Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[WM Wolverine]

Finishing the depth chart:

QB: Wilton Speight - John O'Korn/ Brandon Peters - Alex Malzone/ Dylan McCaffrey
RB: Chris Evans/ Drake Johnson/ Ty Isaac/ Kareem Walker/ Karan Higdon/ Najee Harris/ Kingston Davis
FB: Khalid Hill
TE: Ian Bunting - Devin Asiasi - Tyrone Wheatley/ Zack Gentry/ Nick Eubanks
WR: Donovan Peoples-Jones/ Drake Harris - Tarik Black
WR2: Keoka Crawford - Mo Ways/ Brad Hawkins
WR3: Grant Perry - Eddie McDoom - Nate Johnson

[WM Wolverine]

Much, much younger at the skill positions but just as talented and youth can play earlier at the skill positions...

The huge worry is Grant Newsome who M needs badly next season and the rest of the OL.

[Whitley]

I am not sure that you can count on Perry considering he did not travel with Michigan down to the bowl game. A lot is going to depending how these sexual assault charges play out.

[WM Wolverine]

Not counting on Perry, or O'Korn to return or even Drake Johnson who is seeking a 6th year. I don't think they miss much if they don't return.

[Cody_Russell]

I'd like Purdue to pick up John O'Korn as a graduate transfer, if possible.
Purdue just hired Tony Levine as co-offensive coordinator. Levine was actually O'Korn's head coach at Houston for the two years John played.
Best assistant football coach Purdue has had in the last decade, I'd add... sadly.

Nice to add an experienced backup for David Blough.

[WingsFan]

Since Harbaugh is not likely to change his stripes, as outside observers, we can only predict from past performance how Harbaugh might react to the current 10-3 and move it to 12-0. The weak point in Harbaufffense is undeniably the OL. What's not clear is why. Opinions abound. Talent? Drevno? Play calling by a cabal of coaches (JH, Drevno, Fisch) ? That's the problem ..... opinions from outsiders who have no idea what the problem is and I have a problem with that.

Took 3 years at Stanford before they were just destroying opponents on the ground, right? Going into year 3 now, but the OL recruiting is a question mark in the first two classes. First class was part-time though, not full cycle. But on paper the young OL should be about same talent level or slightly better than what Stanford would have had.

Harbaugh is stubborn, I am more concerned that the players can't seem to make plays in crunch time. OSU, face mask penalty by Cole, 2nd INT by Speight, dropped pass by Darboh, missed 5 yd pass by Speight. You can't overcome those types of issues on a team which is currently not able to compensate for it. Next year will be all about QB play and offensive production. The season will rest on Speight or Peters. The defense will be good, not great and I expect a lot of learning mistakes. I am not convinced Drevno is the great OL developer we think he is, we'll see..

[WM Wolverine]

This is the second full recruiting class, '15 class Harbaugh had only a month to discover and flip recruits...

Next year will be 3 recruiting classes of Hoke ('13, '14, '15) and Harbaugh's 1st/2nd year ('16, '17) recruits. Much of the good 'talent' in Hoke's '13 recruiting class is graduating and his superstar from '14 is likely getting drafted in the first round...

With Peppers gone, the back seven will only have 1 returning starter; Mike McCray. Jeremy Clark, who was very good, being gifted a 6th year would be a huge bonus.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Took 3 years at Stanford before they were just destroying opponents on the ground, right? Going into year 3 now, but the OL recruiting is a question mark in the first two classes. First class was part-time though, not full cycle. But on paper the young OL should be about same talent level or slightly better than what Stanford would have had.......I am not convinced Drevno is the great OL developer we think he is, we'll see..

Two points: The question of how long does it take to produce championships/should be fairly allowed to produce them is an open one. Depends on one's measuring stick and there are lots of them. Comparisons of M under JH with teams like Alabama under Saban, USC under Carroll, osu under ufm rarely take into account all the circumstances at play in producing the championships all three of those coaches produced. My answer is, it depends and I'm not in a hurry like some are.

My answer to the question is Drevno any good as a recruiter and OL coach is simply this: We don't know but Harbaugh does. That question also begs a slew of other questions like: are our observations, or any of the web sites like PFF and mgoblog that put out objective measurements of offensive linemen worth a shit? Yes, some but these measures pale in value when they are compared to how the coaches are objectively evaluating players on a full time basis. I think it is very dangerous to draw conclusions about how good or bad a coach is by the collection of things we, as laymen, really, see in a single game or an entire season. JMO.

[WingsFan]

Been holding back since half point of the season - Speight is another Scott Mitchell. That pirouette on 4rth down was something I haven't seen from a Michigan QB in my life and hope I never see again.


The QB position is the most important spot on the team. Yes, it is a team game and the O-line didn't help. He's rattled, shellshocked, cant even hit wide open receivers on the road. If he makes even one or two of those wide open receivers for a TD vs Iowa he doesn't get in position to get hurt on the last play of the game.


I don't want Speight going in 2017 as the presumed starter. Don't like that fact of having another young qb as a starter, but I hope Peters puts in the effort and time to win the job and make it a true competition. Even if it cost a couple losses.

[WM Wolverine]

Chesson & Darboh both dropped critical really good throws vs Iowa too; not to mention him getting the ball taken from him on that last pass. I'm not much of a fan of Speight but he was usually good enough when given time to throw.

[WingsFan]

Speight but he was usually good enough when given time to throw.

I would agree with you at home vs bad defenses. Not on the road, he didn't have one good game away from Ann Arbor.

[WM Wolverine]

I didn't have too high of expectations with Speight and he exceeded them. We won 10 games with him and lost 3 others by a combined 2 points in regulation...

He's one of my least worries for '17. He's solid but not going to be an All B1G QB, you can win with him if you have the talent around him.

[Hannibal]

Hannibal has laid out M's march to mediocrity in 2017 and going forward. I don't agree with him and here's why. We have no idea what goes on in practice nor do we know what the coaches know about player in game performance. While it's true we can judge the end result, and OL play along with the run game is not good, IMO, that cannot be the basis for the kind of also-ran performance Hanni is predicting for M football.

The thing that grinds me about Hannibal's criticisms is that he believes that underlying back to back 10-3 seasons there is a culture at M of an acceptance of that kind of performance as being fine. He goes on, just like M's Basketball program under John Beilein.

So, I guess Hannibal thinks Jim Harbaugh is fine with 10-3 as the bar. Really? I don't think there is a more energized and competitive football coach on the planet than Harbaugh. And that guy counts more than what any of us might accept as being OK. That's why I reject Hannibal's position in its entirety. How Harbaugh goes about winning the Big Ten and advancing to the CFP along with the elites we can't know. But one thing we do know is that Harbaugh, especially Jim Harbaugh, is not happy with where the football program is. That's enough for me.

I hope that you're right, because the fan base has pretty much universally accepted second class citizenship. If you read mgoblog, you get the impression that we are a military academy. Just like the basketball program. Years 1 through 3, you blame the previous coach, and then in years 4 and 5 you blame "youth". In year 6, you are finally free and clear from Excuseville. Assuming you don't have an injury. But in the meantime, you have flushed five more years down the toilet. That's how these excuses work. If they are valid then you are accepting another half decade of disappointment. I'm already hearing from every direction how we really shouldn't expect anything until all of Harbaugh's own recruits are upperclassmen.

So let's talk about this "talent" excuse. Hoke's O-line classes were the envy of the Big Ten. Some people have very short memories and have forgotten this. If I had told you back when those guys enrolled how their senior years would look then you would have been absolutely appalled. But now that it has come to pass, everyone just kind of shrugs their shoulders and accepts it. This is precisely what I mean when I talk about lowering standards and accepting failures and excuses.

When you experience failure, you either failed because you weren't good enough or because you were a victim of circumstance. If you were a victim of circumstance, then you stay the course because your luck, presumably, is bound to change. If you failed because you weren't good enough, then you have got to change your approach and/or try harder. I have watched enough of college football to know that the circumstances for Michigan football were very favorable this year and in most year's are going to be a lot harder. I hope that you're right about Harbaugh's reluctance to accept 10-3 as our ceiling and that he will make whatever changes necessary. If not, then it's Lloyd Carr 2.0, but with tougher rivals.

[WM Wolverine]

Healthy grant newsome could've been difference in the three losses. .

[iam416]

I think OL development is a plausible and maybe even serious concern.

He's solid but not going to be an All B1G QB, you can win with him if you have the talent around him.

I really disagree with this. I think he has the potential to be everything you need in a QB. He has the measurables and the arm. He made the throws. He was inconsistent. But he was a first year starter. I think he's going to be pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised if Peters never starts.

I say this mostly with OSU in mind -- and the jackwagons calling for UFM's head after his 6th fucking loss -- but I don't think it's much different with M -- take some time. Think about the season. Don't react. Speight is going to be good. And when he is you can damn well believe I'll be here to tell you so. I'd prefer he suck. But I don't think that's the case. He's not going to be Navarre. Better.