2016 Schedule - Which game are you worried about?
Like many of you, I expect that we will be undefeated and ranked in the top 4 when we meet OSU on November 26th. However, we do play several teams that should be pretty good, at least on paper. CFB being what it is, upsets do happen and I suppose that it's possible that we lose a game this season.
There were a lot of changes in the Big 10 during the off-season. New coaches at Maryland, Rutgers, and our biggest rival, Illinois.
Is there a game on the schedule that worries you, and if so, why?
if we score more points than those guys in those particular games we will probably have a decent shot at winning them
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan State
3. Iowa
Minnesota had divine intervention on their side, and the abundance of injuries to our defensive line (plus IU putting a scare into pretty much every team) made those games closer than they should have been. Since we can't predict miracles or injuries, the only team that legitimately scares me is OSU.
This will be the weakest msu team of the past 5 ish years. I don't care where that game is. If UM is even half as good as we all believe it should be pretty ugly for those godless bastards.
While Iowa will be laughably out-coached, there's always that one stupid thing that could happen - and always does seem to happen to UM -where we get bit in the ass. I want to believe that with the excellent coaching we now have that one stupid thing won't happen anymore, but 30+ years of experience is hard to forget.
I see Penn State as a major trap game. Early in the season, they'll finally be running more spread under Franklin without Hackenberg there and it's just before our biggest home game against Wiscy
PSU is no trap game. It's in Ann Arbor and we have The Harbaugh. Bring PSU on.
Especially with PSU coaches talking shit throughout the off-season; they are on Harbaugh's radar. Also, PSU is too significant of a program and conference foe to be a trap game.
We downed them fairly easily in their vaunted white-out last year and now our team should be even better and we move to our home turf. Big House should be electric against the first significant team of the year.
obligatory Fuck Penn State
Maybe if the game was in November again. But I doubt PSU will be fully settled on offense in September.
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We win that one and we'll be 11-0 going to the Shoe. Obviously OSU is 50/50 at best
at that point too. Doesn't make things any easier.
Call me crazy all you want, but Maryland makes me nervous.
batshit crazy I say!
I don't know about "watch out", but Durkin will make them competitive.
All it takes is a crappy first year to help flip some guys. They have a cupcake September, but then I predict it'll go downhill for them with MSU, @IU, @UM, OSU and @Neb turning a promising 4-2 start into a 5-7 finish.
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Maryland? Definitely not.
If there is one "not a good team" team that worries me, it would be Indiana. They have given us fits for years and come very close to beating us the last few times we faced them. Especially because we play them right before Ohio State so the "looking ahead" potential factor would be as big as it possibly could be.
Durkin may be challenging by year 3 or 4, but year 1 in Ann Arbor? Hell nah.
Did they get a QB or something? Did you see the guys that trotted out last year?
They'll be a tough out, for sure, but they have a really rough go of it before having to come play us.
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LSU is a neutral game, not a road game, but in actuality it's a de facto home game for Wisconsin. It's at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
But yes, they could either be riding high coming in here with tons of confidence and a battle tested team, or they could already be mentally defeated. I wouldn't be surprised if Wisconsin takes out 1 of MSU/LSU. Hopefully, MSU.
I was thinking about making a similar thread to discuss both OSU and MSU's schedule, and which games are the toughest for them.
Looking at MSU's schedule, I can honestly see them dropping five-seven games this year.
@ ND is probably their toughest game. Breaking in all those new players against a veteran ND squad in South Bend. Oh boy.
Then to follow that up is one of their recent rivals (for real) Wisconsin, then a tough road game against team CHAOS IU, then back to back trap games with BYU and NW. Throw in Michigan, OSU, and @ PSU. Look out!
Ohio State probably has their toughest game @ Oklahoma. Obviously Michigan, and then three tough road games @ Wisconsin, PSU, and MSU.
Talking about a chance to have the Big 10 East locked up before even playing in Cbus is crazy considering we're talking about a team that has gone 50-4 over the past four years....
I do get pleasure seeing OSU lose every chance I get, but this year I believe it would be sweeter to beat them if they were undefeated. The whole Rick Flair, "to be the man you gotta beat the man", and with a record like 50-4 clearly OSU is still the man.
After this season I'll be happy to beat them like a drum with whatever their record is.
Lol trust me, I'm more in the pump the breaks section than anyone else.
I don't think 2015 was as successful as most on here.
Like I mentioned, it is a remote possibility. Without MSU's miracle last year, Ohio State would have won the Big Ten East even though they lost to MSU. I'm saying you could have a scenario where Michigan loses to Ohio State but still wins the Big Ten East. Again, very small chance, but possible.
I personally see OSU finishing 10-2 this year as most likely. I think there is an extremely high probability they lose in Oklahoma. And between Wisconsin, PSU, MSU (all road) and us at home I think it's likely they go 3-1. But I think 2-2 is as likely as 4-0 in that stretch.
Are you kidding? It's better for us is Wiscy takes out LSU. I want Wiscy/MSU to have a good record to please the media pundits/CFP committee when we beat Wiscy/MSU. A loss for LSU would weaken the SEC and strengthen the B10 in the eyes of CFP committee
I honestly think LSU will easily handle Wisconsin and wear them down pretty bad.
Now this is obviously going back to well before Harbaugh but I've always looked at Wisky as a team that is right in UM's wheelhouse. They usually play smashmouth football and try to run it down your throat. It's the spread style teams that usually give UM problems. Wisky is normally a good team and UM/Wisky has had some really good games but I don't see Wisky running the ball down UM's throat this year. They will try, but I don't think they're going to find much success.
I know most people on here won't like this comment, but MSU worries me a lot.
It's just been so clear that they have the mental edge against us ever since Dantonio has been here, which I worry about especially because that game will be the first true road challenge for our offense this season. (sorry Rutgers, you and your 45,000 person stadium that will be 40% Michigan fans does not count).
I think we will be a much better team than State (and that OSU will be as well), but I am very confident that they will play their best game of the year against us and I worry about their defense relatively shutting us down. I still think we will more likely than not win that game, but we are going to need a very, very strong performance from our defense. That game could be like 2012 where a first to 14 type of score wins it.
but I haven't been this confident about the team beating Mike D's sqaud in 10 years!
I mean I'm more confident that we'll beat them than any time in the last few years, but it's going to be very tough. Even when MSU was down/ a worse team than Michigan, they still almost always tended to give us very close games in East Lansing. I think a lot of people on here assume that just because MSU has lost a lot that we will win easily. If the game was at home I might be more sympathetic to that point of view, but Dantonio has proven several times that he can reload quicker than anyone expects.
We haven't had a road win against a top 25 team in years; in fact, nobody on our current roster can say they have one. I really fucking hope that they get their first one in that crappy stadium in EL.
I hope they get the first one in some potato infested farm field in Iowa.
but they needed a miracle to beat us last year and they lost an absolute ton of talent. I don't think Sparty will suck this year, but I will be shocked if they are a 9 win team or better. I can't see any way that they don't see a dip this year.
Yeah, I know it took a miracle, but it was a close game even before that and we had home field advantage. Also, they were able to beat a ranked OSU team in Columbus (something we haven't done in 16 years) and that was without Cook, who is the biggest piece they lost. Yes, ik OSU's coaching staff was doing drugs as evidenced by their play calling and it was raining, but still. That was a huge win and honestly it wasn't as close as the score indicated (MSU got wayyyyy more yards than OSU).
Their defense will be at least as good as it was last year. Offense should take a big step back. Likely to be a defensive battle given our strengths. I just don't see our offense being good enough to go into that tough environment and score 24+ points on a top 15 defense. Turnovers could potentially be huge.