***The Official UHND Pre-Season Prediction Thread***

Hope I am wrong.

Not feeling good about this season.

Yes, 12

The good news is that I predicted 8-4 going into the 2012 season.

I think Wimbush will be fine, and we'll have enough playmakers on offense to score on anybody. I see improvement on that side of the ball in Chip Long's second season.

The defense will be ok, but I think there will be some inconsistency throughout the season which will cause a few losses under a brand new DC.

Between Stanford, VA Tech, and SC I think we will lose 2 of those games.

Which means we win at least 2 of the five toughest games against Michigan, Stanford, FSU, USC, and VA Tech and win all the obvious games.

Michigan will tell us a lot; we lose to them I think we are looking at 8-4 at best.

I don't see where our returning roster is going to get to double digit victories not with Winbush at QB, a relatively new starting OL, lack of a strong returning RB, and an average to slightly above average defense.

I hope it isn't Pittsburgh again.

This team has plenty of talent, and could beat anyone on any given day (except Alabama), assuming that it stays relatively healthy, and the games are called fairly by the referees, but that could be said about almost any top 25 team.

It's probably not good enough to beat the top notch teams when things are tilted away from the fairness median. For a team to be truly great, it should be able to overcome referee bias, unlucky breaks, etc., and we're simply not there yet. Maybe this is the year that we reach that benchmark, but until they prove themselves, I stand by my statement.

I will, of course, be happy to eat as much crow as I can, if I'm proven wrong on the latter mark.

Michigan will be the game that sets the tone for the entire season, just like Texas 2 years ago, this game is going to make or break the year. A big win here, I would dare to say that they should win 11 and maybe 12. A close win, 10-11 is realistic. A close loss, 9-10. A big loss, 8-9. I hope the team comes out hungry, motivated, and angry.