Fall camp is coming to a close and college football season is almost here. This is my first post on SN about college football, so before anybody gets it twisted: I am a die-hard Michigan fan since the tender age of 6 circa 1991!
Lots of things to prove this year for the Wolverines as the official Pre-season A.P. Poll has them slated at #9 coming into the season. They are ranking behind Georgia (1), Ohio State (2), and new B1G joiner Oregon (3).
Biggest story to me? Michigan being ranked at #9
This is the lowest pre-season ranking for a defending national champion ever. Call me biased but I think the Wolverines are grossly underrated. Yes they have new coaches and lost 13 starters to the draft last season, but the culture of “next man up” has been a staple at Michigan for a very long time and the mindset is that these players were just ‘waiting for their turn’.
Returning vets Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant anchor the defensive line, Will Johnson is holding it down for the defensive backs, and new transfer Jashawn Barnham joins Earnest Hausman to round out a scary looking linebacker core!
This defense looks to be elite and ready to prove all the doubters wrong. New defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale, will have the troops ready to play and Michigan could be elite on this side of the football once again.
Questions on offense, may be the cause as Michigan lost a lot of offensive production returning what I believe is a misleading 40%. QB is the main question as they have yet to select a starter, but when they do, I have the sneaking suspicion that the security blankets in the backfield and TE position will play a key role in helping Michigan’s future QB succeed.
First year head coach, Sherrone Moore, is looking to extend his success as the new leader of this football program, and I can’t wait to get the season started.
This sums up my very homer review of these rankings, give me your homer view on your team, or let us know what your biggest takeaways are from these rankings. Yes, we know they don’t matter but until they start hittin’, talkin is all we got!
I am not surprised after losing so many players to the draft and their coach to nfl.
Good post by the way.
Do you follow NFL as well?
reply
Thanks! I’m definitely surprised because they have been ranking Michigan the same way the past three seasons. We had a lot of rotations last year and even though they lost some good players, I see them reloading. There’s a chance this offense could be more dangerous IMO and the defense is returning most of their production.
As for the NFL I try to keep up with it, but I’m more into college. I like the Raiders and I usually track former Michigan players, but I only take Saturdays off from work for CF. What about you? Who are your teams?
reply
I am a 49ers fan.
@Undisciplined is also a Raiders fan.
You might like to join our NFL survivor pool this year.
I also do a College Bowl game contest in December.
reply
Oh, hell yeah!
The only nation is Raider Nation.
Are we the first team to have multiple fans?
reply
Da Raiiidaaaasss! LFG!
I don’t know if we’re the first, but considering this is the first football post I’ve seen on here it’s possible!
I’ll track that link you sent! How you feeling about the season? You think we make the playoffs?
reply
I think we'll be right on the playoff bubble. I'll be surprised if we're bad, but not if we just barely miss the playoffs.
What are you expecting?
reply
1st round exit maybe? I don’t think they have it at QB, but we will see.
reply
I’ll follow you for sure! Thanks for tagging another Raider fan for me! You guys got my boy Ronnie Bell! Please tell me, what’s this NFL Survivor pool?
reply
I don’t know if Ronnie is going to make the roster. We will see what happens with Pearsall and Cowing. They are both hurt right now.
NFL survivor pool is 20k sats buy in and you pick one team to win each week. You can only use a team once. Last year we did a one time rebuy option as well. Last player standing gets the prize pool. Last year’s winner got 310k sats but buy in was only 10k so I am hoping the prize this year will be bigger.
reply
21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 12 Aug
I come from a divided family... Dad went to Texas Mom went to Texas A&M and so did I but Texas at 4 is... interesting. Moving to the SEC is going to be a huge change for them and all the former Pac-12 teams as well. All those teams should face some growing pains with much stiffer competition week in and week out.
I also was surprised to see A&M ranked given our history...
reply
If Michigan wins at home, I can see a flip flop in rankings. I think A&M has a better shot than Texas just because they know their opponents better. They had an ok year last season and I guess they got some good transfers, and a new coach. I think Texas is going to struggle. We’ll know more after week 2.
reply