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bkp1883 said...
First off, I am unhappy that this game was scheduled. I don't think Michigan should be playing Alabama out of principle and the competitive advantage that oversigning provides. Its bad enough to play the reigning national champion in Jerryworld, but Alabama has a full recruiting class of extra players to have chosen from.
With that said, I expect to see a bit of a disjointed mess like the Sugar Bowl. I don't think the Michigan offense really finds any rhythm in this game, and while the defense keeps it close for most of the game, Alabama wins by a couple touchdowns. Similar to the Alabama-Penn St. game last year, only Michigan has a couple more big plays. 31-17 Bama.
I think the biggest storylines for the game will be the rhythm of Michigan's offense and Alabama's reaction to it, and how well the interior line holds up.
First off, everything about Denard is fast. The kid is always bouncing off the walls, apparently, no matter the situation. I think this has made it difficult for him to adjust to the timings in Al Borges's west coast-style passing attack and led to some rushed and unwise passes last year. With that said, Denard did seem to progress last year, up until the Sugar Bowl, having an established RB in Fitz Toussaint will help take the offense off Denard's shoulders (at least at the start of the game), and Al Borges said from day one that the first year in his system is tough, but he is expecting a big jump from year 1 to year 2.
As I understand, Alabama has a good deal of turnover on the defensive side of the ball. If Michigan can come out with decent rhythm and tempo it could cause trouble. Denard Robinson is the ultimate mistake killer in college football this year, and if those new guys on the D come out unprepared for full game speed, some big plays could be in the works for Michigan.
As for when Michigan's D is on the field, the middle has got to hold up. Michigan lost a couple of leaders and NFL talents off the defensive line, and replacing them is an iffy proposition at this point. As it stands currently, last years backup WDE (that saw less and less playing time as the season went on), Jibreel Black, will be moving to the three tech. He actually seems suited for a 1-gap interior lineman, but he will be undersized and new to the position. Will Campbell, a former 5* recruit who has been a victim to poor work ethic and horrible coaching for his first two years will be filling in at the nose for Mike Martin. Spring practice reports have been encouraging, and he seems to really grasp how important he is to this team.
If those two guys can hold up in the middle, and if the offense finds a rhythm like they had against Nebraska and certainly not against VT, Michigan could be in for a non-fluky win.
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Skip1856 said...
Hey fellas, visiting from MSU 247. My brother is a member over here and mentioned this was a very interesting read, he was right. This is one of the most intriuing games of the season. Quick question, hope its not too off topic. Alabama has a geographical advantage given it's souther persuasion but Michigan has a large and affluent alumni base that can obviously afford to travel and support the program. How does the fan split at the game shake out? With both teams losing key support pieces every aspect of the game must come into question. I think crowd support plays into this a little. What do you think?
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Skip1856 said...
Hey Ducksworth good to hear from you. I would agree. It's always the concern at a neutral site like this but if any two programs can pull off huge crowd support at a neutral site its michigan and alabama. Should be fun, good luck. Thanks for the hospitality boys. Go B1G.
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ReasonableDoubt said...
I usually try to ignore the oversigning argument but sometimes it gets irritating. Michigan has signed 94 players the last 4 years and bama had signed 103. That's a difference of nine players.
Bama has nearly sent that many juniors to the draft early. Last year 3/4 of our first rounders were true juniors and one was a juco, two true juniors the year before that and terrance cody was a 2nd round juco. Bama also signs juco players and those guys only stay 2 years. We sign at least two every year.
So dont be that guy. Bama just has a great thing going now, we sign the top class pretty much every year and we've owned the first round of the nfl draft. We dont sign thirty every year, we did that the first year saban was here. But even then many of those guys went juco and signed later and we had a few who signed baseball contacts.
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bkp1883 said...
You have what appears to be five fifth-year seniors returning, so you need to count that 2008 megaclass of 32 to come up with an honest number. When you add in the 2008 class the difference swells to 18. Alabama will be benefiting from an extra recruiting class over Michigan, which had even gone through a head coaching change. In almost every bowl game the SEC competed in last year, the SEC team had a full recruiting class more than their opponent of players to have built the team from. Nick Saban had the luxury of whittling 137 signees from 2007-2011 to 85 to make his championship team last year.
Alabama has consistently signed 4-5 more players a year than Michigan, and every five years (the real timeframe for a college football player) that makes for an entire extra class. That is a big advantage.
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Skip1856 said...
Also read that you guys have devleoped that third string QB into a challenge Gardner for the 2 spot. I forgot his name, my apologies. However, having a good option or two behind Drob can't hurt for this game. Alabama is replacing experience with talent, which is difficult, but they'll still hit.
Go Blue & Gig Em'!
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Skip1856 said...
Also read that you guys have devleoped that third string QB into a challenge Gardner for the 2 spot. I forgot his name, my apologies. However, having a good option or two behind Drob can't hurt for this game. Alabama is replacing experience with talent, which is difficult, but they'll still hit.
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Skip1856 said...
Also read that you guys have devleoped that third string QB into a challenge Gardner for the 2 spot. I forgot his name, my apologies. However, having a good option or two behind Drob can't hurt for this game. Alabama is replacing experience with talent, which is difficult, but they'll still hit.
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TAMUWolverine said...
Gardner is the clear #2, Bellomy is just developing into a solid option which gives us the opportunity to get Gardner and Denard on the field at the same time. Gardner is the 2nd best athlete on the team behind Denard and we're looking for ways to get him touches. I only expect Denard to run it 10-15 times against Bama, our ground game will rely on Touissant, who looks great this spring.
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Skip1856 said...
I noticed that in the spring footage my brother sent me. They must plan on using him there because of the limited amount of footage they released. I felt like if it was for fun or just to get him on the field and decoy a little bit they'd have let some additional film slip out there. Probably looking too deep into it but I like Gardner. In spite of the fact I knew he wasn't headed to Sparty I followed him because he was the #1 dual threat QB and I'm a dude from the mitten so I'll root for one of mine even if they end up at michigan.
Go Blue & Gig Em'!
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TAMUWolverine said...
Yeah, Gardner looks bigger, faster and he can really sling it. I'm hoping that he gets his medical redshirt for his freshman year, so he'll have 2 full years as the starter. I try not to look too much into the videos that get released because they only release what they want people to see.
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Skip1856 said...
he seems like a good kid too. At any rate, should be a good game. Looking forward to it. Couldn't believe the lack of brush fire on this thread given these two passionate fan bases. Michigan playing Alabama is fun for college football, period.
Go Blue & Gig Em'!
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Alabama/Michigan.....from a Bama fan.