I heartily disagree with you regarding Michigan and Boston College. We've already discussed this, but I personally believe Michigan had a lucky year last year. Does that mean they'll go 7-5 again? No. But it doesn't mean that that game is an automatic loss. BC gets fired up for us, but honestly 2 of those recent games were coached by the inept TW. While it's certainly no guarantee, I think we have a stronger than weaker possibility of winning that game.
I'm withya on this one sean. I just hope we are both wrong with BC. BC sucks.
Michigan did benefit last year from a down year for the Big-10 and a weak OOC schedule, but they were still a good team. Even if you take away those two tipped passes that resulted in interceptions and that ridiculous unforced fumble that resulted in a TD at the end, they still wiped the floor with us. Bottom line, Michigan can control the line of scrimmage against us, and they don't lose very often at home.
They lost to both us, OSU, and Minnesota two years ago. I agree that they don't lose to most of their home opponents, because (like most big schools), they play a home game in the one game series (see Duke, SDSU and Nevada for us), they alternate with the weaker portion of the B10 sked, so really, all they have to worry about each year is ND, OSU and possibly Wisconsin/Penn State if they play them.
Do I think we win this year, probably not, but I'll be cheering my ass off.
I could see us taking BC, and possibly PSU. I wouldn't bet on either of those, though.
I foresee and 8-4/7-5 season. We'll take the four easy games and probably lose to Michigan and USC. The rest, as you said, are more or less toss-ups (some of the leaners, however) and they will be more or less impossible to predict.
That "the" in the parenthesis should have had an "m" on it.
The Irish enter the season so vastly underrated that our opponents will be caught completely by surprise. No team has the ability to game plan against our new offense and defense. As such, the other teams are forced to waste a lot of time and energy planning for every contingency, rendering their game planning exercises utterly useless. Our smart quick & nasty offense jells almost immediately during the Ga Tech game as Charlie easily out coaches Chan to the point of embarrassment. Meanwhile, on the other side of the field our surprisingly adept defense completely befuddles the Bees young inexperienced quarterback forcing multiple turnovers to the point that we win the game easily on points scored by defense.
By game two our offense is has become deceptively dangerous as they reap the benefit of an infusion of confidence coming off the success at GA Tech. Passing game is developing and the run blocking sharpens into a balanced machine. More importantly, our defense again catches the napping opponent off guard in a nationally televised night game victory over the Lions that has pundits openly re-evaluating their career decisions. In an unexpected Game Day announcement Mark May retires and accepts a position with the Home Shopping Network.
By game three Irish fans settle in with great anticipation and start to believe that miracles are indeed possible as they witness yet another stunning upset victory over an unprepared and overconfident Lloyd Carr team. Michigan goes down hard as Henne has an all time career high number of turnovers that the Irish capitalize on for scores. The defense is now virtually swarming the field on every play as defensive play calling is honed into a finely tuned shredding machine. Charlie and Corwin openly relish their underdog position humbly accepting any and all media interviews.
Conversely, by game 4 Dantonio is refusing all media requests as he desperately attempts to review film and find some weakness in the Irish defense and develop a game plan. The Irish have not played the same formation more than once, so Dantonio is left to guess what is in store for his shaky new program. He doesn’t have long to wonder as the Irish never stop systematically carving up his team from the opening kickoff. The Spartans are so soundly defeated that by the second half Charlie has the second and third string players getting beefed up on experience.
From here on out the story repeats itself, ending with an undefeated season. The element of surprise combined with the unrelenting desire to play like champions proves to be the difference. Irish stun the college football world (again).
....Marco?
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