Mid Season Reality vs. Expectations

I was expecting a 9-3 season and now that would be a disappointment.

I agree about Warriner. I expected an improvement, but I thought it would be incremental. This seems like a whole different group of players than what we saw in the bowl game. 

On Warrrriiiiinnnneeeerrrr - yes, huge impact but you might be underestimating the impact of Greg Mattison to our defense when he hopped aboard the Hoke train.

Warriner for sure has had a tremendous impact, but let's not forget what the defense looked like prior to Mattison.

Your biggest question mark from a team that couldn't block, couldn't pass, etc was the punting situation?

I expected the team to be good and it is. I had hoped that they would be undefeated, but having one loss after ND, Wisconsin, and MSU is not a surprise. 

I hoped that the OL would be better than it was at the beginning of the season; I expected that I might be wrong and boy was I ever. I hoped for constant improvement through the year, but expected them to just be ok and stay that way, and instead they've improved markedly through the season. I certainly did not expect Runyan and JBB to remain the starting tackles after ND, and yet the staff stuck by them and it is paying off in spades.

I expected Shea to be less consistent but to have considerably bigger stats. 

I expected our DL to be better. I expected our safeties to be worse. I guess K Hudson is exactly what I've thought he would be. 

I expected Notre Dame to be worse than they are, but for our entire slate of B1G opponents to be better than they have so far proven to be. I did not expect to be optimistic about the OSU game at this point of the season, and yet here we are. (optimism subject to change; I've been optimistic about PSU too, but now it's game week and I hear things like "great defensive line" and see highlights of McSorely and Hamler making big plays and the terror is creeping back in, as it will for The Game).

I expected the blue end zones to look great, and they do. I expected the rain in the MSU game forecast to be a major problem, and it was; I expected it to make the game a real a tossup, and instead we throttled them. 

I did not expect Michigan and Indiana to be the only two teams in the East that aren't moral embarrassments.

Our team is actually about what I expected. I was worried about the tackles after ND but seems they are as good as we could have hoped.

Where my expectations were really off was the strength of the B10. PSU is about what I thought, but Wisco I thought was a legit top 5, MSU is worse than expected, and OSU eh, still hard to peg except their defense seems legitimately bad.

Well, preseason I had them pegged at 8-4 with losses to ND, MSU, Penn St, and OSU. I suppose it could still end up pretty close to that, but predicting that now would require a heavy dose of pessimism.

The team is definitely better than I expected. That's largely due to the emergence of the best rushing offense we've put out in many years. I almost forgot what it was like to watch Michigan successfully win games against tough opponents by grinding them down on the ground. The passing game is also better than expected, mostly because we made a huge leap in pass protection. I'd have told you to take off the maize glasses if you predicted the blocking to be this great before the season started.

On the flip side, we have also benefited from our schedule being a touch easier than was predicted prior to the season. In fairness, many posters predicted that MSU and PSU were way overrated coming into the season. However, injuries to Wisconsin and MSU have made them less impressive wins than one may have predicted. OSU also has some major flaws that weren't obvious before the season started. Penn State is probably right where many predicted...lots of talent but clear flaws and coaching blunders abound.

Overall, mid-season reality >> expectations, which is always nice. 

Was not expecting Runyan to be good. Maybe average. And after the Notre Dame game I was incredibly pessimistic. But Runyan is flat out good.

Up, overall. Based on expectations:

Offensive line: better (excising ND game - thought we were dead after that game)

Shea: more mobile, less gunslinger than expected. Overall performance about right. MOXIE. 

Higdon: Wow, love the play. Wasn’t high on him but turning into a guy to talk about in 10 years.

DPJ: playing well, throw him the ball more, Shea!

Defense: excellent, better than expected, especially D-line depth. 

Gary: clearly injured but, like Peppers, wish we had more time. 

Bush: Damn, amazing LB and leader. Pretty close to locking up all-time-favorite-M-team-in-my-life status. 

Winovich: knew he was a beast, love him taking over for Gary when out. Not a one trick pony. 

UCHE: Damn. Winovich heir apparent?

Metellus: Favorite safety since mid 00s (sorry more fun than Kovacs/still love Kovacs)

Coaching: clearly improved in many facets on offense and coming together. Wouldn’t trade the D staff for anyone, Bama included. 

Website: I post less and more mainstream dweebs but still better than many give credit. Brian’s writing on point this year. Miss Ace. Seth has become a great analyst (in addition to his biz acumen), and the rest of the gang does a great job with the rest. 

I think you missed an "r" and an "n" in Ed's name. 

My expectations were/are 100% correct. I expected it to be an interesting and entertaining year...it has been all of that. Well, okay, I did not expect the o-line to progress this well. And if I were the opposition I would demand a DNA test on Metellus...is that really the same guy???

My expectations were/are 100% correct. I expected it to be an interesting and entertaining year...it has been all of that. Well, okay, I did not expect the o-line to progress this well. And if I were the opposition I would demand a DNA test on Metellus...is that really the same guy???

I was expecting 11-1, and even posted that after the Nd loss.  Still expect that.  I expect to win the big championship go to the playoff and not win it all.  

No one's going to mention Bench Mason a.k.a. Hammering Panda 2.0?

So far I have been pleasantly surprised.  Despite quite a setback from the interior line last year and Gary being injured much of the year, the defense has been great.  The safety play seems much improved and the LBs are great.  Shea was what we hoped he'd be so far.  The WRs have incrementally improved.  The RBs are what we expected.  And, the o-line is much better than I expected.  At the beginning I hoped to beat MSU and split with PSU & OSU.  If we beat ND or Wiscy I saw that as icing on the cake.  Well, so far we beat MSU and have some icing.  We have the chance still to not only split with PSU & OSU, but to sweep.  I still think a B1G championship is a long shot because winning in Columbus won't be easy, but it looks more likely than I expected before the season.  Although despite Haskins being way better than I expected, OSU's run game and defense is not as strong as I expected as well, so overall they are more beatable than I would have thought.  And, although PSU won't be an easy win I think a loss would be a disappointment now.

My expectation was that this team, and we fans, were going to enjoy this year a heck of a lot more than last year. Check.

My hope was that the leadership would create a great team attitude that would especially help the offensive line. Check.

My belief was that the team would have the best chance for a special season if they lost to Notre Dame in game 1. Check.

And I fully believed that the upset special would be in full effect in Columbus on Nov 24th, and now that's the only thing that really scares me.

I tend toward optimism entering every season so the record is pretty close to what I expected but the way the team has gone about getting there has been a pleasant surprise. 

The strength and conditioning has been a major upgrade with UM consistently being the stronger team down the stretch even against roid rage stormtrooper U. 

The Oline has obviously exceeded expectations but so has the depth of the Dline (Kemp and Paye), the play of Ben Mason , the much maligned in 2017 safeties and unheralded guys like Uche and Gil.  That's a lot of exceeding expectations....so well done coaches and players. 

Re. K. Hudson this is the game where he needs to really make his mark. Intelligent and violent play from the Viper is critical to counter McSorley. 

Re. Gentry...I'm not so certain about his blocking improvements. After watching him get crumbled a couple of times in the MSU game I think he still has a ways to go...but maybe (hopefully) that was an anomaly. 

I was expecting a national title and we are right on track assuming CFP SEC-loving fucks don’t figure out how to fuck us over.  

Expectations:  we’ll always be a decent team (8-5 or better) under Harbaugh.  I think my preseason prediction was 9-3

Reality:  better than my expectations perhaps

I was very excited over the summer and really thought maybe THIS team would finally put it all together.  After the ND game, I walked around in a funk for 24 hours mumbling, "We're not Michigan anymore, we're just Indiana." (  So the way the team has rallied and come chugging back is heartening.  I feel like we have turned a corner in the Harbaugh era.  Even if we don't achieve all our goal this year, we will.  I feel very confident of it.

I think we are remiss if we overlook Don Brown here.