<p>It's that time of the year again fellow Wolverines. Michigan will probably start the season ranked pretty high. The Coaches have us at #5 heading into the season. The AP poll will probably have us ranked between #4 and #7. </p>
<p>My main concern is our Defense, particularly the Secondary. The Offense should be wicked good. The front seven will be young but relatively experienced and talented. However, the Secondary will be young and innexperienced, although there will be quite a bit of talent. </p>
<p>The first game of the season should be an reasonably easy win. However, the 2nd (Oregon), 3rd (Notre Dame) and 4th (PSU) games of the season will be tough. If Michigan can come out of that three game stretch unscathed, we should be 9-0 heading into our 10th week (our night game at Illinois is the only possible huccup as far as I am concerned), when we are scheduled to travel to East Lansing. MSU on the road is always tricky. Then, our two toughest games of the season will come when we travel to Madison on November 10 and when we host OSU on November 17.</p>
<p>I predict we will finish the regular season either 10-2 or 11-1 with a trip to one of the BCS Bowls. 12-0 is a possibility as we should be favored in every game we play this season, but Michigan always finds a way to lose a game it should win.</p>
<p>Appalachian is a decent team to be sure. It could be close for the first half. However, the physical advantage that Michigan has as well as the depth should allow Michigan to separate late in the third and in the fourth quarter. I would be surprised if Michigan wins by less than 20 points.</p>
<p>Appalachian State has won the Division IAA title the past two years. There's Division IA (Football Bowl Division) which the good teams play in and end the season with bowl games, and the second tier Division IAA (Football Championship Division) which end their season with a 16 team playoff.</p>
<p>I believe App State lost at LSU two years ago by a score of 27 to nothing or something like that. They were not blown out by LSU and can hang with the top teams in the country.</p>
<p>So, pick what 2 games Michigan is going to blow this year:</p>
<p>Appalachian State
Oregon
Eastern Michigan
Notre Dame
Penn State
Purdue
Ohio State
Minnesota
at Illinois
at Northwestern
at Michigan State
at Wisconsin
Bowl Game</p>
<p>My picks are the Bowl Game (of course) and...... lets go with Michigan State. Maybe O$U too.</p>
<p>I think winning by 27 qualifies as a blowout, especially when you figure LSU probably went to garbage time pretty early against a DivIAA team in the first game of the season. Appalachian State only has had one close game against a DivIA team in the past however many years and none of the others have been that close, and none of those teams were near as good as we are.</p>
<p>A2Wolves, that is the million dollar question. I wish I could protest and complain "How could you say that!?" but I've been a Michigan fan too long. They're going to implode at some point, probably even twice, and the sport is in figuring out when.</p>
<p>I'm just ready to go to some games. Football season is easily my favorite time of the year. We have a pretty tough schedule this year. Make it out of September without a loss and I really like our chances this season.</p>
<p>Yeah, let's just hope Manningham is good to go like the first part of last season. I honestly think that the turning point of last season was Manningham's injury. I mean, we were literally seriving it up to Penn State, Notre Dame, and Michigan State. But after Manningham got injured, our offense kinda dwindled. Our home games with Wisconsin and Ball State(?) were very close and we didn't really have to fire that we did in the first half of last season. Hart is great, but we need a deep threat.</p>
<p>stop talking out of your ass. the penn state game was close (17 to 10) and I think PSU would've had a really good shot had their 2 QBs not both been injured. Also, manningham didn't play that game, so I don't know what you are talking about.
and manningham did play in the wisconsin game. btw, the wisco game was before the psu and the msu game. the wisco game wasn't that close either.</p>
<p>maguo1, from an unbiased perspective who could care less about either team, Michigan was in complete control the entire game. There was a 126 yardage edge. Penn State had -26 rushing yards. It would have been a 2 score game had PSU not scored a TD with 2:46 left.</p>
<p>try losing your starting QB right after halftime and see how you do. can anybody even name UM's backup?<br>
PSU had a terrible day rushing. the stats look even worse because of all the sacks.
i consider a close game to be one where the losing team has a chance to win in the fourth quarter. A blowout is when they don't (ie UM vs ND last season).</p>
<p>Maguo, I agree that Michigan did not blow out PSU, but considering that our star wide receiver was out for the game and that the game was on the road against a team we had beaten 7 straight times, I'd say entering the 4th quarter with a 17-3 lead was pretty impressive. Michigan moved the ball better (16 first downs compared to 11 for PSU), outgained PSU 310 yards to 190 yards and controlled the clock 33.5 minutes to 26.5 minutes. Overall, I'd say Michigan controlled the game.</p>