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February 11, 2016ESPN’s Mark Schlabach updated his college football Top 25 rankings after National Signing Day. The Ohio State Buckeyes dominated the Michigan Wolverines on the field in 2015 with a 42-13 win, then snuck out a close victory in the recruiting wars by finishing fifth in the ESPN ranks as the Wolverines pulled the sixth spot. However, on-field and on-paper results were eschewed when Mark Schlabach placed That Team Up North a full seven spots higher than the Scarlet and Gray.
Both B1G teams did finish in the ESPN Top 10 though as Michigan attempts to make The Game an important rivalry on the national landscape again.
Here are a few notable selections:
Alabama Crimson Tide, #1
The Tide have to replace much of their starting defense, defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, and quarterback Jake Coker. But, the team has found themselves in the “bet on Saban until proven otherwise” category for the rankings after another strong recruiting class.
Michigan Wolverines, #3
Jim Harbaugh only has three starters to replace on offense, and it is not like replacing quarterback Jake Rudock will be seen as an impossible task.
Harbaugh climbed trees and slept with recruits (as in, slept in their homes) on his way to landing one of the top recruiting classes on National Signing Day. His recruiting prowess has scared the SEC powers enough for them to formally ask the NCAA to stop the Michigan Spring Game from being held in Florida. However, most incoming recruits will take some time before they make a true impact on the field. So, ESPN is going all-in on their belief in Harbaugh with the current foundation that went 10-3 while finishing third in the B1G East.
But, Michigan’s out-of-conference slate includes Central Florida Knights, Hawaii Warriors, and Colorado Buffalos who combined to go 7-31 in 2015, so they should have plenty of time to fine-tune their team with that underwhelming opening schedule.
Ohio State Buckeyes, #10
Meyer has much more talent to replace as the Buckeyes look to break the 2002 Miami Hurricanes record of six players taken in the first-round of the upcoming NFL Draft. In all, nine underclassmen along with their senior counterparts left Columbus after the season.
The advantage Meyer has is continuity in being more established with top recruiting classes to pull in new starters. Schlabach mentioned possibly 18 of the new 25 recruits from the 2016 class might be called upon to show their wares on the field this season.
The schedule is not to the Buckeyes advantage unless they are able to navigate it cleanly. An early game against the seventh-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in Norman will be a difficult test for the young squad. Adding Bowling Green and Tulsa to the out-of-conference schedule means a grouping that went 27-13 in 2015.
Houston Cougars, #11
Former Buckeye offensive coordinator and current Houston head coach Tom Hermann continues dominance of the Group of Five school placement as he nearly busts into the Top 10.
The Cougars get first crack at the Sooners with a virtual home game in Houston the first week of the season. And, it will be their chance to prove they deserve to be considered among the elite in college football as Oklahoma is the only Power Five team on their schedule in 2016.
127 Comments
He never says, but the comments within indicate they are the teams he feels has a best chance at making the playoffs at the end (at least on my reading).
always and forever
Wait. Then what’s angry font?
Never mind. Comic sans. I forgot.
I’m out of the loop, I thought normal text was angry font! No wonder I get upset with everyone all the time.
That’s only for Indians threads.
Considering the obvious rift between Franklin and Hackenburg, not sure that is a loss. I just don’t trust Franklin to win in the B1G, so I agree the Lions are going to continue being the kitties.
Always 42.
Yeah we’ll see. I’m equally interested to see what Sparty’s made of this year. But Indiana’s good uptempo and gave a number of teams a run for their money last year, including the Bucks. They had a young QB (Xavier?)…undersized mobile cocky little S who reminded me of Manziel (the good parts at least).
Lot of losses all around, but good teams don’t rebuild…they reload (or so that’s the marching chant we’re hearing).
You know this thread made me think that Thanksgiving must be really somber as a UM fan. Everyone sits around the table and eats their corn in silence with an awful feeling in their stomach knowing Saturday is soon approaching. I hope they at least get to enjoy black Friday.
Penn State won’t be good until they take away all play calling duties from Franklin. That guy can recruit, but he’s terrible on gameday.
Black Friday, followed by Blacker Saturday, followed by . . . Black Sabbath? Wait. Mixing metaphors, here.
I know I’m just going to enjoy this gloating process for as long as I can. I remember the ’90s, and it was no fun (and not just because I never quite got the grunge thing).
Me too. I remember the lean years. If there was a montage of our dark period, it would start around 1988 with me as a sad youngster following Buckeyes defeat listening to Milli Vanilli trying to make sense and blame it on the rain and then in 1990s (pretty much we got owned throughout) with Guns N Roses cold November Rain playing in the background. (For dramatic effect, I’m in the rain outside like John Cusack)
So I will gloat now. And I will now enjoy hating most new music and continue listening to 90s on 9 on Sirius like the old man I am.
“That guy can recruit”
Harbaugh (maybe his antics? 🙂 ) took away three of his better commits in the last few weeks before NSD.
Xander Diamont is interesting, but he’s one-dimensional. Sudfeld was a tremendous throwing QB, and Diamont is not. Sudfeld also knew that offense inside and out. His loss is going to hurt them a lot, I think.
They were probably afraid that the weird bi-polar guy in the khakis was going to come by their house late at night and scare their families (all night long) if they didn’t do what he said!
One of the guys he flipped was Quinn Nordin, the kicker. That’s whose house Harbaugh slept at. 🙂
Nothing to worry about Mrs. Nordin! I’m here for the sleepover with your son.
Exactly!!!
That kid is good, too. That sent shockwaves through the PSU community here in PA.
“But . . . he’s on an official visit in State College.”
“No worries. I’ll just sleep here until he comes back. (BTW, I sleep naked, and I like to keep the door open. Hope that’s okay.)”
Seriously though, ESPN doesn’t need to be. Football sells, even garbage football. People in the midwest lineup to watch Brown-Lions preseason games. MAC games or the absolute lowest tier bowl games on Tuesday night frequently outdraw other national tv games in other sports on much better nights to get ratings. ESPN will sign fat checks to show Michigan or Ohio St play, whether the opponent is Baylor or Ball State.
I think the buckeyes and UM are going to inflict some payback on Sparty next season.
How the hell did you lose to those guys?
I don’t get the Sparty love at all. That team wasn’t just a couple plays away from being 9-3 with losses to Ohio St and Michigan (or Iowa), they had problems with the likes of Rutgers and Purdue too.
Hey anyone up for a tickle fight?!
I suspect he won’t do that again.
That was some fan’s idea, and a dumb one.
Good question. They played hard, and we had probably the worst game plan ever against their strength. In retrospect, it’s amazing we lost (taking nothing away from Sparty who didn’t have Cook). Poor offensive coordinating in short, all season. Truly, all season long up to that point the guys who had the keys to a Ferarri couldn’t drive stick (or something like that). They figured it out too late (sad bc probably would’ve made the playoffs more fun).
Gentlemen, I just spent 20 minutes or so reading these comments, and
that was a mighty fine give-no-quarter, take-no-prisoners,
ain’t-backin’-down, yo-mama-wears-UnderArmor Buckeye-Wolverine
Valentine’s card exchange. Superbly done. My appreciation to all.
Boom! Fantastic prediction here. Well done.