Michigan did something last year it hadn’t done in a long time.
Make that a few things.
The Wolverines finally beat Ohio State, which had won eight straight and 15 of the previous 16 games in the series. They earned their first Big Ten championship-game berth and won the program’s first conference title since 2004. They also reached the College Football Playoff for the first time.
They finished the season 12-2, the lone blemishes a regular-season loss to Michigan State and a national semifinal loss to eventual-national champion Georgia. That record put Michigan back on the national scene among the elites, and the Wolverines now enter this season Saturday against Colorado State at No. 8 in the Associated Press poll.
“This team, we need to win again,” Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara said last month on Big Ten Network. “We need to show that last year was not a fluke.”
It was Jim Harbaugh’s most successful season since taking over as head coach of his alma mater in 2015. He has said entering this, his eighth season, that he feels good about the direction of the program and what it can accomplish this season.
The quarterback situation with returning starter Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy, the backup last season as a freshman, is nothing short of interesting.
McNamara will start Saturday’s opener against Colorado State and McCarthy will start the following week against Hawaii in a night game, so that Harbaugh can best determine who might be the starter going forward, or if the two will continue alternating, or if there will be a starter and a backup who will see playing time, like last year.
The offense should be explosive this year, considering the talent at receiver, tight end and running back, not to mention an offensive line that seemed to get even better with the addition of transfer center Olu Oluwatimi, a Rimington Award finalist last year. The defense has to replace the edge-rush sack production of Aidan Hutchinson, who set a program single-season record with 14 sacks, and David Ojabo who had 11, and the loss of do-everything defensive back Dax Hill.
“I really don't think it was a fluke,” Big Ten Network analyst Joshua Perry said in an interview with The Detroit News. “Some people can make a case for it, but they dramatically improved on defense. It was a drastic improvement. And they had an offensive identity for the first time, in my opinion, in a little while, where they were going to run the football first and foremost. But as we saw in the Michigan State game, if they need to throw it for 400 yards, they can go ahead and do that, too, but we're going to be who we are. That worked for them really well.
“The other thing was, I think they had a real sharp edge to them. And you have a guy like Aidan Hutchinson, he spoke a lot of things into existence for that team, and they really believed in him. Was it a fluke? I think they can replicate it.”
Michigan’s schedule, which opens with four straight home games, including the first three against opponents with new head coaches, sets up well for the Wolverines, Perry said. Their first road game is at Iowa at Kinnick Stadium, a difficult place for Michigan, and they will have to contend with Michigan State — which has won the last two meetings — in a late-October game at Michigan Stadium.
Even with a quarterback competition not yet entirely settled, and even with the unknown of how the defense will come together under new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter in game action, Perry is bullish on Michigan.
“They should be undefeated as they head to Columbus,” Perry said, referring to the regular-season finale at Ohio State.
The players insist last year wasn’t a fluke. They have different goals this year, but the constants remain beating rivals Michigan State and Ohio State.
“This year is more, we want it all — we want to beat our rivals, go to the playoffs, Big Ten championship,” receiver Roman Wilson said. “We want to come for it all. We don’t want to be what old Michigan was. We want to set a new standard for us.”
Old Michigan? Wilson was asked what he meant.
“It’s no surprise that we haven’t done that well in the past years,” he said. “We want to take our game up here. We want to be considered one of the best when we leave this program.”
Michigan was coming off 2020’s dreadful 2-4 season, so the players spoke last preseason camp about the chip on their shoulders and proving the Wolverines could be winners. Early in camp, they even discussed the offensive identity of being tough up front with a physical run game. They had Hassan Haskins to fit that role, the thunder to Blake Corum’s lightning. Haskins is now in the NFL, and Corum returns to carry the workload with Donovan Edwards.
But Mike Sainristil, who converted in the spring from receiver to a role in the defensive secondary, said the Wolverines haven’t lost that chip.
“Because like I always say, whether we do good, whether we do bad, I feel like Michigan, (people say) they shouldn’t be where they are or we’re always looked at as underdogs,” Sainristil said. “I feel like everyone does a good job of understanding that.
“Regardless, our school name carries a weight people want. The legacy this school has, people want that; people envy that. That’s why we have to every Saturday when we go out and play, we just need to understand the chip we have on our shoulder and not let people knock that down.”
Edge rusher Jaylen Harrell said Harbaugh has stayed on the players about not becoming complacent or entitled.
“Coach Harbaugh really hones in on that (saying), don’t fall in love with your own stuff,” Harrell said. “We had a great year last year, but it’s a new year. We’ve been working hard, just grinding getting after it, getting ready for Sept. 3.”
Harbaugh said tone-setters like Hutchinson last year, emerged in camp. There are five captains elected by the players, McNamara, tight end Erick All, defensive tackle Mazi Smith and Sainristil, in addition to receiver Ronnie Bell, now a two-time captain.
There are several others, Harbaugh said, including Corum, Caden Kolesar, considered the special-teams leader, and defensive linemen Mike Morris and Taylor Upshaw, who are pushing the energy level and holding teammates accountable.
It’s been all about effort and energy during camp, Wilson said.
"When I was a freshman, it always felt like we were working hard, but the difference in the amount of energy and the guys really want to (be there),” Wilson said. “It's just different. You can't even explain it. People talk shit to each other. We get upset over plays. Nobody likes to lose. It's competitive."
That’s the formula Michigan players believe will help them prove last year was not a fluke.
