WoJo: Michigan has closed the gap with OSU and should be favored to win the Big 10
Bovada has us at 12-1 odds to win the NC next season, third behind Alabama and Clemson.
It’s all just numbers and notions and rankings right now, but at least we have more football evidence than a year ago. Ohio State and Michigan State will remain near the top, we’ve seen enough to say that. If there’s a notable gap between them and Michigan, no one’s seeing it or saying it anymore.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^
Heyyyyyy!
/Wojo in his high-pitched voice
January 15th, 2016 at 1:54 PM ^
HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOO HOO!
January 15th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^
While I fully admit that Michigan has come a long way and they're still going in the right direction... it hasn't even been two months since OSU whiped the floor with Michigan. Still a long way to go in my opinion. They'll get there but it won't be over night.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:50 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 9:52 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:07 AM ^
While I agree that they lost a lot and it will take time for the new players to acquaint themselves to college football, they redshirted nearly their entire, very talented 2015 class. Let the hate flow, but Urban Meyer is a great coach who makes adjustments, gets his players ready, and puts them in the the best position to win. Ohio State may drop a couple games before they get to Michigan (they play at Oklahoma and at Wisconsin), but it's going to be a tough game no matter what.
January 15th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
a tough game. No one said otherwise.
But M will be on par with OSU in 2016 due to (1) a very senior laden M two-deep, (2) OSU graduating/early entry losing a ton, (3) year 2 of Harbaugh.
January 15th, 2016 at 1:03 PM ^
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January 15th, 2016 at 1:27 PM ^
that Doc Brown is up late in his office scheming up how to SMASH the read option that Meijer ran over and over....
It is, after all, an away game. I also prefer to play as a slight underdog.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^
Nah, let's get crazy
January 15th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^
and Meyer has been there for a number of years to have his recruits/players in place. Hoping that they won't re-load is false hope, in my opinion. I think it's much more logical to be patient and wait for Michigan to get better than to hope for Ohio State to fall off and get worse.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:16 AM ^
- IF the running game steps up
- IF there's exception QB play
- IF there's good LB play
- IF the new DC does a good job
- IF the new Special Team's coordinator does a good job.
If those 'ifs' worked out for ANY team in the country wouldn't they be a pretty solid team?
Now, I'm not stupid. The 2016 Michigan team will have a lot of potential. It will have more seniors than it has seen in recent years. It will have better offensive and defensive lines than it has seen in recent years. They will also be breaking in a new QB and Defensive Coordinator. I don't have any reason to believe these areas will struggle or be detriments to the team but it's dangerous to assume that they'll be all stars right off the bat. Look at how good Rudock was at the end of the year... and look at how mediocre he looked @ Utah. Harbaugh will Harbaugh and Michigan will keep getting better. I just happen to hold the opinion that if you hope for Michigan to win a NC next year you're going to be dissappointed. @ MSU, @ OSU, and they add Iowa and Wisconsin from the other division. I'm not saying it's impossible and I'd be estatic if they proved me 'wrong'. I just prefer to be a bit more realistic and hope for a national level team in 2-3 years.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
that still makes him wild card. How's he going to perform at Michigan? How's he going to perform under Harbaugh? Will he even be the starter? Can he carry the offensive load if the running game struggles? Can he manage a game without turnovers? Can he be a leader on the offense? Will he be respected by his teammates? How does he rebound after making a mistake? How composed is he playing @MSU or @OSU?
January 15th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
What the hell? Will California sink into the ocean? I don't know. OSU and MSU are just football teams; we can beat 'em dude. I know we've lost for the last few years but we shouldn't have an inferiority complex, we've got good coaching now. Relax, it's gonna be ok.
January 15th, 2016 at 11:18 AM ^
OSU troll, perhaps? So, to follow your thread of logic, Michigan has three significant starting positions to insert new starters (only counting one linebacker because I assume someone with a sizable amount of playing time will fill here) and go through all the variables and possibilities regarding success or failure of those inserts while OSU has four or five times that and our issue is bigger? Potential talent aside...c'mon man!
January 15th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^
...no 'ifs' for an OSU team returning 6 starters?
Of course OSU will be good in November of 2016. But no team loses as many starters as they are losing with no drop off. OSU will not be as good in Nov 2016 as they were against M in 2015.
January 15th, 2016 at 4:01 PM ^
You nailed it......if that's true that and they're returning just 6 starters next year than that's huge.
Wojo is right a Michigan should be favored to win the conference NEXT YEAR (key word). It's the year after that though where I think OSU's program depth with Meyer having been their longer stands out but next year is the perfect storm for Michigan to have closed the gap.
Closing the gap isn't that big as most think. Most need to stop with the "they're are 29 points better, did you see that game, etc.........". It was one game and it doesn't mean that they're 29 points better than Michigan no more than Michigan beating Florida by 34 points means their 34 points better than the Gators.
I know it's hard to believe that after watching the way OSU movd the football with ease that but they could have played played again and it could have also been a totally different outcome. If they played the following week OSU wouldn't have been a 29 point favorite or even close to that. So the point is that can't be considered the differential between the two teams.
Instead if you take the 5 common opponents* that both team faced last year and adjusted for home field (OSU played 3 of the 5 teams at home and Michigan played 2 of the 5 at home) it works out to Ohio State was 4 points better than Michigan.
Even if it's double that at 8 points better they could easily drop 7 points worse this year and Michigan could and should be 5 points better making up the difference and then some.
*I threw out the MSU game that both teams played last year for all the oddities that came with it but it didn't matter anyway as both Michigan and OSU lost at home to the Spartans by 4 and 3 points repectively
January 15th, 2016 at 10:07 AM ^
OSU is 50-4 (!!!) over the past four seasons. We saw them win the CFP with a third-string QB. I don't know if there's a time in my life since following B1G football that they've been wanting for talent.
Meanwhile, Michigan finished 10-3. That's great improvement, and it was a transition year, and for once in far too long, MSU didn't walk all over us. But OSU did; we're still looking up at them until we no longer are.
And even when Harbaugh finishes molding the program in his image, OSU has just been too consistently successful for me to feel we'll ever be significantly favored. I more anticipate something like a second 10 Year War, with one and more often both programs vying for the conference title and even national title, and the two programs exchanging thundering hits like Rocky and Apollo.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:10 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:23 AM ^
We looked up because they had us on our backs.
The good news is, I know that ain't sitting well with Harbaugh, which means he'll do something about it. But this bluster is "little brother" butthurt and Harbaugh would probably be the first to slap some sense into you.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^
Yikes--maybe a tad bit harsh.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
Can you re-examine that name? Maybe? Carry on....
January 15th, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^
The needless vulgarity in his posts and the slightly oblivious sexism, I'm excpecting he might get to visit Bolivia soon. So over the top, leads me to wonder if he is genuinely a Michigan fan or partaking in a crude form of performance art.
January 15th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
Aaaand, I hate you already. Impressive.
January 15th, 2016 at 11:20 AM ^
Had there been Mgoblog during Cooper's era I wonder if you would say like things. The talent gap closer the first of the many years Carr owned him? Sometimes coaching and will are the necessary intangibles. I feel we have both.
January 15th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^
I grew up in the PacNW and became a Wolverine in the mid-90s, so I only remember the latter half of the Carr-Cooper era. That's still, what, 20 years? They've had down years but nothing like Michigan's 7 years of pain. Their worst drought was three years when Cooper was on his way out.
And Cooper's teams weren't slouches. Three of Carr's victories were over then-undefeated teams (which of course made them so much sweeter). Cooper's bowl record wasn't good, but he was fired for one reason -- he couldn't beat Carr. So yeah, coaching definitely matters, but I'm talking about OSU's talent. They've almost always had plenty of it. That goes double in the Meyer era. We can at best match them on talent (since they're now consistently one of the most talented squads in the the nation); it's from there that coaching matters.
But that's fine. Michigan-OSU is the most famous college rivalry in the nation (suck it, SEC) precisely because of the history. It's Michigan that's failed to hold up its end of the bargain because of its head coaches, but we fixed that problem last year. This is when the fun begins.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
Yea, the last time that they reloaded they won the national championship, so...
January 15th, 2016 at 10:12 AM ^
And by literally, you of course mean figuratively.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:16 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
You meant "figuratively".
That's a pet peeve of mine.
edit: I see someone shares my sentiment there...
January 15th, 2016 at 2:04 PM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 3:33 PM ^
I'm sorry for your loss.
January 15th, 2016 at 12:24 PM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 1:41 PM ^
Even if we beat up OSU in a down year, that doesn't mean we're ready to go toe-to-toe with Bama or Clemson.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
Something about putting a cart before a horse... or something...
January 15th, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
they "whiped" the floor .... huh /s
Go Blue!
January 15th, 2016 at 3:39 PM ^
Michigan is getting better. OSU is losing a lot of players. I can see Michigan catching up to OSU this year. If OSU had bothered to show up against Sparty instead of obsessing on Michigan, it may have beeh them playing Bama. And the result may have been different.
OSU's obsession with Michigan cost them a chance at repeating and being perceived as one of the all-time best teams ion college football. It's possible that the group that graduated and is leaving were a "once every 20 years" collection of players.
But what happened to Urbz at Florida after his "once every 20 years" group left? He developed "health problems." Meyer has shown that he is great at whipping underachieving programs with a lot of talent into shape. But he hasn't proven that he can "reload" from year to year and sustain that kind of excellence.
In other words: game on.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^
I'm not saying we aren't vastly improved from the last year(s) of the Hoke regime but I am definitely more apprehensive of these statements nowadays. After the 2011 and 2012 seasons, I just want more than 1 season of work to start saying the "we're back" things. I've fully bought into Harbaugh for sure, I just want a couple curb stomps of sparty or ohio culinary to start talking.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:46 AM ^
This is all neat and cool and stuff but until they actually do it, it's just words on paper with no meaning. Im getting tired of hearing about it, I want to watch it happen. In Harbaugh I trust will lead Michigan to the promise land.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:58 AM ^
True, but when Vegas speaks, I listen. They aren't just picking numbers from a powerball machine Their livelihood is predicated on coming up with realistic odds.
January 15th, 2016 at 10:01 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 10:10 AM ^
I hate when the odds are discussed in pre-game, etc. All it tells us is where bookmakers need folks to place money, and where your average joe is putting money. Nothing to do with probablities of a team winning, etc.
January 15th, 2016 at 9:46 AM ^
January 15th, 2016 at 9:48 AM ^
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