This is my weekly feature to look back at summer previews, get egg on my face, look over what Michigan did, and then project the rest of the year as we get more real time data.  Last week's taking stock report can be found here.

Prelude:  I did season previews on most UM opponents - I skipped UNLV and Rutgers out of boredom, and OSU out of fear.  The rest are below

• BYU, Oregon State, Minnesota, Northwestern,
• Penn State, Maryland, Utah, MSU

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Dear readers - the deeper we go into the season the more off my summer views will become as naturally teams evolve from what we thought they would be and injuries happen. 

So let's see how I did with Maryland ... I began the preview with:

Maryland football took advantage of the struggles of PSU and UM to finish 3rd in the Big 10 East in 2014 in their inaugral season in the conference.  Unless Mark Dantonio retires in the next 3 years or James Franklin is a complete buffoon that might be Maryland's highest finish for a very long time.   Just like I believe the average UM fan on this board is undervaluing PSU in 2015, I think they are overvaluing Maryland based on last year's 3rd place finish.  This was a really mediocre team last year that lost some key talent and could turn into a poor team in 2015.  Maryland only returns ~10 starters (6 on offense, 4 on defense) ... that would rank in the bottom tier across the P5.  The division will be tougher as they will be facing less dysfunctional teams in UM and PSU.   There is also a brutal 7 game stretch mid season that spans West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State.   Going 2-5 in that span may be considered a victory with 1-6 more likely.   On top of all that Maryland lost its defensive coordinator but considering the meh defense last year, I don't know if that is a loss or gain. I see Maryland battling it out with Rutgers and Indiana to determine 5th, 6th, and 7th in the East.

There is very little star power on this team but one standout is diminutive Will Likely who had two pick 6s last year along with numerous big plays on special teams.   He showed yes even at 5'7, 175 lbs you can succeed as a Big 10 CB.

And ended with:

UM did not fare well under Brady Hoke on the road - especially against teams >.500.  While Maryland might be .500 or better at the end of September due to the non conf foes I don't expect that to last long.   This game is in early October when UM should begin finding its feet as a team and there is just way too much talent on this team to lose this game unless its one of those 3 turnover days or Will Likely returns 2 kicks for touchdowns.  

This seems to me like a game that casual UM fan will worry about too much  - as opposed to a team like BYU that casual UM fan should worry about a lot more.   Maryland will be coming off a road game against what should be a decent West Virginia squad the prior week and I expect them to get exploited there.   Michigan will be coming off what I expect to be a wild high scoring affair v BYU.  Maryland looks like the perfect balm after 2 tough games vs teams from Utah in the month of September.   Their DL is a bunch of newbies and converted LBs and this is the point of the year Drevno's influence should have the OL able to push around this kind of DL.   Michigan's run game should have success.  Maryland's run game is suspect while UM's run defense should be quite good.   Rowe is an X factor of course and you just hope he does not have a Gary Nova 2014 type game but Nova had a special WR in Carroo - Maryland's special WRs are in the NFL.

This will be a night game (8 PM) so those cute Terps football fans will be pumped up but a methodical Michigan team should impose their will over time.  It's been a long time since we've said that so hopefully I won't have egg on face assuming it can be done.

Again... don't kick to Will Likely.   Also don't throw on him. Thank you.

Generally I think this was a 96/100 - where I got it wrong was that UM was not coming off a tough BYU game, PSU is not so hot, and the game was not at 8 PM.  Pretty happy with the rest!

/pat self on back

These were my views of the matchups this summer when I thought Caleb Rowe was at least a high risk, high reward halfway decent QB in relation to crap QBs of the Big 10.

UM rush off v MD rush def - Adv: UM.  Even with all the questions UM has in the run game, Maryland has even more in their rush defense.  They lost almost their entire front 7 and their rush defense was not good last year even with those players.

UM pass off v MD pass def - Adv: Even.   If Maryland had any veteran presence in the pash rush I'd give this to them due to their secondary but even a great group of defensive backs will get exploited if the QB is not rushed.  Last year Maryland was solid at getting to the QB with 32 sacks.  Most of those guys are gone.  So the question will be can MD get anything out of their DL in terms of pass rush outside of Ngaouke by early October.  Meanwhile you know the questions for UM by now - who can get open out of our WR corps vs good corners and safeties?

MD rush off v UM rush def - Adv: UM.  Rowe is not a dual threat in the mold of C.J. Brown so UM will need to focus mostly on an uninspiring group of Maryland running backs. 

MD pass off v UM pass def - Adv: Even.   If Rowe is healthy he actually looks like a competent Big 10 QB.  Again that is a low bar but his stats are compelling even if the sample size is relatively small.  Will he make it to week 5 in 1 piece?  Maryland is not playing a lot of big shots early so you'd think so.  The questions for Maryland - much like UM -  are more about finding wide receivers.   UM defensive backs likewise should still be in good condition this early in the year and the depth at corner (which could be an issue) should not challenged yet.  These are 2 mysterious units.  If Rowe is not healthy by the time this game rolls around, the advantage swings heavily to UM.

Special note - UM MUST DO A GOOD JOB DEFENDING WILL LIKELY ON PUNT AND KICKOFF RETURNS.  KICK THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS ON PUNTS COACH BAXTER.

So yeah, if you wonder where the DONT KICK TO WILL LIKELY meme began - there ya go. ;)  We generally avoided him (he is not as dangerous on kickoffs as punts) and when we did special teams did great.  Thank you Harbaugh for finding Baxter.

In terms of the other 2 units, UM's rush offense was ok but not great.  Smith was out, Isaac sucked, Green is Rawls, and it was basically Johnson.  If not for Chesson's run the stats would be ugly.  Part of that is not having Smith, and part of that is no one respecting Rudock downfield.   So a tiny advantage to UM vs a horrible rush unit I guess.

UM's pass offense was mediocre as usual.  The line did a good job of protection again - Maryland had basically 1 player who was a menace.   Rudock had a 50% completion rate and an INT with a TD.  I'd call this a small win for Maryland actually.

I said UM would win the rush D battle and they did - by a landslide.  26 carries for 29 yds with the QB sacks included; excluding them still an excellent 19 carries for 43 yds.  (2.3 ave)  I found Brandon Ross to be mediocre when I analyzed his stats this summer - like Derrick Green he gets lots of stats vs App State and Rutgers types and is very containable vs real defenses.  This remained the case.

The LOL moment from the summer was thinking Rowe was a high risk / high reward QB.  At this point he is only a high risk QB.  So our pass D won the battle and it was not close to even.  The 1 part I did get correct was MD needed to find WRs after losing their talent to the NFL.  As bad as Rowe was he had a few good passes just dropped - ugly.

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Turning from the summer preview, in last week's diary my pregame preview was simply DO NOT KICK TO WILL LIKELY.  PROFIT.

A Look at Michigan

This was a horrible 1st half playing down to a horrible team.  That might have been lost in the 2nd half performance when a horrible team was exhausted and UM imposed some will but facing a better opponent this would have been a loss.  Even if Maryland's WRs could catch the ball this could have been an interesting game at least thru 3 quarters.  And it should not have been anything like that even with Smith out.

So our weekly Rudock talk.  I think I have figured him out - he is that guy who on the stat sheet looks decent but when you watch him week after week you see why Iowa fans said "yes please take him."   Jake is just not a quality QB at this point - he is projecting not that different than Devin Gardner 2014 as I line up their stats side by side - similar TD to INT ratios, similar YPA, similar completion %.  That is not what we thought we were getting.  Also like Gardner he is a "first read or bust" type of QB.  I thought Rudock was a "check 1st read, check 2nd read, throw to 3rd read 5 yards- frustrate fan base" QB.   And Rudock has far more time to throw than Devin ever did in 2 years.  So it's disappoining as hell right now.

Now again the opposing QBs in this conf mostly suck and UM's D is playing lights out so some of this will be mitigated but unless there is some turnaround - and soon, I see Rudock costing a game or three.  I know some viewers disagree and "it's still early".  No folks, it's not early anymore - he should be better by now.    16/32 (50%) , 5.6 ypa, vs the 96th ranked S&P+ passing defense and 93rd ranked NCAA stats passing defense.   But as I said in paragraph above - forget the stats.  He doesn't pass the eye test at this point.  Still hesitating, still throwing "near misses" that quality teams would INT, still unable to go to any option but #1.  Still missing wide open receivers down the field >20 yds. (Chesson!)  The turnovers are the thing that really bite - he is on pace for 15.6 INTs.  Not much different then Devin's 15 last year.  IDK man.

If interested completion distribution was 9 WR, 4 TE (all Butt), 3 RB/FB.  That is actually a lot more aggressive of a distribution then has been the case this year.  Johnson's 31 yarder skewed Rudock's yardage up nicely; otherwise it was typical dink and dunk.

Lack of respect for Rudock leads to a tough day at the office for the run game.  Much like 2 weeks ago vs Oregon State the stats are going to look better than what really happened.  In that game Isaac had one big run and otherwise it was a mediocre 178 yds on 38 carries (4.7 per).  This week take out the Chesson run (yes I know, you dont take out the big plays in a game but trying to showcase a point) and it was on 132 yds on 39 carries (3.4 per).  This is vs the 64th ranked S&P+ rush defense and 102nd ranked NCAA rush defense.  That's poor.  Yes Smith was out, our two (1!) 5 star running backs looked pathetic and our 2 star was the only guy who ran worth a crap, but its inexcusable even with no one respecting Rudock.   Isaac looked like hot garbage and fumbled twice and at this point is probably stapled to the bench when not committing penalties on punts.  Joshnson started looking like Johnson (that's what she said) in the 2nd half and Green looks like Green.  Which is not a compliment.  Smith/Johnson looks like the combo go forward and Isaac aside from 1 game this year has been uninspiring and seems like a guy who doesn't do the little things right (pass protect, protect the ball, etc) - the type of things that a Harbaugh regime won't accept.  Ugh.

So the offense was a smoke and mirrors situation to me this week.  Thank god for the defense.  105 yds given up.  Again.   Yes MD's WRs helped us out but if they played like average WRs it might have been 165 - still good. 

However we had a bad injury - and it will be costly.  I judge injuries not so much on the player injured but the variance vs the guy behind him.  Hence while the Mone injury sucked I was confident DT was our best position so it was an inconvenience and maybe a blessing in disguise (keep Mone an extra year).   Mario being lost is worse because right now the backups are a converted LB who has barely played in 4 years and a RS FR who has been in the doghouse.  So flexibility will be lost as we dont have many buck types on this roster due to recruiting misses.  Injuries are part of the game and we can't complain too much but that was one position on D we might have the most open questions after the starter now that Clark and Stribling look competent.

Overall not much to complain about the D, Morgan looked especially good and Bolden made some of his normal early mistakes.  I think OSU and even Indiana however are going to salivate on ways to exploit these guys in the pass game.  But don't worry we have the offensive firepower to compsenate.  Ok worry.

UM's S&P+ defense moved up from 4 to 3 by the way.  Offense S&P+ fell from 48 to 53.  FEI data will be available in 2 weeks and we'll start incorporating it.

Will Likely had 3 returns for 12 yards.  Boom.  Coffin corner kick by Blake was awesome. #puntporn

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY (DOD!) RANKINGS

Basing games on WHEN they are played and WHERE this was my general view on degree of difficulty for each opponent coming into the year and adjusted weekly,    Again this is not how good the team is in a vacuum but how they match up vs UM.

Stock Up

• Northwestern (+2) - I said last week I was glad that Minnesota v Northwestern was happening so early in the schedule so I could figure out who is who they really were.  Northwestern was the dominant force and that defense is looking all sorts of elite.  I don't give a damn about the Ball State game - every team has a let down and that was between a big win on road vs Duke and this big matchup in the West vs Minn.  NW made Mitch Leidner their bitch and have given up 3 TDs all year.  One of those a 1 play 22 yd drive after their sometimes LOL offense turned the ball over deep in their territory.  This is not all about scheme either - NW's team speed is up, esp on defense and they found a star RS SO out of Miami as their MLB in Anthony Walker (already won Big 10 defensive player of the week twice).   Their advanced and regular stats are off the roof on defense (the Stanford win looks better by the week) and their special teams are also contributing too.  That's a great way to win a lot of games in the Big 10 - ask Jim Tressel.  It's all about that offense for NW.  Justin Jackson continued to be an outstanding runner with 6.0 ave on 20 carries and Thorson played decently and safely (14/19 for 128 yds, no INT)  Does that sound familiar UM fans?  Talk about 2 like minded teams.  At this point, based on resume - I was very torn on moving NW ahead of MSU - but since UM is MSU's Super Bowl there will be a different emotion in that game.
• PSU  (+1) - PSU has been fluttering between 6 and 7th on my DOD rankings all regular season, mostly due to actions of other teams around them and not themselves.   This is a default rise in the ranks, not due to their own work.  PSU played the 1 service academy which is a rollover (Army) and won ho hum 20-14 in a rain soaked game.  That is with Army fumbling 7 times, losing 3 of them. That's actually a pretty sad result.   Army passed 1 time.  The entire game.  For 32 yards.  If you extraplate that to 40 pass attempts, well you would have had something Army!   The weekly Hack watch was a 5 on the "PTSD or not PTSD" scale of 10.  10/19 for for 156 yds and 1 TD.  The stories I read didn't say how many times Hack got sacked but it sounded like not many if at all.  PSU has been good at not turning the ball over so they have that.  With bad ass true freshman Barkley out at RB (and Akeel Lynch also missing) the PSU rush attack sucked at 34 carries for 108 yds - can't even blame Hack sacks for hurting the total, as he gained net 3 yds.  I said in my PSU preview this summer that they might be the most lousy 6-0 or 5-1 team in the country going into week 7 (vs OSU) and they are on target.  Although, like UM, with that offense they could face trouble vs Indiana next week.  Don't know the Indiana QB situation though.

Stock Down

• Minn (-3) - If you only read these weekly missives and not the summer preview I wrote on Minnesota I probably sound like a Minn slappy.  But note I had them ranked #6 in DOD preseason and like Maryland I was down on them coming into the year - I think I wrote something akin to "I want to sell short Minnesota in 2015 but then put them in my 401k in January 2016" in my summer preview of the team.  I thought the losses of Cobb and Williams were too great and Leidner sucked.   Then the TCU game happened and much like UM now I was thinking a very good D could keep that team in games, while the offense did very Minnesota like things like scoring 16 pts a game.  So now I am full circle and think Minn is as mediocre as I thought they might be this summer.  The TCU game seems to be an outlier.  While Minnesota's D is solid and they have a decent running back to replace Cobb the passing game is just crap.  Run based offenses that can't pass play into UM's D bread and butter.   Probably setting up for #M00Mish type game for a half until Minn D wears down, but our D is better than their D and our O is better than their O.   Minn was so unhappy with Leidner they brought out a kid they were trying to redshirt (Croft) and by the time they get to Michigan week Croft may be the QB.  He sucked too. (5/11, 27 yds).  NW shut down Minn run offense in a way I think UM will, and Minn had nothing else left in the arsenal.

Stock Flat

• OSU - OSU. So damn lucky.  Both Indiana's starting QB and RB get hurt.  Still by far the highest ceiling of teams on the schedule but the offense is nowhere near it aside from Elliott who is a beast.  I wish we had an Elliott.  23 carries, 274 yds.  Deep longing sigh.
• Utah - Utah had a bye and by not looking LOL like a lot of teams in the top 10 this week moved up a bunch of spots.  A fun matchup with Cal awaits and the bye week could not have come at a better time mentally, post the Oregon destruction as "letdown" city awaited them.
• MSU  - MSU 2015 is Carr era Michigan (insert almost any year but 97).  A team with lots of NFL talent that plays down to its competition and does not look inspired, and has an OC who the fanbase is beginning to hate due to conservatism.  To be fair the injuries are now starting to pile up - out for the year with a broken leg went the 3rd tackle (Finley) and after the game it was announced starting S RJ Williamson is out for most of the year too.  With that said this was Purdue.  Purdue somehow has MSU's #.... in a way that is frustrating for UM fan in that (a) they look better vs MSU than UM does and (b) by having their # all they do is keep it close and tease us rather than actually upset MSU.   With the loss of Williamson and struggles of SO Nichsolson the back 4 of MSU looks exploitable as heck.  if only we had a QB who could exploit it ("It's still early!!" meme here).  So instead expect the front 7/8 to stack  the box and Rudock to look lost throwing downfield.  MSU will also get way more pressure on Rudock than other teams have thus far.  I do like the UM D v MSU O matchup now esp with Cook either "shackled" or looking mediocre most weeks - along with that patchwork OL.  Sounds like starting tackle Kieler wont be back for UM week and Conklin is a mystery.  All American center Jack Allen was thrown out to tackle in an emergency move mid game as his brother Brian went to center and they threw in a RS SO at guard.  Ah youth on the OL - enjoy it MSU.
• BYU -  BYU was tied with UConn late until going on a late game surge.  Not inspsiring.  Mangum threw for a zillion yds so I guess there is that.  I might have dropped BYU but look who is behind them - PSU and Minn.  Haha.
• Indiana -  Indiana is Indiana.  Scary enough on offense and generally garbage on defense.  But if UM's offense doesn't improve this game has trouble written all over it as Indiana will be hyped and have decent skill players.  Let's see if Indiana can go into Happy Valley and cause some trouble.
• Maryland  - It is disgusting that Maryland is only #9 in the DOD rankings.  That speaks to the bottom of the schedule.  Maybe Oregon State can make a move in the coming weeks because these bottom 4 teams are bad.
• Rutgers  - Rutgers won the bye.
• Oregon State - Oregon State won the bye.
• UNLV - UNLV beat Nevada, whose 2 wins are UC Davis and Buffalo.  I don't know man - maybe they could take Maryland.

Overall

Last week the schedule sort of looked like a "top 3", "middle 4" and the "garbage 5".   Now you have to give NW the respect and make it a "top 4", keep the middle but reduce it to 3, and avert eyes from the garbage 5... but maybe Indiana can jump into the middle group next week with a win vs PSU. 

Even with all the offensive woes this is ending up to be a schedule with 4 legit teams on it. With 3 of those 4 at home.  i.e .a very favorable schedule.   MSU needs to get healthy but still has a ceiling and OSU has a major ceiling... NW is probably what it is going to be unless their freshman QB progresses further.

Road games vs PSU and Minn are tricky insofar they are on the road and better than Maryland.  And UM likes to take 1 half off each game.  I much prefer when it is the 2nd and we are up 25+.  Indiana is just a wtf game at this point - who knows what is going to happen.

Week in and week out we know what is going to the be the storyline.  Can the top 5ish defense keep the opposing offenses down enough that our meh offense can win the game.  What can the UM offense do vs stacked LOS?  A special teams TD would be nice as would be more winning of turnover battles.

Next Week

This is not your dad's Northwestern defense.  NCAA total defense #5 (a flawed stat but since we are touting UM #2) and S&P+ #10 (UM #3).  They flat out have some athletes - and a top player at each level.  Anthony Walker is on the way to stardom at MLB with speed to burn at 235 lbs.   Godwin Igwbuike (a target for Hoke) came back from injury and looks to be a top safety prospect.  And there are some nice complimentary pieces on this defense - its not a scheme thing but talent this year with athletes better than we are used to seeing a NW squad have.   They are top 10 in both 3rd down defense conversion and 3rd down offense conversion (believe it or not on the latter).

They have legit special teams which is helping them win games.  They are not often penalized.  They win the turnover battles.  So far this is Tressel-lite eh?

Their run game is more consistent then UM's with a healthy Justin Jackson who came into the year an established top end Big 10 RB.  They don't give up many sacks. Obviously their question is QB.  As is ours.  Thorson is not a huge runner but mobile enough (160 yds) to keep you honest, and has run for 4 TDs so they like to use him close to the end zone.

This one looks really close on paper to me although Vegas disagrees (oddsmakers opened this at 12 and its down to 8).  That seems like a lot of points to give but if its a 17-9 game, 8 works.  UM also has home field along with having NW's # with last second wins of late.    A win here should move UM into the top 12ish setting up a tasty matchup in AA the following Saturday.