UM on Mike & Mike this morning

Was the prolific downvoting not feedback?

Don't sweat it. M & M talked about this yesterday, said the exact same thing. I know no one seems to respect these guys, but I think getting the national take is important. Sometimes we have an ivory tower mentality around here, but how we're perceived outside of Ann Arbor can affect how we perform (our recruits, who will coach here, etc...). 

So Mike and Mike are telling the Recruits that if you want to play some Football go to the U o M they are in need of:

Quarterbacks: Play now instead of 3 years from now.

Cornerbacks: Play now.

Wide Receivers: Play Now

The Coach is on his way. HARBAUGH doesn't get much better than that. Ask the NFL guys.

Without knowing the inner workings of the Wisky AD and football program I think the thing that shocked most people is where Bielema and Anderson ended up.  Arkansas, while in a better conference, was looked at as a lateral move.  I think most people look at Wisky to Oregon St as a step down.  It'd be different if these guys left for what most consider a more 'blue blood' program.

Wisconsin is supposedly better, yet they've had two coaches abandon the program in the last three years.

Aside from some very early coaches (Frank Crawford and Langdon Lea), the only coach that voluntarily left Michigan to coach elsewhere was George Little, who left to be Wisconsin's coach and AD.

That was the part that concerned me as well.  It goes back to how it seemed like the O-line just could not get a push last year.  Still I wonder how much of this is "confirmation bias" from a prominent OSU player who would rather see his players go ANYWHERE but Michigan.  When I was at Air Force, I was used to seeing a size disparity between my team and the other one and the contrast was especially pronounced against Notre Dame, but I have a hard time believing there was that great of a difference between two well known power five schools that have recruited similar types of players.

This is mostly CC saying what he wants to be true and piling on in general.  We're still young on the O-Line, including a true freshman left tackle.  By next year Michigan will have a more mature roster, including the addition of Peppers and a few others, and will look considerably bigger.

Michigan was not good in 2014.  So the talking heads in the media just assume that Michigan will be bad in 2015 and beyond.  And they then proceed to have a "debate" about whether Michigan or Wisconsin is the better program. 

This is straight out recency bias.  Same thing happens with lazy and uninformed talking heads opining on the economy or the stock market.

In 2014 the two deep was really young,  the coaching was sub-standard, the QB play was really bad.

I know, you have heard all of that before.  But here is the thing...

All three of these will change for the better in 2015 and beyond. 

Nonetheless, the talking heads just predict the future by drawing a straight trend line from 2014.  That is lazy and uninformed. 

The light at the end of the tunnel is a lot closer than bloviators on ESPN think. 

Is Michigan close to being a 2015 playoff team?  No.  There will be no Malzahn at Auburn type turn around in 2015.  But Michigan is a lot closer to being a 9 to 10 win team in 2015 that most believe. 

Does not mean it will happen.  But three huge factors that lead to the poor 2014 result--coaching, youth, and QB position--are all going to be much better in 2015.  So don't be overly surprised if it does happen. 

It is also very possibe that the D will be better (from solid/good to great), given how Peppers can be a shut down corner, which completely changes and improves the rest of the D.

And let me preemt those who will say that 2015 looks bad too because Shane Morris is terrrible.

In order for Michigan to be a much better team in 2015, Morris does not have to be the next Tom Brady.  He just needs to be average. I can certainly see Morris being an average QB in 2015, and certainly much better than the 2014 performance from Devin Gardner.

Better coaching only needs to get Morris to the decent level where the QB position is not a turn over machine, does not hold the ball too long when the pocket collapses, and does not constantly fail to see a wide open Jake Butt (or whichever 2nd or 3rd receiver option) waiving has hands past the first down marker. 

(BTW, I am a big Devin Gardner fan.  He is a fighter and a very talented athlete. But for a lot of reasons--coaching, wrong system for his talents, injuries, three systems in 4 years, no one emerged to replace Gallon, o-line improving but still a work in progress, etc.-- he was not good at all in 2014.  Regardless, for a million reasons I am still a huge DG fan.).

 What's Tracy Williams up do these days?