Michigan Football, Team 137, 2016 Season.

[The Oracle]

They'll be somewhere between 3-6. Liney's just trying his best to temper the enthusiasm like any other recently scorned UM fan. It happens.

[WM Wolverine]

Who cares where they start, what matters is they'll end the season #1.

[lineygoblue]

They'll be somewhere between 3-6. Liney's just trying his best to temper the enthusiasm like any other recently scorned UM fan. It happens.

My good friend Jeff said I should temper my enthusiasm, so I'm following his sage advice. :-)


WM has it right. What matters is where they are at the end of it all.

[iam416]

That reads like a national title prediction, WM.

[stevemacie]

Jake had about 6 weeks in the system before his first game. Of course, he got much better over the course of the season. O'korn will have had 1.5 years in the system before his first game. Should be a much higher floor to start the season. Plus not a terribly difficult start to the schedule, definitely no first game match-up away at Utah w/ all the pressure surrounding Harbaugh's first game.

Interesting to compare their performance by the end of the year.

[Pasadena Blue]

After last year's debacle, I am not sold on any M Defens until they stop an Urbz offense. Don Brown's D did not look good against Clemson.

Could still be the Achilles heel for what should be a good team, barring injuries.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hmmmmm ..... I don't now if that comparison works, PB.

Brown excelled as BC's DC despite a talent gap that was huge compared to what he has at his disposal at M. If Gary plays up to his hype, he is a perfect fit for what Brown wants to do at M. There's not a lot of difference between Brown and Durkin when it comes to scheme but Brown is much more aggressive in his play calling when down and distance dictates.

I also think that, on balance, M's defensive performance v. urbz in 2015 was an outlier for that year and was affected by injuries on the DL and subs that had no business playing. That the osu O played lights out, and also an outlier for their 2015 season, didn't help M's struggling and impaired defense.

Not excusing the loss, not blaming Durkin but in retrospect, that game is not a good gauge either for the overall 2015 M D or for what Brown is going to do in 2016.

[iam416]

Heh. The key game to focus on is the Florida game. Obviously. And when it comes to Don Brown, please focus on 2015 only. Heaven forbid you look at how he did against, say, Christian Hackenberg.

[drok]

The most troubling aspect about that OSU game was the actual defensive game plan and lack of adjustment. Injuries certainly played a role, but it was a red flag for that staff's ability to defend that style of offense. I have no idea if Brown is more competent in this area.

[iam416]

Ohio State was just way better across the board. I mean, even Peppers was out of his element -- getting blown up by Elliot -- getting juked by JTB. M could have loaded the box and gave up half a dozen 50+ yard plays or played back and hope that OSU eventually shot themselves in the foot. They didn't have particularly good options.

I mean, hell, even when they had them at 4th and 6 or something, OSU went right at Lewis and got a PI on him (I think the drive before they burned him deep).

Blaming it on gameplan and coaching is an optimistic take.

[Jeff Buchanan]

.......Blaming it on gameplan and coaching is an optimistic take.

Yeah, I totally agree with that and didn't feel that way after the game, blaming Durkin for most of the problems. UFRs told a completely different story.

I do agree, however, that M, as per it's typical lack of ability to defend the spread (and I choose that term reluctantly because it's too narrow, but, you know what I mean) simply got out talented by osu. Facing a hot handed Barrett and an amped Elliot just wasn't going to make it easy for M.

Re Brown ....... I don't think there is anything magical about him and, yeah, he looked pretty bad as BC's DC v. Clemson and PSU (not running the spread). So, there may be concerns about his defense in general and the spread in particular. But, in reality, the spread and for that matter a more conservative pro-style O, run well and executed well is hard to defend all around, esp. the spread.

[iam416]

I think Brown is a very good DC. But I also think DJD is pretty good, too. So my take is you won't see some sort of seismic shift at DC. At best, I think it's a small upgrade. M will still have a really good DC, but I'm not buying into some sort of unparalleled defensive genius.

[drok]

Sure they were out talented...but by 42 points? There were schematic things that didn't make sense.

[Pasadena Blue]

efz

[Pasadena Blue]

My "blame" percentage for the debacle of M's D against O-state was:

30% overmatched in talent (injuries -- principally Ojemudia and Glasgow + un-athletic LB's)
30% poor scheme (we needed to load the box, and let O-state see if they could CONSISTENTLY draw PI's on JL and co)
20% playing a highly motivated pissed-off O-state team
20% divergence from the mean: O-state playing better than they had all year/ M's D playing worse than they had all year.

Put it altogether and you get the debacle that unfolded.

I think our LB crew will be upgraded in athleticism, but will be massively inexperienced ... and still no over-the-top megastar in the LB corp. Will what should be better D-line and secondary make the difference ... dunno. One thing I know, we need a better scheme to go along with this. Deep down I suspect Talent believes Urbz will be unstoppable agains M --- we'll see if he is right.