2018: I'll leave the board (not that anyone cares) if Michigan doesn't go at least 10-2 RS

Submitted by ScooterTooter on

I've had my time to vent. Now I want to bring some perspective back to the board. 

Regardless of what happened today (which was an abysmal loss), Michigan will be a more talented team next year than they were this year. 

On offense they return:

Bredeson, Onwenu, Ruiz, JBB, Gentry, McKeon, DPJ, Evans, Higdon, Black and numerous other contributors. They have three legitimate options at QB. Peters was not good today, but the offense was missing a number of players and he is only a RS Freshman. Patterson was a 5-star QB. McCaffery was also highly rated. 

On defense:

Gary, Bush, Hudson, Long, Hill, Metellus, Kinnel, Hudson, Furbush, Watson and possibly WInovich. While I think the defense was overhyped, they were certainly a very good and very young unit. They should improve despite losing Hurst and even if they lose Winovich. 

I will gladly take returning nearly the entire team + Jim Harbaugh's entire body of work and predict that this team wins at least ten regular season games. I have said I was not surprised when Michigan won 10 games in 2015 while many of you were shocked. I will make the same prediction today and to be frank, it doesn't even feel bold. 

The real question will be whether or not Michigan can take that 10 win baseline and turn it into a special season. If one of the QBs actually wins the job (and not just by default like the last couple of years) and if the offensive line can produce above average tackles among their half dozen bullets, I think its well within the realm of possibility. 

What say you? 

HailHail47

January 1st, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^

Trouble is that if we stay the same, we go 7-5 or 6-6 next year. Notre Dame, MSU, OSU, Wisconsin and Penn State were all significantly better than us this year and return a lot of key players. We need to get A LOT better to go 10-2. Patterson or McCaffrey may or may not fix the QB problem, but we don't have any obvious OL improvement. The defense should be marginally better, but Hurst is a huge loss. And losing Winovich could cause us to take a step back.

JTGoBlue

January 1st, 2018 at 9:11 PM ^

If you believe the score of the game indicates which team is better, there is only one game this year where there was a significant difference in points scored.

Starting QB knocked out game 4. That is the difference between 5 losses and 0-2 losses.

Ask Packers and Colts fans.

BlueMk1690

January 1st, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^

This wasn't a great team but could have won the MSU game and they were in the OSU game and in this game. And if you had as much as a half-functional passing offense then even the games we lost more decisively would have looked very differently.

Just consider how few turnovers Michigan's very good D generated..and what dumb turnovers our offense produced in spite of our offense being called in such a way as to minimize the risk of turnovers. Michigan's turnover margin was 11th in the conference..only Rutgers, Indiana and Nebraska were worse. This is a highly variable stat..teams usually fluctuate wildly in this category. If you flip this, things look very different.

I don't make predictions generally, but ruling out 10 wins is as dumb as guaranteeing 12 wins. The team has every chance of being a lot better next year and having a better record.

Some people on this forum disgust me in their inability to contain their emotional overreactions.

 

UMFoster

January 2nd, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^

I think that is why so many fans are mad.  In all of our losses (except PSU this year) we were in a position to win the games late but we never closed late in the games.  Even most of the wins the offense came out flat in the 2nd half and didn't put teams away.  We rarely win the close games, especially if it is a big game.  Don Brown saved this team from being 2016 ND or MSU.

YaterSalad

January 1st, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^

Maybe (1) stop drinking or (2) take your Zoloft. Weren’t you the dude calling our coach HarSLAW and HarNAW in another thread. It was a crappy season - we can all agree on that. Today’s game sucked. Take your lumps like a man.

YaterSalad

January 1st, 2018 at 9:42 PM ^

Maybe (1) stop drinking or (2) take your Zoloft. Weren’t you the dude calling our coach HarSLAW and HarNAW in another thread. It was a crappy season - we can all agree on that. Today’s game sucked. Take your lumps like a man.

bacon

January 2nd, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^

If Jim Harbaugh cares as much about winning as he says he does, it’s time to make the needed coaching changes and bring in someone who can set the world on fire and outcoach everyone on offense. Also, I like don brown, but too much aggressive blitzing. It’s feast or famine and they started picking it up and destroying us with long completions. Mix it up a bit more. Please.