The BTN Crew All Picked UM to Finish 3rd

Submitted by BlueWon on

in their East preview. They all cited the offense as having not been clicking during the practice they attended during their tour. All  three thought the defense would be very strong.

Given we're replacing 10 starters on defense it seems a bit counterintuitive to think it would be demonstrably stronger than the offense at this point.

Do we write this off to DiNardo being DiNardo or are they on to something?

quigley.blue

August 29th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^

In all fairness, I did a site search, and the only other person to use is this year is user KARC:

"If I ever see that Jabroni I swear to Jesus that I will suplex him, put him in the camel clutch, break his back, and make him humble the old country way. 

He is the Brian Blair of football.  No he worse than the Brian Blair.  He is jabroni like that fucking Hulk Hogan.  At Madison Square Garden in 1984 I should have broke that Jabroni's back. Instead he stole the belt from me and for that I will forever hate that no talent mother fucker."

Gucci Mane

August 29th, 2017 at 9:00 AM ^

3rd in the east is not a crazy prediction. The east is likely to have 3 top 15 teams. Personally I think uofm plays osu for the division title the last week....sadly I think osu wins.

M-Dog

August 29th, 2017 at 9:44 AM ^

2003.

Not good, Bob.

Other games with something on the line for us, but we lost:

2004 - for the Big Ten. We lost but went to the Rose Bowl anyway.

2006 - #1 vs. #2.  Um, yeah.

2007 - for the Big Ten. People forget, but as bad as this year started, we plowed through the Big Ten. The Game was for the Big Ten, but Henne was injured and Mallett had to start as a true Freshman in bad weather. We all pretty much knew how this game was going to turn out, and it did.

2016 - for the Big Ten and the CFP. The outcome is still in dispute.   

 

bluebyyou

August 29th, 2017 at 9:31 AM ^

Mgoblog's position evaluations has PSU ranked very highly in many categories, and assuming Brian and friends know their football, one cannot discount their opinions and that PSU may actually be quite good.

It seems like its been a while since the BTN crew visited Michigan.  With a young O-line, a few weeks of practice can make a huge difference as it is my understanding, which I'm sure our members will correct if I am wrong, that getting an O-line to gel as a unit takes an awful lot of work. 

Having said this, as the season progresses, I think Michigan will make great strides as our young and very athletic talent starts getting experience.

Squash34

August 29th, 2017 at 1:08 PM ^

The thing about Penn State is their offensive skilled guys are very good. However, their line is going to hurt them unless they drastically improved.
Psu fans like to say Michigan blew them out because of the hurt LB's, but Michigan blew them out because the offensive line could not block Michigan's dline and aggressive scheme.
That is what caused the blowout and is why I feel pretty good about that game this year too.

andrewgr

August 29th, 2017 at 2:34 PM ^

If your coaches and players aren't trying as hard as they can for every game, that's a problem.  If there's an "extra gear" they can kick in if they're properly motivated, and they don't use that gear for their biggest rival normally, but by gosh if there's revenge on the line then they'll deign to apply themselves, then that team is full of losers and doesn't deserve to win anything.

Also, I have never seen this board more confident of a win in a rivalry game than they were in 2014, when the idea that Harbaugh could possibly lose against Ohio State at home his first season was genuinely considered heresy.  It was silly then, and it's silly now.

The game will be won based on coaching, talent, matchups, and luck, just as it always is.  Revenge for last year is going to be worth exactly 0 points on game day.

 

The Mad Hatter

August 29th, 2017 at 3:19 PM ^

Brady Hoke coached The Game in 2014, and we were in it right until the 4th quarter when Drake Johnson went down.

As for 2015, sure, there was a lot of optimism in the fan base, but not an unreasonable amount IIRC.  Most of us saw the writing on the wall during the Indiana game. 

Do you think that the team plays as hard against Rutgers as they do against OSU?  I hope not, because going 100% all the time is a sure fire way to burn yourself out by November.

andrewgr

August 29th, 2017 at 4:00 PM ^

Yeah, typo with the 2014 instead of 2015, sorry.

I think Michigan players should be working as hard as they can within the confines of what's psychologically and physically healthy throughout the year, and I think they should have maximum motivation to beat Ohio State every year.  If revenge or bulletin board material or a Buckeye stealing your girlfriend gets you more motivated for The Game, then I consider that to be a very real problem, because you should already be at maximum motivation for that game.

It just seems to me that a bad call in last year's game is the very epitome of the sort of thing that fan's obsess over and talk show hosts give airtime to and announcers hype up before the game, that means way less than a single player slipping on a single play.  If the effect isn't zero, I think it's at least so negligible that it is highly unlikely to amount to a single point's difference in the outcome.

ijohnb

August 29th, 2017 at 3:49 PM ^

don't remember overwhelming confidence in a 201(5) win against Ohio State.  I actually remember a pretty overwhelming consensus that Ohio State was loaded and would be very difficult to beat.  Then, I remember almost universal agreement that it was a long shot win after Staee beat OSU to piss them off the week before The Game.

In reply to by ijohnb

andrewgr

August 29th, 2017 at 4:03 PM ^

That's not how I remember it.  I thought I had a pretty clear memory of maximum HARBAUGH!!! leading up to that game, with most threads literally devolving into gifs of HARBAUGH!!! and most questions answered with HARBAUGH!!!.

It's possible that my memory is incorrect; if so, I apologize.

MGoManBall

August 29th, 2017 at 9:02 AM ^

Traditionally, defenses look "game ready" much quicker than offenses. That's all normal. 

But if Michigan can get past Florida, they have a lot of weeks to get a lot of young guys clicking before the meet of the schedule hits. 

DrMantisToboggan

August 29th, 2017 at 9:09 AM ^

BTN is owned by Comedy Central right? Their analysis makes a lot more sense when you view it as a comedy sketch show. Truly an impeccable collection of idiots, unique in the sports television world.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

August 29th, 2017 at 9:10 AM ^

The defense appears likely to be stronger than the offense this year. How do you explain your intuition that it will be otherwise, O.P.? Is it based on anything more substantive than the number of returning starters?

UM Fan from Sydney

August 29th, 2017 at 9:25 AM ^

Every college football media person in America is using the number of returning starters as their primary reason as to why Michigan will not win the Big Ten this year. Clearly they don't know this coaching staff nor do they pay attention to recruiting. We have great players ready to step in and play well; it's called "reloading." We're in a very similar situation OSU was in during the 2016 season. Lots of young players with not much experience, yet they still managed to get to the playoff (they won a popularity contest to do so) and win eleven games. Now, obviously it should have been PSU in the playoff, but that is another discussion.

stephenrjking

August 29th, 2017 at 11:31 AM ^

We're even younger than OSU was last year. And "returning starters" isn't some joke metric; it's a proven measure of experience.

This Michigan team is incredibly young. It's a real issue. We are going to field an OL with two true sophomores at guard and a shrug emoji playing right tackle. We will probably have a true freshman and a true sophomore starting at receiver (granted, I'm sky-high on our receivers, but thy are very young). Our entire secondary is new. Not just a couple of players--all of it. A true sophomore, and not a 5-star, is replacing Jabrill Peppers and it's not even the worry spot. 

That's a whole lot of youth. We still have OSU's DL to contend with, and PSU's RB and TE. 

3rd place could be wrong, but it isn't an unreasonable prediction at all.