Athlon Sports puts Michigan at #4 in preseason rankings
I'm thinking that it's a bit high considering the losses on defense but it is always nice to see national writers think highly of UM
Ohio State No. 4, Notre Dame at No. 9, Penn State at No. 14, Michigan State at No. 16 and Wisconsin at No. 19
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/top-25-college-football-rankings-2019
Lots of QB turnover in this list of ranked opponents. Wisconsin will be very interesting - difficult to properly account for a (most likely) true freshman starting QB.
You overestimate just how hard it is to hand the ball off to Jonathan Taylor.
offense looks great on paper (receivers, line and QB) and hope it can live to that potential - but #4 seems high by about 5-10 slots given what we lost on defense and the fact that it IS an offensive transition. As others said hope we are #4 (or higher) at the END of the season vs June....
#4 seems way too high for a team / coach that still hasn't won in November and has laid eggs in the last two bowl games. Believe me, I hope to goodness that we end up top 5. That would be one incredible season and would most likely mean that we finally beat OSU. Go Blue!!!
Last three bowl games.
A Harbaugh team will never finish #4 or make the playoff until it can get better instead of worse as the season goes on. I don't see that this year any more than the last 4.
Depth is needed to be strong deep into the season. Those pretenders at 5-0 often wilt not because of who they are playing but by game 6 their 5th year free safety is out with an injury and the defense is shuffling to make up for a red shirt freshman.
Against South Caroline two years ago, Michigan started its #2, #3, #5, #7 and #9 best offensive lineman with two of the injuries coming the week before the game. When USC figured out what little the lineman could do their defense knew what to expect. Fumble near the end of the game was most embarasing.
Against Florida last year, 7 starters out by half time due to NFL prep and injury. Maybe Mattison left because Harbaugh wouldn't give him scholarships for defensive lineman depth.
Maybe someday soon we will have great depth and few injuries.
Don't Speak the Truth. You will get negged.
OSU #5
Yup, sorry about that one.
You missed the Fightin' Frosts at #17 too. That seems a tad optimistic.
#4? But we don't even have a basketball coach yet!
We do. JH Welcome home!!!!
JH... welcome home??? I feel like we've done this before!
If so then someone will surely develop a user name of "Howard's Lef..."
I would trade the last few years of a stone solid suffocating defense (minus against OSU) for a more pliable unit that can force turnovers more consistently and make big stops. When was the last time we won or were even with OSU in turnovers for The Game? I would bet 2011 was the last time and even that might have been even
*Ohio St. at No. 5
But yeah, this ranking seems extremely optimistic. Not that it can't be done mind you, just that it's a tall order considering the losses on defense and the fact that we're breaking in a new offensive system this year.
Here's hoping that #SpeedInSpace is all that we've been hoping for and more!
I don't understand how we always get ranked so high. I was in middle school the last time we won the big ten. This summer is my HS 10 year reunion...
The struggle is "real"
Real long LOL
I sure hope they are #4 at the end of the season. Feels like this team should be closer to 10 than 5, but either way, beat OSU.
Yup.
Beat OSU and win the B1G this year and I couldn't care less what our ranking is. Playoff is all a popularity contest with the committee anyways. Conference championship is the only thing for which we fully control our own destiny.
I would rather be #99.
If we had one more each of NT, CB, SDE / 3T, and OT, I may be inclined to agree with this. But even though I have hopes at all of those positions (except NT), I think we are probably going to take a signifigant step back on Defense. And even if we just take a step bad to "Top-15," I am still too damn gunshy to think that our offense will compensate.
I'm with you on NT, 3T, and CB, but the others should be fine.
Hutchinson at SDE. Paye is slated to be at WDE but can play both. With Vilain and Danna they have enough guys to rotate around.
OT would be nice to have a known 4th guy in case and maybe have a more solid RT lined up, but there's still 3 guys who should be functional at 2 spots.
This is not a preseason ranking of teams going into the season. Instead, this ranking takes into account where we project teams to finish after the national championship in January.
Not a preseason poll. Expectations of where teams will end up at the end of the season.
So they expect us to get beat in the CFP semifinals like just about every B10 team that makes the playoffs. Frankly, I’d be fine with that.
Incorrect, finishing #4 would likely mean a NY6 Bowl win. Unless we were to lose very close in the playoffs.
How is this any different than any other preseason ranking?
Michigan expected to finish ahead of OSU??!!! Now that is funny.
Prove it to me, This is the same as the past 4 years
I've learned something in following CFB for 30 years. If you don't have a powerful OL and DL, you're going to falter. I can remember years when UM had superstars on offense, but poor lines, or rebuilding lines, and sputtered, despite high rankings. 1995 comes to mind. So many playmakers. Returning skill players are glamorous and attention-getting. But without solid lines, it's bound to disappoint.
Currently, we have no stars at DT or OT, and relatively little hope that anyone is going to burst out as a star. I'm afraid that #4 is a bit high. Maybe #12. Perhaps I'm a dinosaur, and it's easier to compensate for poor lines than it used to be. Then again the two teams who've dominated college football for the last 5 years have tended to have a great line on at least one side of the ball, often 2, with Bama.
I've seen this story of hope too many times, including last year. ND and OSU both took full advantage of our weak tackles. And our lack of pressure from the DT spot killed us against statue of liberty Haskins.
Hopelessly hoping.
The OL has 2 bonafide NFL players in Bredeson and Ruiz. Stars? No. But certainly the OL is one of the strengths of this team.
The defense backfield cost us the South Bend game and the OSU game was a disaster. Both offense and defense cost that game. We were back in at half time.
Cesar Ruiz will likely enter the draft after this season. I don't think he cares whether you think he is a "star".
Need a year that combines a great O and D. Not feeling it in May. You would think in year 5 this wouldn't be the situation. Maybe we get surprised.
That's optimistic of them!
So all Athlon is saying is that they expect Michigan to beat OSU. I think most of us would favor Michigan in every game except OSU, and a good portion of that hesitation is just from the scarring caused by past games. Even the B1G title game will be a situation where M is favored, especially after an OSU win.
#4 means a loss in CFP semis. I'd be happier than a Sparty who just found a free couch on the side of the road.
It's not, "we" it's a sports publication. So many Michigan fans try so hard to squash any positive news or predictions. It's sad that being BPONE is worn as some sort of (lame ass) badge of accomplishment.
Add one more item to MGoBlog poster/commenter maxim's:
"Our preseason ranking is too high given turnover on offense and/or defense, in addition to our inability to beat OSU/MSU on the regular."
Sits nicely with "all weight gain/weight loss is good weight gain/weight loss" and "coaching staff had cooled on him in recent months".
I think Harbaugh has the most balanced team he has had in his tenure at Meechigan. You heard it here first, Jimmy gets over the hump and wins his first big ten title. Still drops one to a rival, but the conference chaos works out in UofM's favor. GO BLUE!
Iowa is #18, Nebraska #17 as well
Lol. These preseason polls on my team never fail.
Fully prepared for a soul-crushing, heart-breaking loss to OSU yet again this year. Either that or getting beat by 3-4 TDs again.
Not getting fooled anymore. Until I see it happen with my own two eyes, that game is an automatic loss. Even if we came in 11-0 and they were 0-11, I’d still be convinced that we’d find a way to lose.
15 years ago those would have been fighting words but, of course 15 years ago, the situation was entirely different. I want to laugh at those "morons" for naming Day - with no major college HC experience - as the successor to Urban Liar but I was also laughing hard when they named some small college HC (Youngstown State) named Jim Tressel as the successor to Cooper. Nope, like you, I want to see results first. I've had by heart torn out so many times now I've lost count. Last year I honestly thought we were on the way to the playoffs after we smoked OSU. I believe we were a 5 or 6 point favorite. That game almost did me in.
How bad has it been ? Tressel and Meyer were a combined 16-1 against us. Thank God for Fickell in 2011. Like you, I want to see it happen with my own two eyes.
Michigan at #4 seems high, not so much because of the offense but because it really is a defense with some holes. Not necessarily huge ones that can't be filled, but in the top 5 you need to either have an insanely good part of your team or top-notch across the board. I'm not sure that applies to UM this year.
Otherwise, seems about right. OSU is top 5 until proven otherwise.
I'm always a bit surprised when MSU pops up on lists like this. 3 years ago they went 1-3 in 1-score games and finished 3-9, 2 years ago they went 6-1 in one-score games and won 10 games, then last year they went 3-3 and finished 7-6. Like, MSU is going to play a ton of close games and if they flip heads a bunch of times they'll look good but if it's a normal distribution for close games they've been pretty mediocre for some time now. Trying to guess how that coin will flip in the preseason seems a bit difficult.
Yeah the authors note that 4 of their 6 losses were by 10 points or less (ignoring the fact that a 10 point loss is a solid beating), and say "hey, turn that offense around and they can win 9". The implication being they lost a lot of close games.
Four of their 7 wins were by 10 points or less. They had a fifth win by 11 points, to Western. By Athlon's own logic, they ended up exactly where they should have. And extending it, they could have just as likely said "hey, a modest decline in that defense could drop this team to 5 wins."