ND 24, Michigan 17

[iam416]

It's time for Harbaugh to HARBAUGH!!!!!

[AlabamAlum]

Afterwards, Brian Kelly will be so pissed he will order random students to leap off the scissor lift like Thusla Doom from Conan the Barbarian:

https://youtu.be/P2EQ0FlVks4

[Jeff Buchanan]

Harbaugh isn't suiting up .......... against ND, M is only going to be as good as the big boys up front play.

TBH, I can't think of a lot of mistakes in either game prep or in game play calling that Harbaugh has made. Out of the gate v. osu, the team looked very well prepared. Same v. Usc in the bowl game. In both those games though, the offense, as anticipated, faltered. My view is that JH did about as well as he could given the hand he was dealt in 2018.

JH addressed four areas in the off season: S&C, the OL, QB play and the receivers. I'd say this is the kind of thing you want your CEO to be doing.....providing the resources and creating the circumstances to succeed. Finding a way to win game to game is pretty much up to the players..... I know you know this so sorry for nit-picking.

[AlabamAlum]

Jeff, honestly, I was just trying to manufacture a segue to equate Brian Kelly to Thusla Doom and post that clip of him having the girl jump off the cliff to her death.

[THE_WIZARD_]

HARBAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hack]

Harbaugh isn't suiting up .......... against ND, M is only going to be as good as the big boys up front play.

TBH, I can't think of a lot of mistakes in either game prep or in game play calling that Harbaugh has made. Out of the gate v. osu, the team looked very well prepared. Same v. Usc in the bowl game. In both those games though, the offense, as anticipated, faltered. My view is that JH did about as well as he could given the hand he was dealt in 2018.

JH addressed four areas in the off season: S&C, the OL, QB play and the receivers. I'd say this is the kind of thing you want your CEO to be doing.....providing the resources and creating the circumstances to succeed. Finding a way to win game to game is pretty much up to the players..... I know you know this so sorry for nit-picking.

Going Air Coryell in a torrential downpour with JO'K as your QB was a criminal offense. I know you are referring to last year only, but passing out of the end zone first half of the '16 game against OSU was also an awful decision. Meyer sat on the ball the whole damn first half. Didn't manufacture opportunities when they weren't there.

Not that these are TERRIBLE mistakes. Sometimes the game plan just isn't right, or you screw up in the moment. Everybody's human. The '16/OSU errors would have been long forgotten by now without the other crap that went on in that game that Harbaugh could not control.

[Hannibal]

I think that this game will have more points than people are expecting. Because of turnovers putting the offenses on short fields. Patterson will turn it over at least a couple of times. His Ole Miss tape looks like Tate Forcier 2.0.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

Martin John will be most displeased.

[Detroit Dan]

I'm with Buchanan. The offense last year was bad, not the play calling. Harbaugh addressed this in the off season.

The passing game in particular was horrible. So 2 of 3 QBs are off the team, along with several of the primary receivers. I think this will work -- the problem was the personnel more than the coaching. But we'll see. It's a team game, and all positions of the offense will have to be better.

It occurs to me that people may underestimate Harbaugh based on one sub-par year. The offense was awesome in 2016, until near the end of the season. Harbaugh's strength is that he adapts to the situation, and he may have the offense back in awesome form this year, now that he's had a chance to get a stable of talented QBs and time to develop receivers and linemen.

We'll see of course. But it's possible Harbaugh's Michigan will leapfrog Dantonio's MSU, Franklin's PSU, and Chryst's UW. These are all good coaches but somewhat pale in comparison to Harbaugh. Meyer is the only one with the experience to match Harbaugh.

[Tom W]

The problem with laying the blame for last year's pathetic offense on the players is that Harbaugh is the one that was responsible for recruiting these guys, training them, and putting them on the field. Michigan is at least competitive for most of the top players coming out of high school each year, so why should O'Korn and Peters be cluelessly tossing game killing picks in November and bowl games?

[WM Wolverine]

Last seasons team was incredibly young, tons of underclassman in the 2 deep... Big misses at QB, OL in recruiting greatly affected the on field performance. JOK was a transfer because the talent at QB was terrible. Returning tons of players in the 2-deep will help....

With an average to good OL they could've kept Speight healthy with time for his receivers to get open. If he plays near his '17 level, 2-4 of those losses could've easily been wins.

Questions on the offensive line are still there but they are far deeper and more experienced.

[Jeff Buchanan]

2017 is an entirely different year with respect to the offense if Grant Newsome is at left tackle and Wilton Speight plays to his potential for the entire season. I can account for three more wins and an 11-2 season if that happens (MSU, osu, Usc) because M would have had a credible passing threat that DCs had to contend with. Making M one-dimensional was an easy task for opposing coaches and once that was assured in-game, Ss and LBs - a total of 7 or more helmets - against a wholly confused OL and blocking TEs and RBs, had free runs to the QB.

On offense, Harbaugh and Drevno own three fuck-ups:

(1) How they adjusted the offense for Speight's absence after game 3 was not good. This is where, IMO and probably not widely shared, the talent was there and it was poorly coached, e.g., see Mark Dantonio's comment after the MSU's win in the rain storm in AA. Also see teams with little to no experience on the offense compared to M that did overcome this particular deficit. I'll give them a partial pass based on experience but that's why these guys are paid millions so, this one can't be completely waived.

(2) Drevno and Frey coaching the OL was a complete disaster. This one is on Harbaugh. He misjudged the potential player/coaching/team chemistry issues that have been well documented via player and coach comments immediately following the season and in the aftermath of Drevno's and Frey's departures. I will bet Frey is awesome at FSU and Drevno will recover at some point after his stint with USC. Both coaches have excellent track records pre-M.

(3) No dedicated receivers coach. Proof of that is the what can only be described as shitty route running and connection with QBs by all the receivers, inside and outside. You did not have to be a coach or a player to see how bad this was. Add the hiring of Jim McElwain in the off-season as further proof that at least Harbuagh recognized this glaring problem.

So, pretty easy to see why M lost 5 games in 2017, 3 of them v. what would turn out to be top 15 teams, while looking below average v. teams that barely had a pulse e.g., IU ans Usc. The encouraging thing is that in retrospect, all these issues at least appear to have been addressed. I'm not buying any of the pre-season, hyped tid-bits offered by M football observers, regardless of the trustworthiness of the source, that M's offense will be awesome in 2018 behind, presumably, Shea Patterson and the new scheme the coaches have developed around his skill set. I say this because, I don't think a 2017 game was played with either a pre or post game exclamation that practice went really well or O'Korn looked good in practice. The offense was uniformly terrible after Speight went down and not that great when he was healthy before that. That should provide a dose of healthy skepticism for the predictions about the 2018 offense. I think it will be better than 2017, not hard at all, but significantly better? I don't know yet. In the early going, it's going to look a bit rough.

As for predictions v. ND, I like Hannibal's comment that more points will be scored than most think due to first game jitters on both sides, turning the ball over on short fields. I think it's a stretch, knowing what we know about Patterson, that he won't turn the ball over on poorly or ill-considered throws trying to keep a drive alive. Winbush, assuming he starts, is a 50% completion rate passer. Against Brown's pressure defense and against M's excellent DBs (credit Zorich), he'll turn the ball over too. Remains to be seen but I don't think Kelly's and OC Chip Long's offense is going to look a bit like it did in 2017 where Winbush QB'd an offense with a lot of power/IZ and a taste of what Long did at Memphis or before that at ASU - a triple threat RPO and a ton of Rick Leach verticals. We'll likely see a lot more of Chip Long's Memphis offense in 2018 because that's what everyone is doing. ND has the WRs to take the top off any defense, including M's so, the verts are going to be a problem if Winbush actually connects repeatedly on them. Winbush ran a bunch of naked bootlegs in 2017 on those throws to neutralize pressure defenses like Brown runs. You can look for that approach by Long v. M early to test how Brown is going to defend that type of play. I'd also expect to see a lot more RPO and less IZ/power from Winbush again because that's what everyone is doing in 2018 with their offenses and ND has untested RBs to start the season.

Maybe my original prediction (34/27, M) will play out and maybe it won't and a lower score like my second prediction (28/17, M) will. My take is that this is going to be a Chip Long v. Don Brown contest, the outcome of which will determine who wins.

[Whitley]

I think the O-Line is going to be solid. The interior guys should be good and that will allow Patterson to step up into the pocket. His ability to scramble should mitigate any line screw ups a touch. The key is going to get solid (not great) play from the tackles. If that happens---I like the ground game here against ND.

I think the offense is going to be solid not great (prolly C+/B- range) and the defense takes a step up from last year and might be as good as it was 2 years ago.

ND is not a joke and a win by Michigan (in South Bend no less) would ease a lot of nerves. I don't think that either team is going to blow the other one out.Just does not happen in this rivalry.

Michigan 24 Notre Dame 17

[WingsFan]

There have been a few blowouts lately, last game was 37-0 But not this game.

My prediction is based on a new QB with a new system (whatever that might be) and young inexperienced WRs, along with probable poor O-line play will have multiple turnovers.

I think people might really see how bad we will miss Mo Hurst early on the D run game. Last be not least.... Road game vs top 25 teams... still waiting for a win since 2006 (?) Harbaugh has yet to win even one, has to happen sometime.... I guess.

[Detroit Dan]

I agree with most everything Jeff said. Harbaugh deserves blame for last year. Fortunately, it looks like he acknowledged the mistakes and took corrective measures.

I'll go against the grain and predict a much stronger Michigan offense this year, starting with the Notre Dame game which we'll win 27-10, though without a lot of turnovers. As Wm said, last year's team was very young, and then was hit by some key injuries (Speight, Black, Peters). The skill players on offense seem very strong to me, and the offensive line should be better with more experience overall and some talented young players pushing for playing time.

My initial thought was to predict that Michigan's defense will disappoint on the downside. They were fantastic last year, but were fortunate to avoid injuries and it's not easy to maintain that sort of dominance. On the other hand, the depth on defensive is impressive from front to back, so I think we will continue as a premier defensive team.