97 days until Michigan football: Will the Wolverines reach the top of the mountain for the first time since 1997?
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan football is hoping that, when it’s all said and done next January, it feels like 1997 again. That was the last time the Wolverines reached the top of the proverbial college football mountain, their 11th national championship.
U-M has won six Big Ten championships since, including in 2021 and 2022, but hasn’t fared as well on a national level. The Maize and Blue were blown out by Georgia, 33-11, in the 2021 CFP semifinal and lost, 51-45, to TCU in this past year’s semis.
Since winning the Rose Bowl over Washington State to secure the national championship Jan. 1, 1998, Michigan is just 7-14 in bowl games, including having dropped the last six.
There’s no question Georgia was a generational team with one of the best defenses of all time in 2021. But Michigan, a touchdown favorite, squandered an opportunity in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl against the Horned Frogs.
It stings, but the Wolverines have used that feeling as fuel this offseason, we’ve heard from every Michigan player who’s spoken. They’ve got the team to reach the mountain top this fall, but the stars still have to align, and they’ve got to catch the butterfly.
Led by ninth-year head coach Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan coaching staff is outstanding, one of the very best in college football. The Wolverines have talent up and down the roster, but beyond that they have experience. Most of the team’s starters and key contributors have played big roles on the grandest of stages — against Ohio State, in the Big Ten championship and in the CFP. There’s only one setting (the CFP) that has been their kryptonite.
But with the way things have shaken out around the country, there’s no other team with more experience in those big games than Michigan. The Wolverines bring back players that could be at NFL rookie minicamps right now, a group of emerging players behind them and youth that’s learning the ropes.
Earlier in his tenure, there wasn’t proof that following Harbaugh’s methods led to playing championship football — even though Michigan came ever so close on multiple occasions. But now there is — the vets are passing on what they’ve learned to the next group, and on and on, the same as it was in some of the most successful decades this program has seen.
Michigan has reached new heights under Harbaugh. The Maize and Blue are 25-3 over the last two seasons, with only one regular-season loss (and even that came in controversial fashion at MSU in 2021). Now, the goal is to aim even higher for the ultimate prize next January in Houston.
“He went to Michigan, and he got them better, and then he kind of plateaued,” Fox Sports and The Athletic national reporter Bruce Feldman said on the Rich Eisen Show this spring. “All of the sudden, we’ve talked a lot about what they’ve done to hit the gas and plow up the hill, and they did. Now, it’s like they’re on a different level.”
There’s an opening this season, too. Michigan has fewer question marks than any other team in the country, Feldman pointed out.
“I think the Big Ten East is going to be wild, because Ohio State, you have to replace [quarterback] C.J. [Stroud], but it’s still Ohio State, they’ve still recruited incredibly well,” Feldman said. “You have Penn State, they love their young quarterback, Drew Allar, who’s taken over. They just won [the Rose Bowl]. This should be a really scary Penn State team. Now, you have three teams who feel like they are legit playoff contenders. I think Jim Harbaugh is going to be really interesting to watch this year.
“Think about the teams now that have to replace key guys. Georgia is positioned well at making a run at doing something nobody has done in college football, which is win three in a row. Alabama not only has to replace its starting quarterback, Bryce [Young], they have to replace the best player, or defensive player, in the program, Will Anderson. No C.J. at Ohio State.
“There are definite question marks of all the teams that you think are like, ‘oh, yeah, but they’re there.’ If there was a year that Jim Harbaugh could win a national title at Michigan, man, this is the one that it shapes up as.”
Harbaugh said this spring that his team is the “best version” of Michigan he’s seen since taking the job Dec. 30, 2014. Couple that with the experience and drive to win, plus the questions around the country, and this might just be the team to make it to the summit.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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