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Steel gets the Koon "Seal of Approval".
Way Too Early Pre-Season Garbage.
- Thread starter phork
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Steel gets the Koon "Seal of Approval".
TomHaverford
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I think #4 is too high, I don't like starting high in pre-season polls. Better to be underestimated IMO.
Rating has to be based on the defense. I liked DJ Durkin a lot. Thought he was a great recruiter and his guys loved playing for him, but a master chess player as a DC he was not IMO. The new DC from Boston College however comes with that sort of reputation, as a guy who really knows how to put together and call a defense. Not that Durkin was bad at that, I just feel like he's not particularly great at it. Don Brown comes with the reputation at being one of the best at that. So there's that, what appears to be at least an upgrade in the DC position.
Back to the actual players on defense though, Michigan loses their LB's, but they return a ton everywhere else. NT Bryan Mone (6-4, 330) who was singled out by Harbaugh as the best performing player on the entire roster before his injury which cost him the 2015 season is back in 2016. NT Ryan Glasgow, the best DL on the team last year missed the last 4 or 5 games of the year and they had to move Matt Godin inside to replace him and the run defense went to shit without him. Glasgow is back. So right off the bat they are getting back their two best nose tackles on defense.
Then they also have versatile guys who can play inside-out in DE/DT Chris Wormley and DE/DT Maurice Hurst Jr. and both of whom were just graded out by Pro Football Focus as Top 100 players in all of college football for the 2016 season. Hurst Jr. at #27 overall and Wormley at #31. Michigan had 5 defensive players on the list. The other 3 were NT Ryan Glasgow (#72) and CB Jourdan Lewis (#7) and Hybrid LB/S Jabrill Peppers (#16). Then they have a guy in Taco Charlton who registered 6.5 sacks in very limited time last year in the DL rotation and are adding 5* uber-reruit Rashan Gary to that mix. Former 4*/Top 100 recruit Lawerence Marshall is finally out of the doghouse and there wasn't a defensive player who got more hype in the spring. That DL could be straight up filthy if they stay healthy. Wormley, Hurst Jr., and Glasgow will all be SR's- lots of experience there to mix in with some younger talent waiting to burst through the surface. Which is kind of want you'd want in a DL rotation, should help the younger guys ease into it and not have to feel all the pressure of having to perform right off the bat.
I think most just assume it's Harbaugh. He'll make do with whatever QB he has. The Rudock transfer worked out for him, and he was a guy that nobody expected anything from. Iowa had written him off. Harbaugh does a great job of masking the deficiencies of his QB's and not asking them to do more than they can. He is a QB maximizer to the fullest.
The only thing on the team that really scares the living bejesus out of me is the LB corps. Ben Gedeon is like the only guy with any amount of experience and even then it's not much. They graduated all 3 of the starters and the top reserve in Royce Jenkins Stone. If the DL stays relatively healthy though and Rashan Gary is the real deal right away it might not matter. The DL just might be able to murder offenses. Pretty big ifs though, injuries always happen in football and rookies always have growing pains. Always. Very rarely do they come right out the box ready to rock and roll.
RallySonsOfND
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Texas Tech wins the Big12. Mark it
GoldenToTheGrave
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I'll bet Dabo over Fischer every time until the next time FSU gets a Heisman winning QB.
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RallySonsOfND
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All three man.
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I can dig it.
RallySonsOfND
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If they make Tech vs Oklahoma a night game at the Jones, that atmosphere will be completely off the hook
phork
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Full 2016 bowl projections, with LSU the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff - SBNation.com
ND to play FSU in Orange Bowl. Michigan to the playoff. *gag*
ND to play FSU in Orange Bowl. Michigan to the playoff. *gag*
stlnd01
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Seen a lot of love for LSU in preseason rankings. Two thoughts:
1: I know they've got Leonard Fournette, but did they somehow grow an offense that can score on the big boys in the SEC?
2: Been awhile since their defense is more than the sum of its parts.
As for us, back half of the top ten seems realistic. We're going to have to overachieve to make the playoffs. Not that that couldn't happen. But I think the last couple of seasons have made clear that best wins count for more than best losses and that we're not likely to catch a lot of breaks from the committee unless we knock off some highly-ranked teams. Michigan, though, they just need to beat OSU and a down Sparty to go undefeated in that crap conference, and they're in.
1: I know they've got Leonard Fournette, but did they somehow grow an offense that can score on the big boys in the SEC?
2: Been awhile since their defense is more than the sum of its parts.
As for us, back half of the top ten seems realistic. We're going to have to overachieve to make the playoffs. Not that that couldn't happen. But I think the last couple of seasons have made clear that best wins count for more than best losses and that we're not likely to catch a lot of breaks from the committee unless we knock off some highly-ranked teams. Michigan, though, they just need to beat OSU and a down Sparty to go undefeated in that crap conference, and they're in.
NDVirginia19
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B1G East: OSU
B1G West: Wisconsin
ACC Coastal:Miami
ACC Atlantic: Clemson
PAC12 North: Washington
PAC12 South: UCLA
BIG12: TCU
SEC East: UGA
SEC West: Bama
B1G West: Wisconsin
ACC Coastal:Miami
ACC Atlantic: Clemson
PAC12 North: Washington
PAC12 South: UCLA
BIG12: TCU
SEC East: UGA
SEC West: Bama
woolybug25
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So Wisconsin (10 wins in '15), Iowa (12 wins in '15) and the BIG championship are all cupcakes then?
irishfan
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Wisconsin only beat one team with a winning record and it was over USC in the bowl game. Iowa's three best wins were Wisconsin, Iowa, and Pitt. They are both teams that a playoff contender should beat easily. Bama beat Wisconsin by 18 last year and Stanford beat Iowa by 29. If Michigan is good enough to beat OSU, they will smoke Wisconsin and Iowa.
woolybug25
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Just because they beat a good team on one given day, doesn't mean they automatically can beat another on an entirely different day.
But if they are a "playoff contender" either way, then what's the difference?
I hate Michigan as much as the next guy, but Stanford, MSU and maybe USC are the only teams we play that are expected to be top tier teams this year. We don't even have to play a championship game. Kinda hypocritical, imo.
irishfan
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Jimbo is 4-2 against Dabo and only had Jameis for one of those games.
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kmoose
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irishfan
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I'm pretty sure that Intrasquad scrimmages don't count.
Whoops! Meant Northwestern.
You guys with the stats just ruin it for those with strong misconceptions.
GATTACA!
It's about to get gross
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ThePiombino
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Would not be opposed to some FSU revenge, but UM to the playoff isn't happening unless OSU falls off the face of the planet.
phork
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Well OSU did lose a boat load of starters to the draft.. Some fall off is probably expected.
Irish YJ
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I'd agree, but it's the last game of the regular season and is in Ohio. I think Urban will be ready for Jim by then.
ulukinatme
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I know they have an easy path to the playoff, as far as strength of overall schedule, but is there any other reason Michigan is getting to the playoff? Offensively I don't see it. Seems like they're still lacking some skill position players other than at TE, and the OL may still be suspect.
phork
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I would add that when teams start getting penalized for scheduling 1AA teams instead of rewarded for going through a "guantlet" of 2 teams and 10 filler games I will be happy. Until then, schedule 9 home games every year against shoddy competition play @USC/Stanford every other year and then 2 Neutral site games.
ACamp1900
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Exactly all of this.
TomHaverford
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OL should be pretty solid and make some improvements IMO. They return almost everyone in the two deep there and Tim Drevno has a pretty solid rep as an OL coach.
Jehu Chesson had a breakout year at WR last year, and he's 6'3" and fast as shit, even faster than Peppers. And Darboh is a solid #2 option at WR. Butt might be the best TE in the nation. They'll have solid options in the pass game as long as they have a QB that can get the ball to them.
What they are lacking on offense is a proven QB and a dynamic RB. Offense could really tank if either of these QB's suck balls and De'veon Smith and Drake Johnson are pretty mediocre RB's. They aren't taking over a big game and Smith has zero speed.
I think why they are on everybody radar on the lists is because of the defense. They return so much and they added a top notch DC in Don Brown from Boston College.
TomHaverford
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this. Ohio State will still be a good team, but they just lost damn near everyone. There is going to be fall off. Zeke Elliot's don't grow on trees. Neither do Joey Bosa's. Both those guys could take over games by themselves. That's hard to replace. Zeke could pop off for 150-200 yards rushing at any moment and Bosa could just single-handedly wreck OL's and blocking schemes even if he wasn't registering sacks. He was still blowing up run plays, demanding double teams, and crushing the pocket and making QBs feel pressure. Those are both huge losses. And they lost a ton more then just that.
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Bosa's grow on trees in Columbus.
OSU will be down. The B1G is all about UM at MSU this year.