MSU Red Cedar Message Board

So he's just going off of what some dude made up on a blog? I thought it was strange since mid-march is the earliest teams start.

It'll be interesting to watch UM and ND this year. Good lord do I love having a stable program!

Good Lord do I love college football! I'm cautiously optimistic about the Hoke administration. I'd been interminably negative the last three years. I relish a possible return to positivity.

As do I. Play defense and run the ball. Teach Denard to put some touch on his passes to get the ball over the linebackers without completely overthrowing everybody. Find somebody, ANYBODY, who can tackle a guy in space. And don't worry so much about wins right away. Tall order, but not impossible.

Looking at UMich's schedule and making some assumptions:

@ NW - Persa will run all over that defense if they let him.
@ MSU - Pretty sure we got the talent and coaching to take them down.

then they have a rough stretch for the last 4 games:

@ Iowa - Rebuilding, but dangerous.
@ Illinois - Scheelhaase has another year under his belt and is a pretty good player.
Nebraska - Good luck.
Ohio State - Yeah that's not happening.

Out of those 6 games I see them winning against NW, Iowa, and Illinois providing some luck goes their way. I think MSU, Nebraska, and OSU go to town on them.

I'm sure Michigan's defense will improve this fall. Still, part of me will wax nostalgic about a more chaotic era, when said defense might let up 60+ points and take a game to triple overtime.

Just an FYI, you can't teach a person who's been a QB for years how to put "touch" on the ball if he doesn't already know how. That is akin to teaching a college basketball player how to "shoot."

Michigan is not THAT bad, their defense does suck. Northwestern will be favorites no doubt but I think UMiich can pull off the upset.
Iowa will be in a major rebuilding year after losing DJK, Stanzi, Clayborn, Ballard, Klug and more. They choked against Minnesota, and again, I expect Michigan to have a decent shot.

They might not be ideal chances but compared to their chances vs. Nebraska and OSU, and for that matter MSU, i'd take it.

How do you think the MSU Quidditch team will do?

me too as that is all I expect next year

Thanks man, like I said, I have no problem talking football with UM fans as long as we both accept that a) It's almost impossible not to be a little biased and b) with "a" in mind, we keep it civil.

Side note: Holy )*@$&)$*@%. How do you have 1200+ posts already?!

Anways, I'd expect a 4-3 to be a big boost to Mike Martin. . . .if they can find another viable DT. Ash, Black, etc. are all young or unproven, and "Big Will" hasn't been much other than "Big". I wonder how Roh will respond being a DE full time. Also, you're going to need to develop some depth at DE; not sure how you look past Van Bergan and Roh.

At LB . . . . you lose 2 very experienced guys in Mouton and Ezeh, though I'm not sure that Ezeh is that much of a loss. Getting rid of the "Spinner" position should help, but I think Rich Rod recruited towards the 3-3-5, with 2 true LBs, so your LB depth is going to be a bit thin. You should, by contrast, have a surplus of DBs, but attrition hit you hard there. You'll play at least half of your DB recruits this year out of necessity, which sucks from a depth perspective (ideally all frosh get the RS, regardless of position).

On O, I'd have a real concern about your OL. Probably not the first unit, but you have 8 schollie OL that aren't true frosh this fall (maybe 9, I just counted the recruiting classes and who I know isn't there anymore) so depth is a legit concern. I have no idea what shoelaces is going to look like in a mostly prostyle set, if for no other reason than his height makes it hard to see over the OL if he takes the snap under center.

Your K has no where to go but up, so expect an improvement there.

I did want to talk about the schedule next year in terms of divisional opponents, particularly Iowa.

I really think Iowa takes a step back. They tend to go in cycles; 3 years up, 3 years down. They went from bad in Ferentz's first 3 years 99, 00, 01(1-10, 3-8, 6-6) to good his next 3, 02-04 ( 3 straight 10 + win seasons), then down again (6-7 Ws from 05-07), then up (9 Ws in 2008, 11 in 2009), but last year seemed the end of that "up" cycle (8 Ws including a bowl win), with the graduation of studs like Clayborn, Klug, Ballard, etc.

Iowa, like Wisky, is built on kids RS Sophs or older and can rarely "reload" in terms of talent. They had a very bad recruiting class in 2009 ( 2nd worst in the conference, average stars of 2.5) and those kids will be the RS Sophs expected to fill in. Those teams tend to not be able to sustain high level of success, because the talent waxes and wanes with their recruiting from one year to the next, they'll have talent gaps that are harder to overcome. Iowa started 4 4* on their front 4 last year and they're all gone. I know that stars don't always matter, but Clayborn, Bulaga, Hunter, etc. were all high level recruits expected to contribute greatly. For all the talk of Iowa doing more with less, they usually hit on their elite recruits; the 2005 class ranked 8th nationally and those guys were 5th year SRs during Iowa's 11-2 season in 2009. Then they left and Iowa took a step back.

Iowa is likely to have issues up front on D and O; with a new QB, that's always an issue. They play very sound, fundamental D, but can be out-talented. With MSU, Nebraska and UM all having more talent than Iowa, this could end up being the start of some very mediocre seasons in Iowa City.

I expect a Dline of Roh and Black at DE with Martin and Van Bergen at DT.