AP Top 25 Discussion with Rece Davis - Very Optimistic on Wolverines

Submitted by WindyCityWolverine on

Ralph Russo sits down with Rece Davis to discuss AP Top 25. 

He brings up Michigan, knowing that Rece had us at #7 in the ESPN poll. 

Rece says what most of us know....."They're just going to be filthy on Defense:"

And goes on to say;

"I think their Offense will take a significant step forward."

You can skip to the 26:27 mark of the podcast for his comments. 

 

The AP Top 25 College Football Podcast is with @ESPN_ReceDavis ,GameDay host and poll voter on how he put his ballot together.

Listen on #PodcastOneSportsNet and @ApplePodcasts. https://t.co/gukVMFmu8n

And the Top 25 is out:https://t.co/04bi9vr0Xb pic.twitter.com/KWJPS9LWSn

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) August 20, 2018

Stringer Bell

August 21st, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^

It's nice when a prominent media member looks beyond the "hurr durr 8-5 4th place in the East" nonsense and actually recognizes that last year we were an incredibly young and inexperienced team that suffered injuries to our 2 best QBs and our best WR.  Anyone doubting that we'll have a great team this year just has their heads firmly lodged up their keisters.

Hab

August 21st, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^

When you talk about "pre-injury" Speight, you really need to be talking about the time before the Iowa game in 2016, not before the 2017 Purdue injury.  Before that Iowa game, Speight looked fearless, stood in the pocket like he was invulnerable, had command of the field, and was making all the right decisions and throws.  He lost a mental piece of his game when he broke his collarbone.  That mental piece never got sorted out.   

Synful

August 21st, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^

I think it was a bit of mental and a lot of mechanical.  I'm convinced it never fully healed to where it was completely free of any discomfort.  His delivery seemed off ever since that nasty injury.  Prior to it, he was living up to the promise and was going to be the next great thing.

HAIL-YEA

August 21st, 2018 at 7:06 PM ^

I know he hurt his shoulder against Iowa but he didn't break his collarbone did he? He played against OSU, if he was out there with a broken collarbone Harbaugh has some explaining to do.

That being said, this blog has some serious revisionist history regarding Speight, he had 3 good games against trash opponents UCF, Illinois, and Maryland and thats it. He was decent against MSU but he still threw a pick in the 3rd that caused Harbaugh to turtle the 2nd half. The rest of his career was crap, that's not me being harsh it's just what it was. Go rewatch the first few drives of that Rutgers game before Peppers busted it open with a 70 yard run. He was 6-13 for 100 yards in a 78-0 game. Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, OSU, FSU, Florida, Purdue.. he was shit in all those games.

TrueBlue2003

August 22nd, 2018 at 1:10 AM ^

Ehhh, Speight looked real shaky and a big part of that was the WRs and OL but go back and read the first 4 UFRs.  He was missing a lot of wide open throws for some reason.

I think the post to which you responded was referring to JOK as the "second" QB since he did replace Speight.

Peters gets an INC here because he played against Rutgers, Minn and Maryland.  And it's not like he even did anyting in those games. He throw 13 times for 56 yards against Minn!  Just handed the ball off.

He had a couple nice plays against Wisconsin, got hurt and then was awful against South Carolina.  Tough to say much of anything but certainly can't say definitively that he was serviceable.

That said, should be a big upgrade this year whomever it is.  And the WRs should be a lot better. The big question is will the WRs have time to get open and will the QBs have time to throw it to them.

I could not be more confident in all other aspects of the game besides pass pro.

stephenrjking

August 21st, 2018 at 4:16 PM ^

Speight would have performed better than what we wound up with, and likely produces wins against MSU and OSU even with the yips he appeared to have before his injury. 

There's a larger question about who you would consider our "second QB" since that obviously changed during the year; by the OSU game, O'Korn was obviously the third choice. 

maizenbluenc

August 22nd, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^

Sometimes I wonder if the super strength of our defense actually hurts our young developing offense because they never get a chance to develop some level of timing and confidence in practice.

I am really interested to see what the increased emphasis on coaching does - particularly for the receiving corps - this year.

Maize N' Ute

August 21st, 2018 at 4:27 PM ^

I wish we can just forget 2017-18 football year so we stop making up all these excuses for the teams "blah" season.  Harbaugh is tasked with putting together a competent team every year.  Clearly, Harbaugh wasn't up to par when it came to the offensive side.  Poor QB play, horrendous pass block and a confusing play calling doomed this team.

I believe Harbaugh has corrected his mistakes and will have a Top 40 offense this year to go with a Top 3 defense.

Blue from Ohio

August 21st, 2018 at 7:50 PM ^

I completely agree.  In 2015, 2016, and 2017, Andrew Luck wasn't walking through that door.  Harbaugh won 10 games in 2015 and 2016 with average at best QB play.  Now he may have his Andrew Luck in Patterson.  How about we wait to condemn him until we see what he does with a legitimate top QB.  Just an honest question for those questioning Harbaugh after his first few years, if you feel he underwhelmed, what coach do you think we should have brought in that would have done better?  Honest question.

smwilliams

August 21st, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^

And came within a JOK meltdown of beating Ohio State last year. And came within a 1-in-a-million play of beating Michigan State in 2015. And came within...

Takes a team that went 5-7 with a castoff QB from Iowa and goes 10-3 with the aforementioned fluke loss (balanced out by the fluke Minnesota win).

Goes 10-3 the following year, losing those 3 games by 5 points and all three of those turning on one play.

Loses 17-18 starters and goes 8-5 while cycling through 3 different QBs due to injury and general incompetence.

Meanwhile, Jimbo Fisher goes 7-6 after his starting QB gets injured, in a weaker conference, and gets more than $50 million from Texas A&M.

evenyoubrutus

August 21st, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^

Is there a millennial around here who would be kind enough to post a link to directly download the podcast? I have android so I can't figure out the iTunes thing.

WolverineHistorian

August 21st, 2018 at 5:50 PM ^

I always liked Rece because during highlight breaks on ESPN, he almost always refers to us as Meeeeechigan ala Bob Ufer.  

I hope he's right that we will take that step forward.  But that schedule still worries the hell out of me.  

Z

August 22nd, 2018 at 1:08 AM ^

Yeah, so generalizations about strength of schedule pre season have always bothered me.  Every year, everyone is surprised about some team that is better than expected or vise versa.  How much do we really know about strength of schedule?  Was MSU Supposed to win 10 games last year?  3 games the year before?

 

not trying to make a big thing out of it, just thinking about something that has bugged me