I often complain about the deficiencies of the team (and especially the staff), largely because I think there's always room to improve and I think we can always do better.
In these dark days of gloom, let me play the role of optimist and suggest that we perhaps are not as bad as most of us think right now, and that we may be on our way to shocking the world. To wit, what do we have so far:
1. We are 1-0 in the B1G with a win on the road over a team that just took down #23 BC
2. We lost to a ranked Duke team that had an explosive 2nd quarter, but otherwise we played them tight. Except for a couple costly turnovers, and arguably some ill-advised and aggressive 4th down play calling, this was a close game
3. A terrible defeat to a poor Akron team, but one where we had 3 TO's leading directly to 21 points - avoid one and we win. Piss poor play, bad decisions, bad luck. 9/10 times or probably more, we win.
4. Our offense blows - but Thorson has been limited. Two weeks off, hopefully gives him enough time to get back to 100%
5. Larkin is down. Yes, our best player. Will be sorely missed, but our RB unit has some depth. Maybe things won't be so bad. His speech to the players might be the intangible motivation speech needed to get this team going
6. The OL was a shambles last week. But, two weeks off maybe gets us healthy again. Hopefully Fitz fired Cushing all but formally and Kurt Anderson is running things now. One can only hope - this is supposed to be a thread about unbridled optimism, so work with me.
7. We were told Jalen Brown would be back this week. Hopefully Solomon Vault is too. That would add two potential playmakers to the roster that we haven't had. Let's hope it comes to pass and they have the impact they need to have.
8. Two weeks to review everything that went wrong and fix it. I trust the defense will be fixed. The offense came together and while not powerful, did improve after the disastrous start last season. This year, the bye comes at exactly the right time.
9. The West is down. Wisconsin looks mortal. The rest of the conference looks horrible. Purdue might actually be one of the better teams (aside from Wisco and Iowa). Beat Wisco and Iowa and anything is possible.
10. We have had ****** starts the last few years only to somehow rebound when no one expected it. Well, no one expects it now.
So, yeah, Michigan could kill us. Looks like that on paper at least. But, there is enough here to have a glimmer of hope. Double digit dogs? That's generally a sign to bet the farm on NU. We could just as well run the table. Instead of winning 10 games, let's win 11.
How's that for optimism? I really believe this could happen.
In these dark days of gloom, let me play the role of optimist and suggest that we perhaps are not as bad as most of us think right now, and that we may be on our way to shocking the world. To wit, what do we have so far:
1. We are 1-0 in the B1G with a win on the road over a team that just took down #23 BC
2. We lost to a ranked Duke team that had an explosive 2nd quarter, but otherwise we played them tight. Except for a couple costly turnovers, and arguably some ill-advised and aggressive 4th down play calling, this was a close game
3. A terrible defeat to a poor Akron team, but one where we had 3 TO's leading directly to 21 points - avoid one and we win. Piss poor play, bad decisions, bad luck. 9/10 times or probably more, we win.
4. Our offense blows - but Thorson has been limited. Two weeks off, hopefully gives him enough time to get back to 100%
5. Larkin is down. Yes, our best player. Will be sorely missed, but our RB unit has some depth. Maybe things won't be so bad. His speech to the players might be the intangible motivation speech needed to get this team going
6. The OL was a shambles last week. But, two weeks off maybe gets us healthy again. Hopefully Fitz fired Cushing all but formally and Kurt Anderson is running things now. One can only hope - this is supposed to be a thread about unbridled optimism, so work with me.
7. We were told Jalen Brown would be back this week. Hopefully Solomon Vault is too. That would add two potential playmakers to the roster that we haven't had. Let's hope it comes to pass and they have the impact they need to have.
8. Two weeks to review everything that went wrong and fix it. I trust the defense will be fixed. The offense came together and while not powerful, did improve after the disastrous start last season. This year, the bye comes at exactly the right time.
9. The West is down. Wisconsin looks mortal. The rest of the conference looks horrible. Purdue might actually be one of the better teams (aside from Wisco and Iowa). Beat Wisco and Iowa and anything is possible.
10. We have had ****** starts the last few years only to somehow rebound when no one expected it. Well, no one expects it now.
So, yeah, Michigan could kill us. Looks like that on paper at least. But, there is enough here to have a glimmer of hope. Double digit dogs? That's generally a sign to bet the farm on NU. We could just as well run the table. Instead of winning 10 games, let's win 11.
How's that for optimism? I really believe this could happen.
