The Blue Board

what up mrider?

maybe not favored in all, but, i think in 10...doesnt mean we win all 10, but doesnt mean we lose to the 2 we r probably underdogs in...

miami oh
cent, fla
cal
uab
@msu
neb
ind
pur
@psu
ill
@wisc
um

id say we could be underdogs at msu and whisky, and favored in the rest

Not much man, haven't seen you around in a while.

I think you are dogs in the games you mentioned, and depending on how our seasons go you could easily be a sleight dog to Michigan.

I don't think it's too likely we kick Bama's ass unfortunately. But a man can hope!

I for one can't wait for the game in Columbus. This rivalry is going to be kick ass now, and that wind kind breathed wind into the rivalry once again. Plus with Hoke, and Urban doing so well off the field it should be killer.

Good that you got some relaxing time in, nothing like hanging with family.

You would think we could find someone, but I guess not. O well only 2 more years

IMO there's a good chance that the B1G title will be won by an unexpected team. Each favored team has serious deficiencies. Take Michigan, the favorite to win the B1G:

Although on the D side of the ball Michigan loses the 3 starting DL (Martin, VanBergen & Heininger), I expect the D will be solid b/c Mattison gets the most out of his players. But I expect the Michigan O to take a step back from last year and be one-dimensional: run only. Michigan has NO passing game: very few WRs (Roundtree & Gallon) and DRob cannot pass. (In fact none of the 3 QBs who took snaps in the spring practice/scrimmage completed a pass > 10 yards; every pass was a quick slant or dump-off over the middle.) DRob & Touissaint might be one of the best pair of running threats in the country, but they'll be containable by good defenses for 2 reasons:
1. (Again) no pass threat. The D can run man coverage and make DRob execute through the air, which is not his strength and, frankly, he's just not a good passing QB. So the D can load the box and prepare for the run all day.
2. The OL is thin. Omeah, Lewan & Schofield return but lost are Molk (C) and Huyge (OT). Based on Spring it appears that a walk-on (Burzynski) will be starting at LG and a true frosh (Kalis) is already the back-up RT. This OL is unproven and 1 or 2 injuries from serious trouble.

2012 looks like a year where the O will depend more on DRob & Touissaint than ever before...and thats saying a lot. Rawls stepping-up would go a long way.

Last, Michigan won't duplicate their luck from 2011 (link below).

Not going to quote that post but you are selling Michigan's passing game short IMO. I won't argue it's good because it isn't, but Gallon showed a lot last year, and Roundtree has proven he is a good route runner, if he can catch the ball he should be alright.

I also wouldn't take the Spring game results too seriously, Michigan called 6 different plays apparently, they weren't showing much.

1) I don't suppose you would believe that that was by design, eh?

2) that is not correct. Burzynski will not be starting.

3) Two 1,000 yard rushers again? Yes please.

4). I guess you and SpartanRocky will just have to lay in the weeds together and see how that shakes out.

The problem with your post is you're using the spring "game" as the primary source of your hypothesis. Denard had one series, and the projected starting OL was split among two squads. You're taking a fairly hard stance on how they'll do without having a lot of data to go on.

Edit: messed up the bullet point numbering but can't correct it on my phone.

I don't think the O will take a step back. Going into year 2 under Borges i expect Denard to be much better in the passing game which will make us more balanced than last year. If Michigan takes a step back at all this year i expect it to be on defense. Specifically in stopping the run.

So Michigan will have a legit passing threat that Ds will need to respect w their WR unit (Gallon & Roundtree) & DRob delivering the ball?

Note: I'm assuming that cases when DRob scrambles on broken plays and throws up a jump ball off of his back foot are excluded from *legit passing threat*. I'm talking about 10+ yard timing routes against zone coverage, etc.

They didn't last year really and it worked out well. Hemingway was great at timing his jumps, but wasn't much of a burner or deep threat.

Gallon and Roundtee this year are just as good as Hemingway and Gallon last year.

Good point: given Michigan's schedule, it didn't need a legit passing game. And this year's (conference) schedule is similar, so you might be right. Still without a passing game I see @Nebraska and Sparty close games.

I agree that all of those games will be close. And IMO the game vs. Bama is ... well, dumb (read: not in your best interest) because you'll be beat-up for the game the following week against AF. Although after AF you have UMass, so you should be recovered by then.... and ready for ND in week 4.

Well this seems true to me: your passing game takes a step back and your run game a step forward. My original point (which people disagree with and so remains to be seen) is that your passing game regresses enough that opposing D's don't really need to respect it thereby allowing the D to focus almost exclusively on the run, which in turn hinders your O.

NE won't lose 3 conf games this yr. NU was a let down last yr, won't happen again. Wiscy comes to Lincoln for a thrashing, along with Meatchicken & Penn is st. We will prolly lose to OSU or MSU or both, but that's it. Pelini's D is gonna be back to form & the O has a lot of fire power. T- Magic is better than y'all think, he had higher comp% & less picks than D-Rob last yr & will be Heisman ready this yr:) GBR