This time the crazy hype around Michigan football appears justified
Outside Schembechler Hall, the skies were gray and the air was chill. It felt a bit like one of those typical fall Saturdays in Ann Arbor or perhaps a January night in Houston, the site of the next national championship game.
But alas it is August, which means it’s that time of year when the hype around Michigan football tends to swell to enormous, sometimes outrageous levels.
This program has historically been the home to September Heisman winners and inflated preseason rankings fomenting the kind of outsized expectations that are never quite fulfilled. The buildup and subsequent letdowns have become such a regular pattern that eyeballs roll and sighs are exhaled whenever buzz around the Wolverines crescendos.
This year, though, is different. This Michigan team is not some media creation, forged by a PR machine that aims to exploit the hopes and dreams of the program’s ardent followers.
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When it was revealed Monday that the Wolverines were voted the nation’s No. 2 team in the first USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll of 2023, no one guffawed, snickered, snorted or balked. Even to their past skeptics, their placement just below the top spot seems entirely justified considering their recent history along with the overall strength of their roster.
Michigan has claimed the last two Big Ten titles and made consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff. The next logical step for Jim Harbaugh’s squad is to not only play in the final game of the season, but also win it.
That’s the Wolverines’ mission, and they haven’t downplayed their pursuit of that goal. In February, barely a month after they were bounced from the CFP semifinals by TCU, star running back Blake Corum delivered an exuberant proclamation to Michigan fans: “We’re gonna win a national championship and go down in history!”
Flash forward to July at Big Ten media days, and Corum was given the opportunity to walk back that prediction or at least reframe how this upcoming season should be viewed.
But he didn’t seize it.
“I have high standards, so yeah,” he said, “it’s win or bust.”
That’s the consensus opinion among his teammates, too. After all, this does appear to be Michigan’s best shot to go all the way even in a year when their head coach is facing a possible four-game NCAA suspension. Part of the reason is that Harbaugh’s expected ban will coincide with a weak non-conference slate. It’s the opening act of a favorable schedule that features a home date against archrival Ohio State and potentially only one other matchup against a ranked opponent, a road test at Penn State.
Then there is the composition of the team itself. From Harbaugh’s perspective, it’s his greatest assemblage of players top to bottom since he returned to his alma mater in December 2014.
“I think this is the best,” he said. “They’re that talented.”
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Harbaugh’s appraisal of his own roster is so high that he told one reporter he anticipated as many as 20 Wolverines could be selected in the NFL draft next April, which would be a record for one school. In years past, such a number would be dismissed as a ridiculous exaggeration and another example of the delusional grandiosity that has so often laced the conversation surrounding Michigan. But now? Well, these Wolverines have earned the benefit of the doubt in part because they have turned inward and haven’t been seduced by their own positive publicity whether it has been manufactured by themselves or has originated from some other source.
“We’ve just kind of kept that ball rolling,” sixth-year linebacker Michael Barrett said. “Not listening to anything on the outside. Not worried about what anybody else thinks.”
Only the task at hand matters, and Michigan appears resolute in its desire to complete it. It’s why coaches have instituted a “Beat Georgia” period, a physical, in-the-trenches, no-holds-barred segment of practice designed to beat the reigning back-to-back champions at their own game. The Bulldogs, the only team standing above Michigan in the current rankings, are the obvious target and perhaps the Wolverines’ new obsession now that they have slayed the Buckeyes. Kirby Smart’s Leviathan castrated Michigan in the 2021 CFP, exposing the one-dimensionality of its offense during a 34-11 romp.
The run-heavy formula has worked exceedingly well during Big Ten play, but its potency has decreased outside the conference footprint. It helps explain why Michigan has already started laying the groundwork for a more vibrant passing game to achieve equilibrium in its attack.
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“I feel in order to get over that hump, in order to push through and bring out the most potential we have as an offense, you’ve got to be balanced,” junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy said.
As guard Zak Zinter said, “Passing in general has really been an emphasis for us this camp. … We know we can run the ball when we want even if (the opponents) know we’re gonna run the ball.”
After Michigan traveled by ground 61% of the time the past two seasons, it would be easy for Michigan to again rely heavily on a backfield that paved the way to 25 victories in 28 games. But the Wolverines appear willing to do what it takes to clear that final hurdle on the road to glory, so they are making the necessary adjustments to overcome that obstacle when the time comes.
It’s an encouraging sign this program is still hungry for more since rejoining the sport’s elite.
When factoring that sense of purpose in with their championship makeup and relevant experience, there are plenty of reasons to believe the lofty expectations for Michigan this season are justified. For once, the Wolverines seem capable of living up to them and perhaps even surpassing them. Should that happen, the feeling in January will match the one in August, which would mean that Corum’s audacious prediction was realized.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.
For openers
Matchup: Michigan (13-1 in 2022) vs. East Carolina (8-5 in 2022), season opener.
Kickoff: Noon Sept. 2; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: Peacock (online only); WWJ-AM (950), WTKA-AM (1050).
Line: TBA.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football has lofty expectations. Here's why they're justified
