Michigan football has shown it can beat Ohio State. Now it's time to beat everyone else.

DETROIT − It’s all still out there for this Michigan football team. But then that’s been true on this day twice before, and when the Wolverines stepped beyond the Big Ten and onto the national college football stage, they discovered they weren’t ready.

Especially the first time, two years ago, when U-M snapped its losing streak against Ohio State, thumped the sacrificial Big Ten West fodder in the conference title game — Iowa, if I recall, though does it matter? — and then lined up against Georgia in South Florida.

That was an awakening.

Last year wasn’t as demoralizing. U-M had the quickness and speed and beef to stay with TCU and might have knocked them off if not for a couple of pick-sixes. Progress, right?

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Well, here they are again with a date in Indianapolis that feels like a foregone conclusion — again, apologies to Iowa; they’re back and just as incompetent offensively — leading to a likely return to the College Football Playoff.

And as nice as it was for U-M to quiet the sign-stealing noise and bring Ryan Day near tears (metaphorically, of course), as nice as those results were after holding off Ohio State for a third consecutive season, this program and its practitioners are getting a little antsy.

They’d just as soon finish the quest this time. As Blake Corum said before the season began: National title or bust.

He meant it, if you were wondering. And was prepared to live with the results if his team hadn’t gutted through a grinding, taut slog Saturday afternoon at Michigan Stadium.

“This is why I came back,” he said.

He didn’t want to end his career here with an injury. He also wanted one more chance to play the Buckeyes in the Big House. He got his chance. He took it.

Now it’s time for the Wolverines to take the next step.

Can they?

Sure, they can. And if they don’t, it’ll be more disappointing than losing to Georgia, obviously, but even more than losing to TCU.

Mostly because they are more talented. Have more experience at quarterback. Have been through a strange and challenging scandal — through no fault of the players, obviously.

That’ll help callous the hands, if you will. And that should motivate even more fastidious preparation during the long break between the Big Ten title game and the CFP semifinals.

It helps, too, that most of these players have been there before, many of them twice. There is a reason several of them mentioned that fact after beating the Buckeyes.

As their interim coach, Sherrone Moore, said: “They expected to win it.”

The Game, he was talking about. That’s where the Wolverines are now. On better-than-even footing with the Buckeyes, which means it's time to compete with everyone else. And they know it and are desperate to prove it, too.

“We are not satisfied with just winning (against OSU),” Moore said. “We have bigger goals. We have everything out there that we’ve worked for, and we want to continue to pursue that. These guys have earned the opportunity.”

That’s the first step, yes — earn the opportunity. The next one is to take advantage of it. No team of Jim Harbaugh’s has been better equipped to do it.

He said it himself. Several times. And from the beginning of the season: This is the best roster he has put together at U-M.

Some analysts bet Harbaugh’s got 20 future pros, and a bevy more behind them. That’s Alabama and Georgia-level, if we’re being honest. Frankly, that’s Ohio State territory, too, which means it’s not an accident they’ve been beating the Buckeyes on the regular.

So, yes, start with the talent, but remember that the top of that crop starts with J.J. McCarthy. He’d struggled in recent weeks because of a leg injury and clearly couldn’t move like he had earlier in the season.

When he’s relatively healthy, as he looked Saturday, his legs give the Wolverines the dimension it takes to hang with squads like Georgia. Playmaking outside the pocket is critical to winning national titles these days. McCarthy, when healthy, can do that.

It’s not just the quarterback, though. The Wolverines have next-level difference-makers at so many spots, such as tight end, where two future pros — Colston Loveland and AJ Barner — loosened up the Buckeyes’ sticky defense in the second half.

Colston is big and rangy, athletic and fast, and he’s the kind of player that would stand out in any region, even the vaunted South. And while the offensive line will likely be missing a key ingredient in Zak Zinter (who was injured Saturday), the unit has depth and mental toughness.

The most notable difference between this year’s team and the last two — beyond McCarthy’s first-round skill set and the experience he has in using it — remains on the defensive side of the ball. U-M's D-line is big, fast, versatile and relentless — its linebackers run like safeties.

This was always a knock for Big Ten teams when they got on the field with warm-weather programs: a lack of speed in the critical spaces. Well, Ernest Hausmann can run. So can his linebacking mate, Junior Colston. Their closing speed helped turn big plays into small ones all afternoon.

Speed is no guarantee, obviously. But without it, teams can’t compete on the biggest stage in the sport. U-M has it. More than it has in years.

The Wolverines have motivation and energy to go along with that speed this season, too, and now they have an us-against-them mentality. And in the end, this is all that matters — that the players believe in the mantra.

Moore said this year’s team talks a lot about never flinching, about responding when something goes awry. These Wolverines showed that Saturday afternoon against a team with equal talent. Now they'll have to show it again, because they are as talented as anyone.

This is the difference between now and a year ago, and especially between now and two years ago: U-M has the pieces to compete.

As defensive lineman Mason Graham said, the Wolverines have been in this position the last two years and “have fallen short.”

And?

They know a few things now.

“We know the expectations of what it takes to take that next step and keep on going,” he said. “I just feel we’re gonna build off the past two years and we have the expectations of going past that.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football knows what it has to do to make this OSU win count