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Win or lose, there was never much doubt that 2023 represented Jim Harbaugh’s last stand on campus, and with it Michigan’s best shot at a national crown for the foreseeable future. Now that they’ve got all that out of their system, the Wolverines can enjoy the hangover in relative peace.
The filling of the championship void means Harbaugh’s successor, Sherrone Moore, has some time to put his stamp on the program before it starts rumbling to be fed again — a good thing, too, given a lineup that lost 18 of the 22 starters from the CFP title game along with most of the coaching staff.
Not for nothing, 3 of the 4 holdovers (CB Will Johnson, DT Mason Graham and TE Colston Loveland) are arguably the best returning players in the country at their respective positions.
Besides Graham, the rest of the rising talent on the d-line guarantees at least one side of the line of scrimmage will remain a strength. As for the other side, though, where an entirely rebuilt o-line is setting up shop in front of a totally untested quarterback, patience is a virtue and a luxury this program can finally afford.
Wolverines at a Glance …
2023 Recap: 15-0 (10-0 Big Ten; Won Rose Bowl; Won CFP Championship; 1st AP)
Best Player: DL Mason Graham
Best Pro Prospect: CB Will Johnson
Best Addition: LB Jaishawn Barham (Maryland)
Best Name: RB Cole Cabana
Tenured Vet: OL Josh Priebe (5th year; 29 career starts at Northwestern)
Emerging Dude: Junior edge Derrick Moore
Biggest strength: A potentially dominant defensive front. It’s not as deep a group as last year, but the starting four remain as good as any in the college game.
Nagging concern: Nearly every other unit. The Wolverines are rebuilding everywhere, including an offensive line starting over essentially from scratch. The lone holdover among last year’s regulars, Stanford transfer Myles Hinton, opened the season as the starting right tackle but was demoted after 4 games.
Looming question: Can the new quarterback be trusted? Presumptive starter Alex Orji is the kind of wild card you rarely see anymore in a position as high-profile as QB1 at Michigan. In his first 2 seasons Orji was limited strictly to a Wildcat role, running 21 times for 123 yards and 3 TDs. He was relatively unheralded as a recruit, and has yet to attempt a real pass at the college level. (His lone official attempt, against UConn in 2022, gained 5 yards on a screen caught 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage.) He is huge, checking in at 6-3/235, and mobile. Maybe it says something about something that Michigan treated the Orji package in 2023 like a secret weapon to break out in the biggest games. Maybe not. We’ll all find out together.
The schedule: Early reality checks against Texas in Week 2 and USC in Week 4 (both in Ann Arbor) will set the tone for the rest of the year: If another CFP run is in the cards, Michigan has to win at least one of those, and potentially both. Either way, the season ultimately comes down to November tests against Oregon and, of course, Ohio State.
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The upshot
Resetting the “Years Since Our Last National Championship” clock to zero lifted an enormous weight off the Wolverines’ shoulders, and just in the nick of time to beat the window slamming shut. Barring an outright collapse, Sherrone Moore probably has more to worry about from the NCAA’s ongoing investigation into the sign-stealing scandal that dominated headlines last fall than he does about delivering immediate results on the field in Year 1. (For the record, that investigation is unrelated to the recent show-cause order handed down against Jim Harbaugh for alleged recruiting violations during the pandemic, except to the extent that it could allow the NCAA to classify the program as a repeat offender.) Michigan should remain competitive, especially on defense; for now, no one is invested in anything more than that.