time for some michigan football coverage

Here is my super early michigan season preview: (part 1 of ?)


Michigan (probable regular season record somewhere between 1o-2 and 12-0)

OFFENSE:

arguably one of the top 3 offenses in the country. with mike hart, chad henne, jake long, mario manningham the wolverines have one of the country's top RB, QB, LT, and WR.

Looking at the various positions:

WR:
Mannigham is a stud, a legit #1 receiver. Hopefully adrian arrington will be available if not greg matthews must step up. If arrington is back on the team UM has a solid wr trio, and talent recruits coming in. Latrell Savoy has been a bit of a mystery, apparently he looks good on the practice field, yet cannot get any worthwhile playing time. If indeed arrington returns (i think he will) this receiving core should be tops in the big ten, and one of the best in the country.

Questions about the WRs - will arrington be back on the team, will savoy get to play, will manningham be able to rival his performance of early 2006, and will the freshmen earn any playing time, will antonio bass ever be able to play again and will debord and carr throw the ball since we have a vetern qb and solid wrs?

Probable starters at WR - Mario Mannigham and Adrian Arrington (Greg Matthews if A.A. is not back on the team).

Losses from 2006- Steve Breaston (graduated), Carl Tabb (graduated), Doug Dutch (moved to CB)

Incoming players: Zion Babb, Toney Clemons, Junior Hemingway

Preview of upcoming previews:

TE is a position of concern and mike massey needs to show he can stay healthy, because he is really the only TE on the team with any experience.

the O-Line is solid with long and kraus anchoring the left side. schilling and boren must step up for the line to be at its best.

Ranking the Big Ten

These are my rankings for the teams of the big ten. This has no bearing on who is the best team in the conference, who is the worst, who is alright etc. These are just my personal feelings on all the big ten teams. This is in no way shape or form has any empirical evidence it is just merely my opinion.

1. Michigan (Duh, my fave team in the sporting universe).
2. Illinois (Someone had to be second, their "rivalry" with OSU is a plus).
3. Minnesota (Seemingly harmless except for 2005 win over Mich, but, bonus points for being rivals with Wisconsin and Iowa, additional points for having WR Ron Johnson who was freaking amazing in NCAA 2002).
4. Northwestern (I don't really care about NW, but they were fun to watch with Zak Kustok and Damian Anderson).
5. Indiana (Bonus points for having Antwaan Randle El, and for losing to UM every year).
6. Purdue (Not a fan but not as much dislike as the teams below)
7. Iowa (Don't like 'em at all but like other teams less).
8. Wisconsin (Slighty more tolerable than PSU).
9. Penn State (Can't stand them).
10. Michigan State (My third least favorite team in the universe).
11. Ohio State (My least favorite team in the whole history of the universe).

Note- Notre Dame is my second least favorite team but since they don't have a conference I'll just lump them in as 10b on the list.