Michigan Team 137 Preview: Team Overview and Predictions

By Kevin Schroeder
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: August 18, 2016

Hello, old friend. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Too long. I mean, I saw you briefly in 2012, but let’s be honest, things between us haven’t been the same since Lloyd was around. But it’s nice to see you again. Fall’s a lot more fun when you’re around, expectation.

When Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh, we all knew better days were ahead. The roster had plenty of talent on paper – Hoke did recruit well, player development was another story – but we figured it would take some time for that to translate to the field. It was realistic to think that the team would be pretty good last year and in two or three more, they’d have a chance to be one of the nation’s elite. Jim Harbaugh said screw that and has the Wolverines in position to be elite in year two. Michigan football is back. Not “Dave Brandon Presents Michigan Football: A Dave Brandon Production, Sponsored by Adidas,” a weird sort of thing where the star of the show was the Michigan brand itself, though Brandon regularly seemed ready to sacrifice the things that made Michigan football special in the first place for the sake of a few extra bucks. No, not that. Michigan football.

The Wolverines return fourteen starters (eight on offense, six on defense) from a team that went 10-3 a year ago and there’s plenty of talent there to fill in the gaps. D.J. Durkin left to become the head coach at Maryland. Jim Harbaugh went out and replaced him with Don Brown, a Dude who built excellent defenses at Boston College. A few of the major players on offense played their best game of the year in the bowl game. The quarterback from that game, Jack Rudock, has graduated, but whoever fills his shoes this year will have just spent the last year under the tutelage of the best QB coach in the world. And what more is there to say about the defense? The LB position outside of Peppers will be a bit of a concern, but the aforementioned Dude is on it. The defensive line lost two starters and should be even better than a year ago, thanks to the return of Bryan Mone and the arrival of Rashan Gary. The secondary features one of, if not the, best corners in the country. Kenny Allen is back and will pull double duty in the kicking game this year.

The Wolverines open with five straight home games: Hawaii, Central Florida, Colorado, Penn State, and Wisconsin, in that order. The non-conference schedule is very underwhelming, though the game with UCF looked like a good matchup when it was scheduled. The team then heads to New Jersey for their first road game of the year against Rutgers. Then a bye. After the bye, Michigan plays host to Illinois. The following week, they had to East Lansing to play Michigan State. The team then returns home to play Maryland. An away game against Iowa, a home game against Indiana, and a trip to Columbus to take on Ohio State round out the regular season.

This schedule is a bit tricky to predict. Michigan’s thee toughest opponents are all away games, though two of those three figure to take a decent-sized step back and while the third has plenty of talent to replace all the guys they just lost, conventional wisdom would suggest at least a slight step back. Michigan should run through their non-conference schedule. Penn State and Wisconsin aren’t pushovers, but the Wolverines should win both games. Rutgers has provided plenty of bulletin board material to a team that has enough talent to hang a crooked number on the scoreboard and a coach who is not likely to forget such material. Illinois and Maryland both brought in new coaches this off-season that have the potential to turn those programs around, but that will take some time. Indiana lost a pretty good amount from last year’s #CHAOSTEAM. I’m predicting an 11-1 season for Michigan.

Go Blue.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com