Phil Steele picks Florida to Win, ESPN 96.1 says Michigan should "demand a win"

Submitted by wildbackdunesman on

I didn't get to hear the entire segment, but the "Big Drew and Jim" show on 96.1 in West Michigan were arguing that we need to demand a victory Saturday against Florida.

I couldn't help but feel as if they were adding drama for the sake of it. 

They said Zaire is their best QB and is being benched for a Freshman QB.  However, reality is Zaire stunk in practices, may get playing time Saturday anyways, and Franks is a Redshirt Freshman with a year in the system that was a highly touted recruit.

They seemed to be ignoring that half of the 10 suspended had zero chance to see the field and only 2 were starters.

Add all of this up and 96.1 was saying that Michigan should demand a victory and anything less than a convincing win is a shame.

 

Meanwhile, Phil Steele, who is generally respected is straight up picking Florida to still win this game.  He is claiming that Michigan has too much inexperienced talent and that Florida will have far more players with experience on the field.

 

I am in the middle.  I think Michigan should be favored to win and not winning will be a bitter disappointment, but I still think that Florida even with the suspensions is still better than most BigTen teams and capable of beating a good team.

Where do you all stand?

 

MGoBoard

Wolverine 73

August 31st, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^

Let's just play the game. None of these guys really knows how good either team is this early in the year, but they have to make picks to get paid. Ok, so they did. Let's play the game and find out who is better. I for one feel very confident about our chances.

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drjaws

August 31st, 2017 at 8:02 PM ^

I was watching College Football Live last night (more like hanging out with my teenage daughter and had it on as background noise) and Pollack picked the Gators straight up. I have heard it in a few other places as well. Kinda surprised how many people are picking Florida straight up despite the suspensions.

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MichiganStan

August 31st, 2017 at 10:46 PM ^

Im not sure why so many threads on here are gawking at the "Audacity" of some people still picking Florida.

Michigan is like the youngest team in the country. Our young players still need to come to play or Florida could beat us.

I think Michigan will win but Florida is still a top 25 team. It isnt likely everyone is going to pick Michigan

 

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BeatOSU52

August 31st, 2017 at 11:42 PM ^

I follow his gambling articles and the dude was on fire in 2015 but was god awful last season. He often seems to "find value" in picking against Michigan since Harbaugh has arrived . We will see .


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The Krusty Kra…

September 1st, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^

A decent amount of those guys don't actually cover sports, they just sit and pontificate from their cushioned chairs in studio as opposed to going to press conferences and getting the full stories. Prime example of this is Aaron Rodgers tenuous relationship with the media, he records all of his interviews so no one can take anything out of context and let it become Hot Take-ified. Sports Radio is the lowest form of "covering sports"

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Logan88

September 1st, 2017 at 6:59 AM ^

Eh...Phil Steele is a known Buckeye fan and will usually take any chance he can get to disrespect UM if he can do it in a plausible fashion. If he picked Rutgers to beat UM, he knows he would lose all credibililty but Florida is still a good-ish team and it's possible that they could beat UM, so he feels free to go ahead and pick the, IMO unlikely, Gator win.

 

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charblue.

September 1st, 2017 at 7:44 AM ^

and ranking team based on one condition: returning starters. Every public naysayer in his business has said the same thing about Michigan's lack of returning starters as a major detriment to their season.

Of course, experience only counts when it matters positively on your next performance in any given game of any season regrardless of what you've done in the past. Because if your past is not as good as your future performance, then they claim that you are suspect as a starter. So, whether you have returning stsrters and whether you have suspect ones, the ony way to tell whether they are getting better or not, is watching them perform in their next start.

Steele is in the projection business. And there is a reason he puts outs publications about future performance based on past experiencde and doesn't work as a line setter in Vegas. That's because he is a highly suspect in picking winners on any given Satjrdday.

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