, but we are MICHIGAN. We hired RichRod to usher in a new era of dominance. Excuse time is over in my book. While UConn is certainly a worthy team, I will be extremely disapointed if we lose.

Excuse time is over. Time to pay up. We better fucking beat UConn and Notre Dame in the next week

Logan88

March 22nd, 2010 at 8:36 PM ^

Not that I think that UConn is quite as good as Utah v. 2008, but UofM is in the same "no-win" situation: beat UConn and nobody really cares because "they aren't that good", lose to UConn and it will be splashed all over ESPN.

Martin was really bad at scheduling these kind of games IMO (Appy State 2007, Utah 2008, UConn 2010). Hopefully, Brandon won't make the same mistake.

Right now, UofM needs to follow the Penn State school of scheduling and ONLY schedule cupcakes (Yes, I am aware that PSU is playing Bama next season) for non-con games. In a couple of years, the team will be ready to "take on all comers", but even then games like Utah and UConn are lose-lose for UofM. Better to schedule established powers like Bama, Texas, USC, etc.

Wolverine Incognito

March 22nd, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^

Martin was an idiot in terms of scheduling cupcakes. I was told his logic behind scheduling The Horror was "Yeah, we're playing a 1-AA team. But it's a GOOD 1-AA team." IF a school is going to schedule a cupcake, I want it to be creamy, delicious and loaded with calories. Don't kid yourself, like Martin, and believe that there is a cupcake that is "good for you."

However, I do agree with scheduling UConn for this year because it was for the opening of the luxury boxes. Plus, losing to a Big East team won't be AS BAD as losing to a non-BCS conference team.

scottcha

March 22nd, 2010 at 11:46 PM ^

I'd even add Oregon to that list (twice) for posterity's sake, but I don't know that Bill Martin could have foreseen the caliber of the teams we'd eventually face when the games were scheduled years in advance (App. State excluded, if I recall correctly, that was scheduled much closer to the game horror).

UConn is a bit of an exception with the whole reopening, new-look Big House situation, but I agree that it's still lose-lose. The thing about being Michigan though, even rebuilding, defensively anemic Michigan, is that a lot of games are lose-lose, even if they're great matchups on paper.

Hopefully, we just stomp a friggin' hole in UConn and they go on to run the table, as would have been the case with Utah had we managed to eke out another 3 points. A lose-lose situation can sometimes morph itself into a quality win over the course of the season.

switch26

March 22nd, 2010 at 10:14 PM ^

loved the prediction from the link posted on that maize N brew site.. The fact that they think Uconn will score 38 pts is a bit much. Yes our D was bad last year, but by looking at the improvement just in sheer size of our O and D line it should help us by a lot. Our secondary could still be shaky, but we obviously have the athletes. Hopefully we can at least be competent and force some T/O and we should be fine. Hopefully UCONN's QB's will continue the trend of a fair amount of picks to TD ratio and our sophomores improve like they should.

uminks

March 23rd, 2010 at 2:36 AM ^

If it's close, someone, somewhere is going to have to make the big play to win this game. May be the D will block a last second FG, or Tate will lead us on a game winning drive. This game could go a long way into character building but I think the kids will be more mature this season and can bounce back even after a tough home loss. But of course I want a win and a big win at that! Hopefully, the team will be up for this game and everything will fall into place for an even bigger than expected UM win! I would love to watch a 20 + point UM home blowout!