tOfficial 2013 Football Season Prediction Thread

[TheVictors]

Okay, July 1st .....Happy Independence Day and Go America!!

With just 60 days until the first game and a whole bunch of months since the Outback Bowl, what is your prediction for the upcoming season?!

Please feel free to add game-by-game details and analysis, but leave the whoofing and barking for other threads!

 

[cmrlily]

CMU - Win
Notre Dame - Win
Akron - Win
@ UConn - Win
Minnesota - Win
@ Penn State - Win
Indiana - Win
@ Michigan State - Win
Nebraska - Win
@ Northwestern - Win
@ Iowa - Win
Ohio - Win

Big Ten Title Rematch v. Ohio - Win

Title game - Loss

13-1

I could see losing one of the Ohio games, resulting in a "lesser" bowl, resulting in a win there instead of a loss.

 

[Michlady]

10-2

 

[Michchamp]

10-2

that's what I was thinking too.

not sure where the losses will come... upset loss(es) @ PennSt, @Iowa, or @MSU. a loss @ home to ohio maybe. maybe... MAYBE a close loss to ND early in the season.

then again, this team, with Gardner at QB and a lot of unheralded guys on defense playing hard to secure starting positions could simply be good. real good. I could see them going 12-0 because aside from ohio, there aren't too many talented &/or veteran rosters among our opponents.

I also predict that some of our fans will predict wins against certain opponents, and then if we lose those games, bitch about the coaching because "we should have won"

 

[KAWDUP]

that's what I was thinking too.

not sure where the losses will come... upset loss(es) @ PennSt, @Iowa, or @MSU. a loss @ home to ohio maybe. maybe... MAYBE a close loss to ND early in the season.

then again, this team, with Gardner at QB and a lot of unheralded guys on defense playing hard to secure starting positions could simply be good. real good. I could see them going 12-0 because aside from ohio, there aren't too many talented &/or veteran rosters among our opponents.

I also predict that some of our fans will predict wins against certain opponents, and then if we lose those games, bitch about the coaching because "we should have won"

That last prediction is an absolute lock. You giving any odds?

 

[Michlady]

that's what I was thinking too.

not sure where the losses will come... upset loss(es) @ PennSt, @Iowa, or @MSU. a loss @ home to ohio maybe. maybe... MAYBE a close loss to ND early in the season.

then again, this team, with Gardner at QB and a lot of unheralded guys on defense playing hard to secure starting positions could simply be good. real good. I could see them going 12-0 because aside from ohio, there aren't too many talented &/or veteran rosters among our opponents.

I also predict that some of our fans will predict wins against certain opponents, and then if we lose those games, bitch about the coaching because "we should have won"

yep my thinking too

 

[thewolverines24]

I also predict that some of our fans will predict wins against certain opponents, and then if we lose those games, bitch about the coaching because "we should have won"

When has this ever happened? I can't recall a single one of us ever doing that.

 

[Michchamp]

That last prediction is an absolute lock. You giving any odds?

1.000000001 to 1.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Going into every game, I'm gonna predict a win, and if we lose, I'm gonna bitch about the coaching, and go on and on that we really should have won...

 

[Michchamp]

When has this ever happened? I can't recall a single one of us ever doing that.

also they will fail to understand that making a decision with the benefit of hindsight is a far different animal than making one in the heat of the moment with no such perspective.

also, the whiniest among them will fail to be swayed by a reasonable argument like "well, that was a bad call, no doubt, but every coach makes some of those. let's wait to see how the season plays out before we start calling for this guy or that guy to be fired." and instead go on like a broken record until we play again.

 

[RABID]

I predict we go 12-0 and if we don't it is due to horrible officiating.
Most of the refs have kids playing for all of our opponents. I'm sure of it.

 

[thewolverines24]

9/7/13 vs ND - I predict....

Blurple.

 

[TheVictors]

I'm still looking at things, but feel that there is likely an unexpected loss somewhere and that the team will need to adjust a bit to the new personnel and amended Offensive gameplan. I like Gardner for his experience and skills, but could see a bad game ....at PSU or (ugh) at MSU ---

hmm ....

I like the ring of 10-2 but not sure of the breakdown just yet.

 

[Michchamp]

I'm still looking at things, but feel that there is likely an unexpected loss somewhere and that the team will need to adjust a bit to the new personnel and amended Offensive gameplan. I like Gardner for his experience and skills, but could see a bad game ....at PSU or (ugh) at MSU ---

hmm ....

I like the ring of 10-2 but not sure of the breakdown just yet.

I don't think the offense will be as much of a problem this year as it was last year. The big deal is how much Robinson's passing ability (or lack thereof) limited our production in a game. if we faced a decent pass d, we were screwed.

but then again, at this time last year, I was thinking the passing game would improve because it was Denard's 2nd year working with Borges, and it turns out I was completely wrong about that. if anything, his passing game was worse in '12.

For me... just going by football convention in general, and Michigan history in particular, teams struggle more than usual in their first road game of the season, and going undefeated is extremely rare, even in years where the schedule is favorable. so... 10-2 seems reasonable.

@UConn isn't much of a road test... but @PennSt is.

you can bet they'll have a white out, or whatever, schedule for that game.

hopefully they're even thinner talent-wise than they were last year.

@MSU will be tough. But i think this might be the season where their talent attrition, and our improvements is a bigger story than the rivalry.

then we have @Northwestern & @Iowa back-to-back. we could drop one of those, just because we're going to play bad on the road, and if we dig ourselves a hole it will be tough to dig out. I'm glad the sequence is @NU first though.

 

[Michchamp]

9/7/13 vs ND - I predict....

Blurple.

I predict that too. Not sure how he would handle a bad loss to us. he might keel over. unlike his predecessor who just said "to hell with Michigan, then gorged himself at McDonald's on the way back to South Bend.

note: we are undefeated at home under Brady Hoke.

As annoying as the loss to ohio was last year, I took solace in the fact that our defense still played them tough for 4 quarters, and we were hitting Braxton Miller hard.

It wasn't like those losses to ohio from '04 to '07 where our defense seemed to be non-existent whenever ohio needed points. Now if only we hadn't gifted them 6 points by not playing conservatively and punting when we should've...

 

[TheVictors]

Last year was certainly full of more "trap games" and challenging road games ...plus the game against Air Force throws that unusual scheme at you.

I think the @PSU game will be tough, but that the team should be able to get up for the game and be ready for the challenge, coming off Homecoming vs Minny and looking ahead to Indiana.

The tough run will be AT MSU ...vs Nebraska and then AT Northwestern, IMO. I don't think Iowa is a shadow of its former self and even in Iowa City, I think there's a talent gap. I suppose the team could get caught "looking ahead to Ohio" but Iowa is pretty bad.

 

[josh200612]

I see one to two losses this year I hope not but I don't see us losing at home. @PSU is scary cause O'Brian is a good coach and he had them ready last year and the bowl game maybe depends on who we play.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Here's the thing, I look at that schedule and it's hard for me to pick out a clear loss. Our biggest, and hardest, game will likely be OSU. But we get Nebraska/ND at home and MSU away but I think MSU is going to suck and ND is not going to be very good with their QB situation the way it is. I think we probably lose two games but I just don't know which ones because there are so many on the fringe.

 

[Monster]

13-1 a win over some unworthy team that sneaks into the Rose Bowl...not from PAC12. A loss to iowa or NW.

 

[thewolverines24]

I guess I'm one of the few that is not overly concerned with Iowa. We absolutely clown stomped them last year and it was only Devin's third start of his career. I just don't see how Iowa is that much better this year.