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| This guy led the team in sacks. |
Leading Rusher
Prediction: Denard Robinson, 1200 yards
Actual: Denard Robinson, 1266 yards
Leading Receiver
Prediction: Roy Roundtree, 750 yards
Actual: Jeremy Gallon, 829 yards (Roundtree had 580)
Leading Tackler
Prediction: Kenny Demens, 90 tackles
Actual: Jake Ryan, 88 tackles (Demens had 82)
Leading Sacker
Prediction: Jake Ryan, 5.5 sacks
Actual: Jake Ryan, 4.5 sacks
Leading Interceptor
Prediction: J.T. Floyd and Jordan Kovacs, 2 interceptions (tie)
Actual: Thomas Gordon and Raymon Taylor, 2 interceptions (tie); (Kovacs had 1, Floyd had 0)
All-Big Ten First Team
Prediction: Taylor Lewan, Denard Robinson
Actual: Taylor Lewan, Patrick Omameh, Will Hagerup (Denard Robinson was Honorable Mention)
Leading Scorer (non-QB, non-kicker)
Prediction: Fitzgerald Toussaint
Actual: Fitzgerald Toussaint
Breakout Offensive Player
Prediction: Thomas Rawls
Actual: Devin Funchess. Funchess didn't light the world on fire, but he showed flashes of what he can do if Michigan can get him the ball in the coming years. Rawls didn't show much elusiveness or much power.
Breakout Defensive Player
Prediction: Thomas Gordon
Actual: Quinton Washington. Washington went from a bit of an afterthought to a viable Big Ten nose tackle. While he didn't put up great numbers (32 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack), he took up blockers in the middle of the line and didn't get blown off the ball.
Most Disappointing Offensive Player
Prediction: Jerald Robinson
Actual: Fitzgerald Toussaint. Robinson was disappointing and then left the team, so he was clearly a disappointment. But the starting running back, who averaged 5.6 yards/carry in 2011, dropped all the way to 4.0 yards/carry this season.
Most Disappointing Defensive Player
Prediction: Jibreel Black
Actual: J.T. Floyd. Floyd didn't make a single interception this season and got himself suspended for the Outback Bowl.
Alabama
Prediction: Loss
Actual: Loss
Air Force
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
UMass
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Notre Dame
Prediction: Win
Actual: Loss
Purdue
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Illinois
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Michigan State
Prediction: Loss
Actual: Win
Nebraska
Prediction: Win
Actual: Loss
Minnesota
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Northwestern
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Iowa
Prediction: Win
Actual: Win
Ohio State
Prediction: Loss
Actual: Loss
CONCLUSION
Out of 23 predictions, I got 12.5 right. I'm like Nostradamus or something.
They actually lost to Nebraska, Nostradamus.
ReplyDeleteI'm like Nostradamus, not Archimedes.
DeleteFixed. Thanks.
Nice work Thunder. Predictions are hard and you did quite well.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree with Funchess being the breakout O player though. He didn't catch more than a single pass in any game after ND and had broke the 15 yard mark only once. I'd say it was Gallon, who doubled his yardage from '11 and became the top receiving threat on the team. Once Gardner took over at QB, Gallon averaged over 100 yards receiving a game
I made my predictions in the comments and there were some bad ones (like Barnum being the breakout O player, ouch) but I'll pat myself on the back for this: "Season: 8-4. Bama, Notre Dame, Nebraska, and OSU seem like losses to me."
Overall, the biggest surprise of the year was how good the DL was. Our coaches really deserve a lot of credit for transforming Campbell and Washington into quality starters and incorporating a good deal of youth into a defensive line unit that was pretty strong. I'm hoping that next year's OL proves similarly capable.
The biggest disappointment of the year, for me, was moving Gardner to WR - that's a move that either shouldn't have been made in the first place, or should have been discarded more quickly. I realize it was a popular move with most fans, but there was a number of people who saw the downside and questioned the move. It arguably cost Michigan the Nebraska game and, if Gardner had been working at QB all year, it just might have tilted the balance in other close games (i.e., OSU and USC)