Sure that might make sense if we didn't routinely out recruit most if not all other teams in the division and almost beat everyone in the other division, yet finished beneath them all.
THAT is because of coaching.
That's my point. Our team was talented enough to win each of those games. They were not consistent enough in their execution to do so.
I don't agree in terms of being nationally competitive. Probably true if your goal is limited to the conference level and pure W/L.
So you don't think the conference is nationally competitive?
Certainly not the B10 west.
So a team from the B1G west can almost beat every team (including any team with a heartbeat from the East) and somehow it is unreasonable to think that they could be competitive? I mean, the team that won the conference last year, needed a lucky fumble to win... one in which most people thought the play should have been blown dead due to forward progress being stopped for a few seconds.
I don't think Nebraska fans should be talking about lucky turnovers to win....Flea Kicker - Wikipedia
I think more importantly, if you can't recruit you're putting a cap on the ceiling your team can reach even with the best coaching. If Nick Saban started at Nebraska tomorrow, it's an impossibility to win a national title with their current roster.
You mean an incredible play of athleticism and awareness, because that is what that flea kicker was.
So its reasonable for Michigan to be competitive nationally, but teams that nearly beat Michigan is just out of bounds.... you're special.
No one said both don't matter.
All you Nebraska fans look the same, but one of y’all definitely said recruiting didn’t matter “all you need is heart, determination and a shred of raw talent” or something along those lines.
Michigan reached their modern ceiling in 2021. Good enough to win the conference every now and then, but get blown out against the true contenders
Michigan has a shot, certainly a low one, to win a national title. We'd have to get more lucky than even last year on the few elite prospects we get panning out into elite college players. Our roster is not Alabama's, our roster is not Georgia's, our roster is not Ohio State's. Michigan has collectively one of the most talented rosters in the country most years (top 15), we don't have one of the top 5. We're just outside of that. We have an outside shot to win a national title (if we got lucky in the playoff matchsups) but it's still pretty low until we recruit even better than we do.
Agreed. Unless we got a lucky playoff matchup or recruit better, that's about as good as we're going to get without a higher density of better recruits.
Nebraska should stick to gymnastics and leave the football to schools like the Deacs
Not only is it competitive, it is the best. Highest media payouts of all the conferences. That's what matters nowadays.
If Michigan can't do it, how in the hell are schools with lower profile recognitions going to?