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I'm not as sold on Muskegon as others seem to be. While there will always be talent in the Musky program, you cannot underestimate the impact that the loss of several key players and the head coach from last year's team. It will be a while before Jason Hannett can be replaced. He was a dominant force on both offense and defense. Anthony Davis, Jr. was a game-breaker as well. And, Elan Banks, ran the offense from the QB spot flawlessly. I was wrong last year when I predicted a down year for Musky vs. 2007. One reason for my prediction was that I was not aware of Banks. I figured that it would take a while to replace Chris Crawford. Well Banks was the real deal. Is there another Crawford/Banks waiting his turn. Or will there be growing pains at QB. To me, that will tell the story of the 2009 Muskegon team. But, throw in the loss of the RB tandem of Hannett and Davis and the HC and I don't think you can make Muskegon the favorite in Div. 2. I'd much rather have Inkster's roster than Muskegon's. However, I do think Muskegon will be better at the end of the season than at the beginning. So, a playoff run is more likely than a high early season rankiing.

It's a plus for Musky that the new HC is from Annese's staff and is familiar with the offense. But, there will still be growing pains. If there were a strong nucleus of players returning, the coaching change would have less impact. To overcome the loss of so many key players and the HC will not be as easy as many are predicting. I'll probably still have Musky in my Top 20, but there will be a number of Division 2 teams ahead of them.