2010 Football

There is a big difference between desire and realistic expectation. My desire is a National Championship. My expectation is less than that.

Welcome to the offseason. Where dreams come true.

Hurray off season.

It's not fun, but you have to be realistic. We all want to win 10 or 11 games next year, but 7-5 or 8-4 is just all we can realistically expect for next season. I think we all hope we are wrong, and 8-4 is by no means the end goal of the Michigan Football program. This team will one day be up in the Florida/USC/Oklahoma/Texas/Alabama/Ohio State echelon of college football, but it can't happen overnight. So you are right that it is sad that Michigan can only expect 7 wins next year. It's not acceptable in the long term, but for a team that had to rebuild as thoroughly as Michigan did, it should be acceptable for 2010. For those of you who didn't grow up Michigan fans, you should know that it takes most teams at LEAST 4 or 5 years to rebuild a football program the way this team has had to do. Michigan has benefitted from its reputation in getting better classes these last few years than they could ordinarily expect to with an 8-16 record. I understand that people get impatient, but let's not just say we can wave a magic wand and that if we close our eyes and hold our breath they will win the Big Ten next year. It doesn't work that way.

MAKE PLAYS!!!!

We all want Michigan to have a great team or great teams again, and I honestly think they will. I also think it isn't reasonable to demand that it happen instantly. RR has had good success at every place he has coached, I don't see any reason why he won't have success here with Michigan. He is starting to get the kids that he wants, he is starting to develop that talent but honestly it takes time. Michigan was very 'set' in its ways, and the transformation of this team is a huge undertaking. I want us to be patient. If we jump down the program's throat then we end up doing more harm than good, IMO. I think this season will see us turn it around and then it becomes more to what we had all become used to seeing out of Michigan football.

You can wish in one hand and crap... If the last two years have taught me anything, it's to lower expectations. We could be a 10-2 team this season, but we also could be a 5-7 team again. I will be happy with a bowl game this year, even though unseating OSU for the Big Ten would be nice.

"I just think the time has come for this team to start winning." go on

"I don't want to look at the schedule and question whether we can or cannot beat UCONN." That must be a real pain for you.

In how many games were we genuinely outmatched last year? Penn State and Wisconsin? The rest of the games were winnable, IMO. It took a meltdown, the likes of which I had never seen, to fold against Illinois. A plethora of turnovers didn't help against OSU. The rest of the losses came down to the wire. My point is, though we only went 1-7 in the B10 last year, with a few acts of God we could have gone 10-2 overall. This year's team will be much improved, I hope. Our offense, which was the least of our problems in most games, will be much better with a veteran (/sarcasm) quarterback in Forcier who will hopefully have only a fraction of the turnovers. Though we lose some venerable guys in BG, DW, SB, our defense was obviously sub-par last year as a unit. I simply don't see how our defense can't improve 3-fold this season with guys like M-Rob, Vlad, Christian, Dorsey, Turner, etc. coming in. While I don't fully expect to win 10+ games, I don't think it's too crazy.

...think of time when Michigan had such a rebuilding period. I believe we've unfortunately lost a little of the Michigan mystique and that has detrimentally affected the way of lot of quality kids look at the program. Sadly, the days of "automatic wins" because we're mighty Michigan are long gone. Remember too, that RR is bringing a different brand of football to Michigan. Bye-bye beefy prostyle... Hello nimble spread. That transition takes a little time. I would feel as though anything less than eight wins would be a HUGE disappointment. (That's actually my long-standing minimally-acceptable benchmark for Michigan football success.) I think eight are a realistic possibility this year. If we get eight or nine wins, RR will have me believing in the spread. (I'm still skeptical.)

"All I am asking is that we now need to raise the bar." How do we fans do that? Please tell us, we know so very little.

rabble rabble rabble YASSEAH

this year, it's all on the D. The only thing that scares me is that 4 Big Ten temas are reanked inn the top 12 pre-season. But we need to beat the teams we are supposed to beat(Purdue, Norhtwestern, Indiana, ect.)and get the upset here and there. Not sure about 2010 but I believe in 2011 we are back to kicking ass and taking names.

ontarioblue, I'd like to see some more wins, too. But, look at the upperclass talent base that RR has had. By proxy, look at the '09 draft (one 4th-rounder who didn't stick with a team, one 6th-rounder who did), the likely results of the '10 draft, and the possibility (perhaps small, but greater than it has been in a long time) that NO ONE will be drafted next year. (Seriously -- it looks like Mouton, Schilling, and Webb are the best possibilities. Eeee.) What coach is going to win big when his upperclassmen aren't that great?

I'm girding my loins as we speak.

I think we definitely can expect better next year. I really do. I mean, we were terribly close to 7 wins, and not all that far from 9. I'm not saying we'll get 9, but if we see the same improvement from year 1 to year 2 on offense in year 3, and we get the defense somewhat in order, (I don't need 2006, but somewhat in order), I think 8 would be a fairly conservative estimate. We improved two wins in one year while our defense got WORSE, and were far more competitive in the other games. Three more this year is TOTALLY doable.

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear? Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds. Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat? Caine: No. Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet? Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things? Po: Young man, how is it that you do not? Young Caine: "When will I be ready master?" Master Po: "Grasshopper do you see the pebble in my hand?" David Carradine before Kill Bill-you might learn something about time and place.

My life is in shambles without Michigan football .. wake me up when the spring game starts

...With anything less than 8 wins next year. With an offense that is at least as good as last year ( and should be better with Tate and DRob learning the offense better) and a defense that can't go anywhere but up, will mean that games like Purdue and Iowa last year will be wins. I only hope that in the next few years Michigan can develop a dominant defense because offense shouldn't be a problem anymore.