Michigan finishes #10 in AP

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

First top-10 finish in a decade. 

  1. Clemson
  2. Alabama
  3. USC
  4. Washington
  5. Oklahoma
  6. 0hio State
  7. Penn State
  8. Florida State
  9. Wisconsin
  10. Michigan
  11. Oklahoma State
  12. Stanford
  13. LSU
  14. Florida
  15. Western Michigan
  16. Virginia Tech
  17. Colorado
  18. West Virginia
  19. USF
  20. Miami
  21. Louisville
  22. Tennessee
  23. Utah
  24. Auburn
  25. San Diego State

BursleyBaitsBus

January 10th, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^

September and October Ws don't mean as much. It's all about November and December. Michigan ended the season terribly and underperformed sadly enough. Here's to 2017.

Oh and fuck Iowa.

westwardwolverine

January 10th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^

Really? 

Through 9 games I think we were the most dominant team in the country. Our closest game was Wisconsin and while it ended up 14-7, we dominated the game statistically. 

Before the safety, we were up 10-0 on the road and had looked solidly in control. After that, we never led a game by more than 10 points again. 

UMfan21

January 10th, 2017 at 2:57 PM ^

I think teams just figured us out. Pepcat was broken. McDoom end around stopped working. Newsome injury started weighing heavily. Speight injury limited down field throwing.

the safety was about the time when we saw it, but the season was over during the week of prep before that game when Iowa showed the conference how to stop us, and we failed to adjust

huntmich

January 10th, 2017 at 10:50 AM ^

I don't know. Ohio State will definitely have more talent and experience than we will. But they are coming to the Big House. Penn State has more experience and it's on the road, but I just can't bring myself to fear James Franklin. Wisconsin on the road will be tough, but I still don't see that as a true fear game. And I will believe Florida can beat Michigan at a neutral site when I see it (and I will see it, live in person).

 

I think 2 losses between those 4 teams isn't an unreasonable possibility, and I don't see a whole lot else to fear amongst the rest of the teams on the schedule. I think 10 in the pre-bowl season is well within the realm of options.

ChiCityWolverine

January 10th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^

Look I love Harbaugh and think he's raised the floor very quickly. But it's WAY too early to start chalking up tough road wins. Michigan is 0-14 against ranked teams on the road (23-27 overall on the road) since beating #2 Notre Dame in South Bend back in 2006. Neutral site games they are 3-6 (sure, 2-0 against Florida is great). I'd be absolutely thrilled to go 2-1 between UF in Dallas, @PSU, and @Wisconsin, especially with this young team. 

Yes, Harbaugh is better than that suggests, sitting 6-3 on the road and 1-1 at neutral sites. He still lost at a very average Iowa team and very easily could have lost to Minnesota and Indiana in 2015. I'm not expecting an 8-win team in 2017, but 10 wins will be a much more difficult goal for next year's team than it was this season. 

Squash34

January 10th, 2017 at 2:58 PM ^

Well yea... Ten wins will be much tough than next year than this year. This year ten wins was the floor. Next year ten wins will be close to the ceiling imo. Although, if we get lucky -- which I think Michigan was very unlucky down the stretch in that seemingly every good bounce went against us-- they can push for a playoff spot again.

bluebyyou

January 10th, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^

McSorleytook a beating numerious times over the season and was lucky to have escaped serious injury. He was great against average teams but against some better teams he struggled.  We kicked PSU's ass all over the place and OSU lost their game on a fluke play.  As for Barkley, his season stats were very good, but when you look at his individual games, he had a bunch of them where he simply didn't perform well, including Michigan the last two years. He had seven games where he averaged under 5 YPA and two games when the average under 2 YPA.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/3929630/saquon-barkley

Remember, this past season's defense,  based on Don Brown's history, shouldn't have been as good as it was. We had enough talent to make up for lack of knowledge of scheme.  Some of you technical gurus may be aware of just how much of Brown's offense was installed and used this past season; I'm not that sophisticated.  Next year, our D isn't exactly bereft of talent and everyone will be in their second year of Brown's system.  I suspect the drop off may not be as deep as some would project.

Squash34

January 10th, 2017 at 2:51 PM ^

I am not so sure about the narrative that osu has a big talent advantage. Michigan was clearly more talented than them this year. Osu had favorable calls/ no calls that allowed them to win both Wisc and Michigan games.
I just can't look at all the Uber talented guys that played this year and conceed a big talent advantage to osu.
Plus, osu seems to be in a trend that once any of their players can sniff the NFL they jump. This can't possibly be sustainable over the long run, can it?

oriental andrew

January 10th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^

I can't gripe too badly about psu being ahead of us, unfortunately.

If anything, I'd say Michigan could be ahead of Wisco, but even then, it's optics and what have you done for me lately. Losing 3 of 4 to close the season looks bad, while Wisco actually won their bowl. 

USC ahead of Washington is, again, WHYDFML effect. I don't think it's correct, but they are practically tied, points-wise.