#3 Final AP Poll

[thewolverines24]

This is the first time Michigan football has finished in the top 5 since 1999. Go Blue!

 

[Michchamp]

pretty good.

I guess Georgia won yesterday, so at least we lost to the champions

 

[tinselwolverine]

They got the hats wrong at the end.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cho53iCNhzU

The result is null and void. M wins by default.

 

[biggunsbob]

#1 Georgia


#2 Alabama


























Rest of the ncaa down here ! But I?m am glad we had a shot but man Alabama and Georgia had really big and fast players.

 

[mhughes0021]

#1 Georgia


#2 Alabama


























Rest of the ncaa down here ! But I?m am glad we had a shot but man Alabama and Georgia had really big and fast players.

Ya ...I think Harbaugh realizes that too. Your school just cut your pay then you get smacked by a team that's better than you at arguably every single position except qb and DE. Do you stick around and work that hard just to lose over and over?

Saban and Kelly moved to the SEC once they had the chance. Urban Meyer is the only one that left the SEC and built something that could compete. Not sure what Harbaugh is going to do... but you can't blame him if he leaves.

 

[thewolverines24]

Ya ...I think Harbaugh realizes that too. Your school just cut your pay then you get smacked by a team that's better than you at arguably every single position except qb and DE. Do you stick around and work that hard just to lose over and over?

Saban and Kelly moved to the SEC once they had the chance. Urban Meyer is the only one that left the SEC and built something that could compete. Not sure what Harbaugh is going to do... but you can't blame him if he leaves.

This is why Harbaugh is pushing UM to have an official NIL program. One that he wants to be top five in the country.

You can't consistently compete with Alabama, OSU, Georgia, Clemson, etc. without paying players and paying them a lot. The bagmen network of the SEC has given them at least a 10 year jump on everyone else (SEC has 7 of the top 15 2022 recruiting classes), except OSU and Clemson who do the exact same thing. Even UNC is getting in on it now that Mack Brown is running the show.

UM better get on board with Harbaugh and REALLY push NIL or the football program is going to be left in the dust and will become irrelevant.

 

[bphillips4gg]

Regardless of whether it's Harbaugh or someone else they're not going to be able to close the gap without a better nil strategy. It would also help if they could figure out transfers because that has the potential to be just as important as high school recruiting.

I don't agree that the gap is so large between the top 2 and Michigan. Michigan had 2-3 players on defense that couldn't compete with Georgia and to their credit Georgia abused those guys the entire game. Vince Gray is gone now. The foundation is there, they just need to fill in the gaps and they will be right there. The skill positions on offense are stacked and if they have 2 years of JJ followed by either Dante Moore or CJ Carr (NIL can help here) then you have the QB to get them the ball.

The prospects that they've consistently missed on in recruiting since Jim has been here are the elite OL. If they can shore that up and not always rely on the 3.5 star projects at every position they can be a perennial contender.

 

[zyxt9]

Regardless of whether it's Harbaugh or someone else they're not going to be able to close the gap without a better nil strategy. It would also help if they could figure out transfers because that has the potential to be just as important as high school recruiting.

I don't agree that the gap is so large between the top 2 and Michigan. Michigan had 2-3 players on defense that couldn't compete with Georgia and to their credit Georgia abused those guys the entire game. Vince Gray is gone now. The foundation is there, they just need to fill in the gaps and they will be right there. The skill positions on offense are stacked and if they have 2 years of JJ followed by either Dante Moore or CJ Carr (NIL can help here) then you have the QB to get them the ball.

The prospects that they've consistently missed on in recruiting since Jim has been here are the elite OL. If they can shore that up and not always rely on the 3.5 star projects at every position they can be a perennial contender.

While talent is important, I would rather have a 3 star who is hungry to improve like Haskins over a #1 overall talent who never really gets better, like what happened with Rashan Gary. Not saying it was all on Gary as I do not think the coaches did a good job of maximizing his potential and helping him improve, but it also always seemed to me that he coasted on talent alone, resulting in others being better than him by the time he went to the NFL. Again, just my impression. I'm sure some will call me out.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

It occurs to me that Bama only scored 7 more points on Georgia than Michigan did. I get that they dominated Michigan. But Bama didn't score a TD until the 4th qtr., just like Michigan. The score at halftime was close, but the final score of the game is also similar to the Michigan semifinal game. And the Bama TD was on a short field that resulted from the fumble. I think with a better game plan and adjustments, Michigan would have been more competitive. I don't think they would have won, with the weak defensive back field lack of rush, but it may have been a more competitive game.

 

[bphillips4gg]

While talent is important, I would rather have a 3 star who is hungry to improve like Haskins over a #1 overall talent who never really gets better, like what happened with Rashan Gary. Not saying it was all on Gary as I do not think the coaches did a good job of maximizing his potential and helping him improve, but it also always seemed to me that he coasted on talent alone, resulting in others being better than him by the time he went to the NFL. Again, just my impression. I'm sure some will call me out.

I think we're all guilty of undervaluing just how good Gary was because he never had the stats to live up to the unrealistic expectations we put on him. Could he have been better? Sure. But was he a total chump? Hell no. He got double teamed nearly every game, so he was making an impact even if it wasn't in the Stat line. Haskins and Bell are the exceptions and I don't have a problem with them continuing to find those types of guys. But that Orange Bowl was proof that you can't have an entire offensive line full of those guys and expect to compete at that level.

In regards to Bama only scoring 7 more, I think the switch to JJ happened too late. Bryce Young's ability to extend plays is why Bama torched them the first time. JJ brings that element. Cade was really good this year... But he's about as mobile as Navarre.

And Bama was able to slow down the UGA offense because they didn't have Vince Gray. I appreciate Vince Gray's career, but they circled him in their game plan and abused him like I haven't seen a Michigan DB get abused since Rich Rod days with Morgan Trent.

 

[biggunsbob]

I think Bama lost some wr to injuries. Not saying this makes the difference but who knows.

 

[biggunsbob]

I agree with everyone we have to get better with the transfer portal and why oh why doesn?t Michigan have the best NIL program is beyond me. Pay the kids Michigan. It?s the only way to compete with the southern Stranglehold in the NCAA.

 

[tomdalton22]

It occurs to me that Bama only scored 7 more points on Georgia than Michigan did. I get that they dominated Michigan. But Bama didn't score a TD until the 4th qtr., just like Michigan. The score at halftime was close, but the final score of the game is also similar to the Michigan semifinal game. And the Bama TD was on a short field that resulted from the fumble. I think with a better game plan and adjustments, Michigan would have been more competitive. I don't think they would have won, with the weak defensive back field lack of rush, but it may have been a more competitive game.

Does it really matter what Bama did? Bama beat GA 41-24 a few weeks prior to the NC game. When you get two good teams there can be a lot of different outcomes if the games are played multiple times. UM plays MSU again and there could easily be a different outcome. Same with UM and OSU.

UM plays GA 10 times and my best guess is UM wins 3...just a wild guess based on what I have seen of both teams.

 

[thewolverines24]

I don't agree that the gap is so large between the top 2 and Michigan.

Talent gap is still huge. It was said during the game, but Georgia had 40 5-Stars on their roster. Michigan had 3. They damn near had a two deep of 5-Star players while we don't even have enough to fill a position group. Coaches can only do so much to scheme around that.

 

[tomdalton22]

Talent gap is still huge. It was said during the game, but Georgia had 40 5-Stars on their roster. Michigan had 3. They damn near had a two deep of 5-Star players while we don't even have enough to fill a position group. Coaches can only do so much to scheme around that.

40 seems like a lot, so I did a little checking. Based on recruiting websites, GA had 23 five star recruits from the 2017 class to the 2021 class. 5 of those are already in the NFL. 2 from the 2018 class transferred. That leaves 16. I really doubt that they got 24 five star players to transfer in.

 

[Michchamp]

40 seems like a lot, so I did a little checking. Based on recruiting websites, GA had 23 five star recruits from the 2017 class to the 2021 class. 5 of those are already in the NFL. 2 from the 2018 class transferred. That leaves 16. I really doubt that they got 24 five star players to transfer in.

16 is still a lot more than 3.

I think we probably could have been more competitive than we were; but it was clear Georgia had enough talent to play a lousy game and still beat us.

We had to play a perfect game just to have a shot to win.

 

[Spartanmack]

40 seems like a lot, so I did a little checking. Based on recruiting websites, GA had 23 five star recruits from the 2017 class to the 2021 class. 5 of those are already in the NFL. 2 from the 2018 class transferred. That leaves 16. I really doubt that they got 24 five star players to transfer in.

As I recall, it was something like 20 five stars and 40 top 100 recruits on the GA roster to half or less in those categories for uofm.

 

[thewolverines24]

40 seems like a lot, so I did a little checking. Based on recruiting websites, GA had 23 five star recruits from the 2017 class to the 2021 class. 5 of those are already in the NFL. 2 from the 2018 class transferred. That leaves 16. I really doubt that they got 24 five star players to transfer in.

Seems reasonable. I was just going by what the announcers said during the game. I never took the time to look up their classes. Thanks for that effort on your end.

 

[thewolverines24]

I looked into it a bit this morning. I think the announcers mixed up top 100 players and 5-Stars. Here's the breakdown:

Georgia
Top 100 Players - 40
5-Star Players - 20

Michigan
Top 100 Players - 7
5-Star Players - 3

That's a canyon sized talent gap.

 

[zyxt9]

I looked into it a bit this morning. I think the announcers mixed up top 100 players and 5-Stars. Here's the breakdown:

Georgia
Top 100 Players - 40
5-Star Players - 20

Michigan
Top 100 Players - 7
5-Star Players - 3

That's a canyon sized talent gap.

Yes and no... what it really involved was Georgia paying a ton of money pre-NIL.

It is frustrating to no end that with NIL now as a potential way to get these types of players, UM is not pursuing it. Until they do, this #3 ranking will likely be the closest UM ever gets, and I'm highly doubting O$U is not pushing NIL to its limits.

If there is one thing that is likely to cause Harbaugh to leave UM, it is that UM is not pushing NIL to the max. He takes a pay cut, understandably, for not winning games... but then they handicap him by not doing max NIL. He won't tolerate that for long, in fact I could see him leaving within 2 years if UM doesn't change its methods... and not one of us would blame him for that.

The "game" has changed. It is now about who can put the most money into these players pockets. That game determines the onfield game more than any coaching.