Athlon UM Game by Game Predictions
Although speculation by analysts isn't truly worth anything, as we enter August and impatience for the season mounts, it's interesting to read game by game predictions to pass the time.
Athlon released their game by game predictions for the 2017 Michigan Football Season this week, in which 5 analysts made their picks for each game, with justifications after the table: https://athlonsports.com/college-football/michigan-football-game-game-predictions-2017
To summarize:
Games 5 out of 5 Analysts Predict UM Wins:
- vs. Cincinnati
- vs. Air Force
- @Purdue
- vs. Michigan State
- vs. Rutgers
- vs. Minnesota
- @Maryland
Games 4 out of 5 Analysts Predict UM Wins:
- vs. Florida (Arlington, Texas)
- @Indiana
Games 3 out of 5 Analysts Predict UM Wins:
- @Wisconsin
Games 1 out of 5 Analysts Predict UM Wins:
- vs. Ohio State
Games 0 out of 5 Analysts Predict UM Wins:
- @Penn State
Concur. Saquon Barkley is good. Gary and Hurst are better.
Barkley has rushed for a combined 127 yds and 0 TDS in the past two games against Michigan, I have total confidence that the defense will continue to slow him down.
I'd be completely satisfied if this iteration of the Michigan team did to Saquon Barkley what the late 90's version did to Ron Dayne, who never was able to top 100 yards against the Wolverines.
They're really going to look silly with nobody taking us here. I cannot wait for this game.
Who didn't agree with this?
Is that a real Trump tweet ? I want to believe it is, but can't be.
Yep, that's about where all of the predictions seem to be settling.
So, these analysts have staked something on their predictions, right? Like, if they're wrong, they lose their jobs, or forfeit their houses, or get killed in some horrible fashion, right? No, they haven't, and there are no consequences if they're wrong??? Well in that case, who gives a shit what they think!
If they're wrong they should have to spoon for a night with Jason Whitlock.
I think 9-3 would be a good season depending upon what the losses look like.
I'm surprised consensus is so high regarding Florida--I think the game is a tossup--and also surprised someone things we'll lose to Mike Debord in Indiana.
PSU might be overhyped, but they are very talented and beating them in Happy Valley will be really hard. I like our chances against OSU quite a bit more.
and they have QB issues
as much, if not more talent.
Definitely more, but we also were significantly better than them last year to begin with.
....and Harbaugh >>> Shark >>> McElwain.
Has McElwain jumped the shark???
/I will show myself out
the two teams we lost to, including OSU. And winning the division. And winning the Big Ten Championship.
Be honest...would you have rather had our season last year, or theirs?
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:04 AM ^
We're talking about Florida, not sure what you're reading.
Yes, I would rather have had our season than get destroyed by Alabama and Florida State, plus lose to Tenessee and Arkansas.
Fuck 9-3. That is not a good season in Harbaugh's third year. I don't care how much talent we lost. Michigan has been recruiting extremely well. There are plenty of players are can step up and become stars.
The fact that it's Harbaugh's third year doesn't have any impact on the actual age of the players. This is the least experienced team Michigan has fielded in my lifetime. You can go ahead and expect them to win anyway because we're Michigan and Harbaugh is great, and I'll go ahead and remember that we're expecting elite performances from large numbers of young players in key spots like OL, WR, and the secondary that have never demonstrated such ability on the field. Not all of these guys are going to be terrific right out of the box.
Well, this is of course true, but from another perspective I think we are all ready and expecting Harbaugh to become like Meyer, Saban, etc., and simply "reload not rebuild" at all times. With the recruiting we've done and our coaching staff, frankly that's not out of the realm of possibility...
It's not outside of the realm of possibility, but it is outside of the realm of what should be expected.
I get it being tough to replace kids, but OSU had 12 kids taken in the 2016 draft, 10 in the first 3 rounds, 2 in the top 4 picks, one kid at every position group, and nobody expected OSU to be a 9-3 or 8-4 team last year. The goal posts have been set by the most elite programs to win, send a bunch of kids to the draft (very often early, meaning less time to recruit replacements, which is not the case with UM this year), and continue to win 10+.
This is exactly my point. Harbaugh is an elite coach. Granted he and the staff had to semi-rebuild the mess that Hoke left (Meyer walked into a loaded team that Tressel left), but he was able to salvage the program into two 10-3 seasons in his first two years, which is really good considering the state of the program when he was onboarded. We're now at the point that we should be expecting to be in the Big Ten title game and anything else is just not good enough. Jim would say the same thing, by the way. We finally have a coach, staff, and players who are good enough to beat OSU. We had an extremely depleted defense in 2015 and were 100% robbed in 2016 against them. They're clearly getting closer and it has to start this season.
I don't expect Harbaugh to be in true reload mode until 2019 and the years to follow. This is a rebuild year. Harbaugh and staff coached up Hoke's good class in 2016 to where they should have been earlier. What is hurting the reload theory now is the poor recruiting classes of 2014 and 2015.
But doesn't at least a little bit of that fly out the window when you consider that one of the presumed 3-4 losses in PSU. Considering that PSU was decimated by sanctions in the 2014-2015 era you're discussing? Franklin has a one year head start on Harbaugh. And if somebody told you in 2015 that Harbaugh would be trying to catch up to PSU in terms of preseason national title expectations in 2017 you'd laugh them out of the building.
Also, for the record, I think we beat PSU this year on the field, where it counts. I'm talking only about "expectations". I just don't think it's "unreasonable" to expect better than 8-4 9-3 at this point, regardless of the talent lost from last years squad.
Looking further into it I see PSU had recruited on the level/better than UM those 2 years (HOW?!?!?!?!) and I shed tears remembering some dark times
Agreed. And to top it off, assuming that the 3 losses in 9-3 season are 3 of our 4 big games, I wouldn't say that's a good season. We need to start winning the big games and especially big road games. Give me 2 wins min of the 4 big games and we are in the good category. Let one of them be OSU and i'm even happier.
If we can just beat OSU. We have them at home and this young team will have lot of experience by the final game.
As has been noted previously, even Meyer and Saban have had challenges with young teams. Let's not pretend those guys have never had a "down" year. Meyer was 9-4 his third year at Florida. He stepped into an amazing roster at OSU, and last year was his first with a young team--his fifth year as head coach--and every single player on last year's team was one he recruited and coached.
The great Nick Saban went 8-5 his third year at LSU, and 9-3 his fifth year. He went 10-3 his fourth year at 'Bama.
Let's all stop pretending that 9-3 in your third season with a roster that's been blown-up by attrition and poor prior rectruiting is a terrible year or that there is a single coach in history who has avoided that type of season in similar circumstances.
Starting in 2018, I'll jump right in with you if Harbaugh keeps finishing second in the B1G and missing the playoff. But it's ridiculous to expect that this year.
Harbaugh took over a 5-7 team that had no player development for four years. He went 10-3 two years in a row. That is way ahead of schedule. Not counting the transition class, Harbaugh won't even have his own juniors until next year and his own seniors until 2019.
If Harbaugh can go 9-3 and win an "easy" bowl game for another 10-3 season, he will be doing great. Brandon Peters, who probably won't start until next year, will be the first QB at Michigan who was recruited by Harbaugh.
He hasn't even started his own QB yet and people in the media are acting like this is a "put up or shut up" year.
Fucking idiots...
With the turnover, but I agree that our floor should be 9 games this year. Harbaugh and his teams never shoot for the floor. I hope your blunt optimism is correct - we haven't seen highly rated youngsters like this on campus in these numbers for a while.
...and people think that there won't be "Fire Harbaugh" talk after this season. Yeah, RIGHT!
Is as played out as your avatar. Anyone saying "Fire Harbaugh" should be jettisoned into the sun.
Or Columbus or East Landfill!
I'm with you on this one. I don't care what you think of Franklin or PSU's talent, they beat OSU last year likely entirely because it was in happy valley. That's no place to take lightly. Remember Iowa? A loss that happened likely because that stadium blows balls.
Well we beat OSU in the 'Shoe, we just couldn't beat OSU AND the refs combined.
For me, the only way 9-3 could be called good is if the losses include FL, @Camp Randall and something like an all-youth-mistakes-happen-at-critical-times loss to MN, but Ws vs. OH and @Happy Valley give UM the East title.
There are plenty of youthful questions that will make it difficult, but there are youthful teams that overcome their challenges with elite recruiting and elite coaching.
Osu's defense is way way way way better than Penn State's. We should crush Penn State. Wisconsin should be a tougher game than Penn State. Penn State had a very weak defense last year and they lost both DE's and there best DB is out for the year injured. If our defense can't keep them under forty than yes we can lose, but we will score a lot of points on them and so will everyone else with a decent offense. If anyone is being way overvalued in the country it is Penn State because they have a shit defense. As far as I am concerned, by the end of the year they will be a non factor.
Seriously. Did nobody actually watch that game?
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"Yes, but Penn State had a lot of injuries at linebacker in that game. That's why they only scored 10 points."
xoxoxo,
Morons