The 2016 college football season is, technically, underway and the Michigan Wolverines will open their schedule this week against Hawaii. For the most part, expectations are sky high for Jim Harbaugh and his crew in year two of the new regime, but that does not extend to every pundit and analyst.
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In fact, Brett McMurphy of ESPN (in conjunction with colleague and fellow CFB writer Mark Schlabach) released his bowl projections earlier this week and, well, Michigan fans can't be pleased. McMurphy projects the Wolverines to land in the Holiday Bowl (!) on Dec. 27 in San Diego and, in that game, Michigan would meet up with the Washington Huskies.
In sharp contract, Schlabach actually pegs Michigan as a College Football Playoff team and, for good measure, projects the Wolverines to face Alabama in the title game. As for McMurphy, his picks basically place Michigan behind the likes of Iowa (Citrus Bowl), Nebraska (Outback Bowl), Michigan State (Rose Bowl), Ohio State (CFB Playoff) and even on par with Penn State (Music City Bowl).
There are ugly projections and there are ugly projections, and this qualifies as the latter for Michigan. There is, I suppose, a scenario in which the quarterback position submarines everything for the Maize and Blue, but you would be hard pressed to find a more negative view point than this one.
