Michigan Season Preview and Season Predictions

2010 Michigan football preview

The Michigan Wolverines football team returns to its 131st year of football with more people looking on and questioning the program more then ever in its rich history. Coach Rich Rodriguez is in his third season and looks to be coaching for his job this season. After a 5-7 season last year, with another no bowl game to go to and the fact it was another year of losing to Ohio State made it a tough place to be. Coach Rodriguez has the hottest seat on the coaching planet and needs to win fast. Last seasons failures didn’t come from the lack of production from the offense, but from a dismal season on defense. The offense will need to cut down on the turnovers and keep the pressure on opponent’s offenses to keep scoring. The offense should be super fast getting to the outside with the spread with the 3 headed monsters of Denard Robinson, Michael Shaw, and Vincent Smith all with sub 4.4 speed coming your way. Now if they bring the defense up and can Denard or Devin hit the deep ball this year or to the middle of the field, if so it will really help the offense move the ball. On the defensive side of the ball the big question is can the rookies slow down the other teams. The front will be lead by a couple stars in the making with Craig Roh and Mike Martin on the front line, the secondary will be full of new names and watch for freshman guys like Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson to bring with them that southern swagger to the field with them. Hopefully guys like safety Jordan Kovacs who as a redshirt freshman safety sometimes got thrown under the bus by us fans can come back and have a big season, because you sure can’t root against the walk-on living his dream as a starter for his childhood favorite.

This offseason was another wild one in Ann Arbor in the Rich Rodriguez era as more talk of the chance of probation and the players being totally left on their own to do their own offseason workouts themselves, as the coaches had to stay far far away. Some players chose to be lazy and come into camp out of shape, which led to the departure of Austin White and J.T Turner. One of the biggest hits for the team came from the decision from the acceptance committee at Michigan to not accept Demar Dorsey into the school; Dorsey would have started immediately in the secondary, and was the big ten top recruit according to ESPN. Then the news of Tate Forcier being called out by his teammates, even team leader Troy Wolfork mentioned him as a weak leader. It then led to all the talk of him going to another program like his older brother had done before as he also left Michigan to play at Stanford. It left many fans wondering what had gotten into his head, but he is now back and the team has really started to come together with one common goal. Get back to a bowl game and beat Ohio State. Leaders are what are needed on this team, if you want to be Justin Boren and wear a rich rod mask at Halloween, then leave and go elsewhere please.

Now for the breakdown on both sides of the ball. The offense is coming off a pretty decent season from such a young squad; it did have to endure the departure of 3 talented seniors: Carlos Brown, Brandon Minor, and Greg Matthews. The offensive line will be the anchor for this team as they return healthy with David Molk back from an injury plagued season at Center and depth at all the other line positions with Coach Rodriguez forcing his last two classes of lineman to redshirt and get stronger. The offensive line is built for the pass block, but will have no problem being in the top 3 overall lines in the big ten this year. The backs will be led by sophomore Vincent Smith and junior Michael Shaw, both whom saw playing time with the injuries to Brown and Minor during the previous season. Shaw is supposed to be the main back this year after coming off a 400 yd season in limited time, except he has a grade issue that everyone is hoping is handled by the start of the year that caused him to miss a few practices this offseason due to his summer class schedule. So if that forced Vincent Smith to step up during practice and take more reps with the first team and are ready to be the feature back. Smith should be able to do so as he has shown glimpses of his “Muck City” speed that he flashed against the lesser Delaware State running for 166 yards on 17 carries. Let’s hope he is healthy and ready to go. This duo has the speed to get to the corner as that will be the emphasis with them. You could also be seeing true frosh big back Stephen Hopkins who impressed in the Spring Game and Mike Cox by committee if need be. This group of young backs has to be ready to play otherwise the pressure will mount on the back of the quarterback.

Now, the question everyone wants to know is who will be the quarterback, all signs look to be pointed at Denard “Shoelace” Robinson getting taking the reins and getting the chance to be the guy and the very highly touted true frosh Devin Gardner backing him up. The talk of 3 quarterbacks all playing this season could happen as probably even Tate Forcier will work his way back out of the dog house and onto the field. Denard has improved his passing skills in the last year which was his big hold up in playing more last year, but his speed and running skills are what could make the old Pat White West Virginia team look slow running the spread. If Rich goes with Denard I hope he feels comfortable enough which he should because this is the quarterback that will give him another year to coach in Ann Arbor. Denard has to be safe with the ball and accurate, if not it could get pretty wild under center. Devin Gardner was the top dual threat high school in football last year and Rich Rods first big quarterback fish he landed. People expected him to redshirt this season and learn, but he graduated early and with Tate Forcier going in the wrong direction could mean he will see some quality minutes this season. Let’s hope he is ready, as he has the look of a middle linebacker with speed, now can he guy Michigan Fans rely on the next 4 yrs? I think so and I personally don’t expect Tate to play before him.

The receivers will be led by Darryl Stonum who is finally looking like a leader this offseason has some new contacts to pick up the ball better, whatever works I guess. They have plenty of experience and should do fine as long as somebody can put a ball near them. Having guys like Roundtree and Odoms play a whole year will help immensely. Roundtree has the best hands and Odoms would win a footrace, let’s hope those hands and feet can spread the secondary this year. Kevin Koger will be the tight end and after a year of spectacular catches and dropped easy balls, he is needed to make the big catch consistently this year.

Now on the defensive side of the ball, you could go on for days with the questions about this unit. It was a very wild summer in the secondary and would have looked like a meteor shower of the so called recruiting 5 stars leaving the building as Dorsey not getting accepted, and JT Turner leaving means the departure of two guys who would have started immediately this season in the secondary. Don’t forget Boubacar Cissoko finding himself a way to Grand Valley State, now prison, Donavan Warren leaving a year early to watch the Jets from the sidelines instead of being the right starting corner. The hardest blow yet, came a week ago when Troy Woolfork the leader of the secondary and pre-season first team big ten corner dislocated his ankle and will be forced to sit out for the season.

The defense is coming off one of the worst seasons in history giving up 171 yards per game on the ground and 221 yards in the air and finishing 82 overall in the nation has to be retuned and ready to go. With all that, can this new bunch of youngsters keep the games close? It will be greatly aided by the improved front six having more depth and DT Mike Martin in the middle and keeping Craig Roh playing a hybrid OLB and DE spot. The front line should be talented and have more depth this year to help slow the run game, they just need to wrap up and tackle better. With the new 3-5 look implied out there, sometimes putting a couple extra safeties or the spur position to help the secondary with a couple true freshmen Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson both big time hitters that will make people look twice, but both safeties could be going for a huge hit to only to turn around to watch a touchdown. Marvin Robinson debut is much anticipated as he has been talked about by Michigan fans for the last three years. Let’s hope good guys like walk-ons to starters such as linebacker Leach and safety/spur Jordan Kovacs have Rudy type of seasons. It will be interesting to watch, so grab your popcorn and your Tums.

The linebackers will have Jonas Mouton returning to the middle and ex-starting fullback Mark Moundros starting at Linebacker also. I sure hope that Obi Ezeh will figure out how to put his talent to use and help this unit out this season. The group that needs to do a much better job of watching the tight end and plays out of the backfield as last year was a mess. The secondary on the left side will once again see JT Floyd starting at corner and opposite to him either ex receiver James Rogers or true freshmen Cullen Christian and Terrance Talbot. I think this opposite corner position is going to be huge, can Buck Nasty Cullen Christian be the first big time corner recruit to start and make it a whole season without an issue unlike the last two seasons with JT Turner and Cissoku. This defensive unit has to avoid giving up big plays and the many times of not being in the position needed to be in and looking confused. No more 40 point games and big plays and it will result in more wins. I think the front 6 this year keeps us in games and the opponents under 40 point every game.

Special teams will get a new fresh look as true freshman punter Will Hagerup will be taking the duties from the nation’s best last year Zoltan Mesko and will hopefully have to punt less then Zoltan did last year. The kicking duties fall to Army Game All-American redshirt freshman Brandon Gibbons who has looked shaky this offseason but good enough from 32 on in. The returning duties on kick offs will be resumed by Darryl Stonum and the punt returns by Odoms and Jeremy Gallon as both hope to stay healthy this year.

Now with all this having been said, it’s almost another year and the average age on the field gets younger which by now shouldn’t have happened. Rich Rod has to hope that out of the 3 quarterbacks that will be starting at quarterback throughout the nation that have worn the Maize and Blue before, the one playing for him is not going to be the worst of the bunch and that the defense can’t be out on the field all day long. This could all be determined by the second week of the season as they start with the rededication of the stadium against UCONN and go on the road to Notre Dame the next week. At worse they would want to be 1-1 coming out of those games. If they do that they should win the other easy non conference games and Indiana to start the Big Ten season, so once again the team would hope to be 4-1 going into a big game at very winnable home against Michigan State before a tough 3 game stretch against them, Iowa, and Penn State. They should get at least one win out of those and have very winnable games against Illinois and Purdue. Leaving them 7 and 3 with Wisconsin and Ohio State wrapping up the season. Wisconsin could be winnable if the team is on a winning spree as Wisconsin could be leading the division, this team they beat when Michigan was bad so Wisconsin might be out for reveng, and then the annual game of the year in the Big Ten with they Ohio State. So I’m just going to say Michigan 7-5at the end of the season playing for a chance to be 8-4 at most. Rich Rods could be on the hot seat going into a bowl if they struggle or Jim Harbaugh’s first game against Iowa State in the insight bowl or Missouri in the Alamo Bowl or some other big twelve team in a bowl game, it could be worse and it could be better this season, we will all have to see. I really do expect if Michigan does better at the start of the season and should make it 7 and 5 or 8 and 4 and going to a Florida bowl game, then Rich Rod should keep his job and then 2011 will be really exciting. But. If this team goes 7-5 losing their last two games, lets expect some crazy changes. This team isn't a losing team, so lets bring in Jim Harbaugh, if this team can only win 7 games then Harbaugh will be the man coaching in the future. With that, Hope this helped you get ready for the upcoming Michigan football season as just thinking of the opening kickoff gets me pumped. GO BLUE !