HooplaNation's Week 12 Rankings - Discussion Thread

[osubuckeye89]

UM talking heads didn't. You have to remember that we lost badly to Bama in the SECCG and a lot of UM fans were saying "UGA was exposed ... our OL and Edge guys are going to kill them." One pleasure in life has been to go listen to the UM talking heads before the game and hear how badly they got it. A few were humbled after.

With regard to Bama, as I posted above they could just as easily be 5-5 or 10-0. It's nuts. And I agree there is something off. But you don't want to play them on a neutral field after Saban has had a month to get them ready, IMO.

UM Talking heads are amongst the biggest sunshine pumpers in the sport, lol. Go back and look before the season for example. They were legit trying to say that Michigan's WR room was the "best in the big 10" "even better than Ohio States". This is the kind of "expert" content you get from them.

I think most somewhat objective people could recognize that UGA was going to win, and probably somewhat easily.

 

[fishinabarrel]

UM talking heads didn't. You have to remember that we lost badly to Bama in the SECCG and a lot of UM fans were saying "UGA was exposed ... our OL and Edge guys are going to kill them." One pleasure in life has been to go listen to the UM talking heads before the game and hear how badly they got it. A few were humbled after.

With regard to Bama, as I posted above they could just as easily be 5-5 or 10-0. It's nuts. And I agree there is something off. But you don't want to play them on a neutral field after Saban has had a month to get them ready, IMO.

UM talking heads are dumb so there's that. I didn't predict a blowout but wasn't giving them much of a chance to win that game. Michigan relied too much on a power running game and Georgias defense was not going to have that.

 

[osubuckeye89]

UM talking heads are dumb so there's that. I didn't predict a blowout but wasn't giving them much of a chance to win that game. Michigan relied too much on a power running game and Georgias defense was not going to have that.

Yea even if you say Bama "exposed" UGAs defense in the SECCG. It was all passing and a lot of Jameson Williams.

Michigan had no one anywhere near his realm (Or even John Metchie's realm) to stretch that UGA secondary and they definitely didn't have a QB anywhere close to Bryce Young's caliber.

The players they had and the type of offense they run player right into UGAs hands.

 

[osubuckeye89]

UGA vs Michigan this year likely would go exactly the same, IMO.

Michigan has zero downfield passing threat and their same run offense would play right into UGA just like last year.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

I know the whole "SEC speed" thing gets a lot of grief, but it's true IMO. We get better recruits and often that is size and speed. Mostly on the D side as a lot of teams have fast O skill players.

I am really looking forward to that UM v. tOSU game. Should be one for the ages!

It isn't really the 'SEC' as much as it is Bama and Georgia. Your rosters are stacked with the best of the best recruits every year. The only team in the B1G who is even in the same ballpark is OSU, but most of their freak athletes are skill position guys.

The difference with Michigan and the teams pulling top 5 recruiting classes every year is -- Michigan will have one or two guys on the defensive side of the ball who can be game changers. At schools like Georgia -- they have it at every level of the defense. Unless a team like Michigan hits on every recruit and finds some lower ranked guys that become studs -- We won't ever have that.

So UM has went to essentially playing physical football. You don't have to have the best of the best to be good at bullying teams. So Michigan will just keep punching you in the mouth and hopefully wear a team down. Majority of teams in CFB aren't built to play a physical style. Georgia is though. Bama used to be until they went to the spread. So it has worked for them the last two years. Now we will have to replace alot of OL next season, so it will be interesting to see how we are.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

UM Talking heads are amongst the biggest sunshine pumpers in the sport, lol. Go back and look before the season for example. They were legit trying to say that Michigan's WR room was the "best in the big 10" "even better than Ohio States". This is the kind of "expert" content you get from them.

I think most somewhat objective people could recognize that UGA was going to win, and probably somewhat easily.

I can say without hesitation -- I wasn't one of the michigan talking heads. And honestly -- I take what the "analysts" say with a grain of salt, because their job is to drum up interest in the match ups.

Anyone who truly follows football could look at the teams and see Georgia played the same type of physical style that Michigan did. They have way more depth and high tier talent at every level on defense. UM had to get the pass rush going or they were in trouble.

And anyone who said Michigan had the best WR room in the B1G HAS to be on crack. It is the weakest position group on our team. It is why it was such a big deal we lost out on Xavier Worthy. If we had Worthy this year -- our offense would be unreal. Reality is -- we don't have a deep threat, so teams can move their safeties down to help stop the run. Our OL and TE are very good at run blocking, so no one has come close to stopping it, but Georgia will if we play them.

 

[osubuckeye89]

I can say without hesitation -- I wasn't one of the michigan talking heads. And honestly -- I take what the "analysts" say with a grain of salt, because their job is to drum up interest in the match ups.

Anyone who truly follows football could look at the teams and see Georgia played the same type of physical style that Michigan did. They have way more depth and high tier talent at every level on defense. UM had to get the pass rush going or they were in trouble.

And anyone who said Michigan had the best WR room in the B1G HAS to be on crack. It is the weakest position group on our team. It is why it was such a big deal we lost out on Xavier Worthy. If we had Worthy this year -- our offense would be unreal. Reality is -- we don't have a deep threat, so teams can move their safeties down to help stop the run. Our OL and TE are very good at run blocking, so no one has come close to stopping it, but Georgia will if we play them.

I thought maybe Cornelius Johnson would take the next step and give you guys a go to target, he had a pretty decent year last year considering the offense y'all run. He's been pretty non existent this year though. Only 20 catches to date.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

I thought maybe Cornelius Johnson would take the next step and give you guys a go to target, he had a pretty decent year last year considering the offense y'all run. He's been pretty non existent this year though. Only 20 catches to date.

We don't have a WR other than Ronnie Bell who can go up and win a 50/50 ball and we don't have a WR with the speed to take the top off the defense other than Roman Wilson (and he has been hurt so much this year). Cornelius Johnson has had stone hands this year. Quite a few guys have been like that.

Andrel Anthony COULD be a WR that can do that, but the guy has dropped multiple sure TD's on deep balls this year. We have good possession type WR's. We have good TE's. We just lack that deep threat and if you run the ball, that isn't good.

Not a single WR on UM would ever even see the field on OSU and I'm as die hard a Michigan fan as you will find. I'm just not blind.

 

[osubuckeye89]

We don't have a WR other than Ronnie Bell who can go up and win a 50/50 ball and we don't have a WR with the speed to take the top off the defense other than Roman Wilson (and he has been hurt so much this year). Cornelius Johnson has had stone hands this year. Quite a few guys have been like that.

Andrel Anthony COULD be a WR that can do that, but the guy has dropped multiple sure TD's on deep balls this year. We have good possession type WR's. We have good TE's. We just lack that deep threat and if you run the ball, that isn't good.

Not a single WR on UM would ever even see the field on OSU and I'm as die hard a Michigan fan as you will find. I'm just not blind.

Anthony is that typical guy whos really fast but he does nothing else well at all. Hard to give a guy like that too many snaps. A good example of how running fast doesn't automatically make you a good deep threat.

McCarthy has looked like shit the last couple of games. I don't think it's all on the WRs I don't really think the coaches trust him launching the ball down field too many times either. He has only thrown 2 INTs because they havent really put him in the position where INTs come much.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

I thought maybe Cornelius Johnson would take the next step and give you guys a go to target, he had a pretty decent year last year considering the offense y'all run. He's been pretty non existent this year though. Only 20 catches to date.

It takes a great player to have the speed and agility to track deep balls -- it takes a special player who can out run the defense and track deep balls consistently. Right now, IMO, UM has neither.

It is why I said the other day, it'd be a bigger loss for Tennessee to lose Hyatt than it'd be to lose Tillman. Tillman is replaceable. A player like Hyatt, you can't throw the next guy in and expect them to produce and make defenses account for them, like Hyatt does. Another example closer to home for OSU fans is Devin Smith. He wasn't the best player on OSU's offense, but his role as a deep threat set up that entire offense. If the safeties weren't back, OSU would go over the top to Smith. If they dropped the safeties it opened up the run and all the short and intermediate throws to Marshall and Thomas.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

Anthony is that typical guy whos really fast but he does nothing else well at all. Hard to give a guy like that too many snaps. A good example of how running fast doesn't automatically make you a good deep threat.

McCarthy has looked like shit the last couple of games. I don't think it's all on the WRs I don't really think the coaches trust him launching the ball down field too many times either. He has only thrown 2 INTs because they havent really put him in the position where INTs come much.

I agree. He has missed some throws, but he has also put some throws that were there and the WR just didn't catch it. Anthony has had two that have hit his hands and he dropped them.

In all honesty though -- UM's WR's simply don't get any separation down field. We don't have a WR that is going to run by the defense other than Roman Wilson. I was hoping one of the true freshman would step up, as we have some guys who can run we signed last year. It hasn't happened though.

And I agree -- McCarthy hasn't been asked to do a lot. I have a feeling OSU will see him use his legs a lot more than he has all year in that game. I can't believe how fast McCarthy is for a white QB. You just don't see that. UM hasn't been using him to run much because we don't have a backup QB right now. Cade is out for the year. Our backup is not very good, so if McCarthy goes down, we are in serious trouble. With OSU being the last game -- I think UM opens up the playbook much more and they will need it.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

He has only thrown 2 INTs because they havent really put him in the position where INTs come much.

He has really only thrown one pass this year that you could say -- he shouldn't have thrown that. He tried to force a ball into a really tight window in the end zone and the defender made a nice play -- picked it off. The other INT was a tipped ball at the line.

So he really takes care of the ball and that is really all that is asked of him. He will need to do much more if we want to beat OSU though.

 

[osubuckeye89]

I agree. He has missed some throws, but he has also put some throws that were there and the WR just didn't catch it. Anthony has had two that have hit his hands and he dropped them.

In all honesty though -- UM's WR's simply don't get any separation down field. We don't have a WR that is going to run by the defense other than Roman Wilson. I was hoping one of the true freshman would step up, as we have some guys who can run we signed last year. It hasn't happened though.

And I agree -- McCarthy hasn't been asked to do a lot. I have a feeling OSU will see him use his legs a lot more than he has all year in that game. I can't believe how fast McCarthy is for a white QB. You just don't see that. UM hasn't been using him to run much because we don't have a backup QB right now. Cade is out for the year. Our backup is not very good, so if McCarthy goes down, we are in serious trouble. With OSU being the last game -- I think UM opens up the playbook much more and they will need it.

McCarthy has speed and he makes me nervous on broken play scrambles. Our defense needs to be good about not over pursuing when pass plays break down.

He is not however particularly good at read runs or designed runs from what I've seen.

Michigan is screwed if McCarthy goes down, he has not been particularly frightening throwing the ball but the backup is a Walk On. You really have to have zero respect for the pass if that guy has to come in to run the show.

 

[osubuckeye89]

He has really only thrown one pass this year that you could say -- he shouldn't have thrown that. He tried to force a ball into a really tight window in the end zone and the defender made a nice play -- picked it off. The other INT was a tipped ball at the line.

So he really takes care of the ball and that is really all that is asked of him. He will need to do much more if we want to beat OSU though.

If Michigan is having to throw the ball to keep up I really like our chances, your offense just isn't built for that.

McCarthy has been good about not forcing deep and taking his check downs, but that kind of offense isn't going to beat a team like Ohio State if you are having to play from behind and play keep up.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

He is not however particularly good at read runs or designed runs from what I've seen.

In all honesty -- he really hasn't done any of that. I thought we'd see a ton of it this year. He has 34 carries in 10 games (stats will say 42, but he has been sacked 8 times and it counts as run in college). If you take out plays that break down where he ran -- I'd bet he has run maybe 10 times this year on a designed run.

I THINK, so this is not a fact, I think UM did this on purpose knowing we didn't have a backup, so they didn't want him running and risking injury. I can see them going to it though against OSU, as you know, that is the game we both want each year. So there will be no holding back. We shall see though.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

If Michigan is having to throw the ball to keep up I really like our chances, your offense just isn't built for that.

McCarthy has been good about not forcing deep and taking his check downs, but that kind of offense isn't going to beat a team like Ohio State if you are having to play from behind and play keep up.

Agree -- It is why I actually hope we win the toss and take the ball first or if OSU wins the toss, they give us the ball first. I think who scores first will dictate alot of the game.

If UM gets behind by multiple scores -- we are in trouble.

 

[Voltaire]

Nothing about Alabama is impressive this year other than Young and Gibbs. Their pass defense is terrible. When Young was out -- they struggled to throw the ball. This is the weakest Bama team i've seen in a long time.

I think UM and Bama would be a great game. I think OSU would absolutely torch the secondary of Bama. No team in CFB, including Tennessee has the talent at WR that OSU has. Look at the numbers they have put up and the #1 WR in CFB Jaxon Ngjiba-Smith has missed essentially the whole season. He had 95 catches for 1,600 yards as OSU's #3 WR last year.

You know what is impressive about Alabama ... Alabama is great year after year after year ... They lose two away games (by a total of 4 points) and they are having a terrible season. I could say the same about ohio state, but I won't.

 

[osubuckeye89]

In all honesty -- he really hasn't done any of that. I thought we'd see a ton of it this year. He has 34 carries in 10 games (stats will say 42, but he has been sacked 8 times and it counts as run in college). If you take out plays that break down where he ran -- I'd bet he has run maybe 10 times this year on a designed run.

I THINK, so this is not a fact, I think UM did this on purpose knowing we didn't have a backup, so they didn't want him running and risking injury. I can see them going to it though against OSU, as you know, that is the game we both want each year. So there will be no holding back. We shall see though.

I don't doubt that they have stayed away from many QB runs purposefully because of their backup situation. I really don't expect a sudden flow of designed QB runs in the game though.

They still have to keep him alive for if they win, for the B1G title game and playoff. I guess maybe if things are starting to go bad and they need to try something for a spark maybe. But I doubt it will suddenly be a huge part of the game plan. Switching the game plan for one game because "we haven't done it all year" is just asking for bad things to happen, IMO.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

I don't doubt that they have stayed away from many QB runs purposefully because of their backup situation. I really don't expect a sudden flow of designed QB runs in the game though.

They still have to keep him alive for if they win, for the B1G title game and playoff. I guess maybe if things are starting to go bad and they need to try something for a spark maybe. But I doubt it will suddenly be a huge part of the game plan. Switching the game plan for one game because "we haven't done it all year" is just asking for bad things to happen, IMO.

I'm not saying McCarthy is going to be running the ball 20 times. I just wouldn't be surprised if they have multiple plays where it is a design run for him in the game. I can see them having him run the ball 8-10 times, not including scrambles.

And it wouldn't be switching the game plan -- It is something they have had all year, they have just used it very sparingly, as it hasn't been needed. And UM always has 5 or 6 plays against OSU they haven't used all year. It is part of the fun of getting to watch the game to see if they will work.

 

[Jon Deaux]

Been thinking about something.

Fill in the blank in this statement in about 4 seconds and be honest with yourself and everyone else here:

“Alabama would finish ________ in the BIG this year.”

3rd in the East
Winner of the West