What was the difference?

Deep Creek

Deep Creek

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I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
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Stolen signs.
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
Click to expand...
Well I made this point before and got quite a few people rattled, but this wasn't a strong year for CFB. Any other year and this Bama team doesn't sniff the CFP. OSU, Clemson, LSU were down, and UGA got upset at the worst possible time. Washington was a nice story, but their defense was horrendous. Texas trudged through a terrible Big 12 which explains the 1 loss (but just barely), and michigan returned more experience than almost any other team out there.
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
Click to expand...
Bama and UW are not as good as GA from last year. TCU got lucky vs MI last year.
 
Across The Field said:
Well I made this point before and got quite a few people rattled, but this wasn't a strong year for CFB. Any other year and this Bama team doesn't sniff the CFP. OSU, Clemson, LSU were down, and UGA got upset at the worst possible time. Washington was a nice story, but their defense was horrendous. Texas trudged through a terrible Big 12 which explains the 1 loss (but just barely), and michigan returned more experience than almost any other team out there.
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So you are going with “the road was easier” reason this year?
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
Click to expand...
It's funny, I don't think there is much difference physically / talent wise in the 2023 Wolverines and the 2021 and 2022 Wolverines, but they were mentally tougher. Go back two more years to 2019, and I went to the Citrus Bowl between Michigan and Alabama on NYD 2020. Michigan went head to toe with Alabama physically that day, but they brought a FG kicker to a TD fight and ultimately lost in the 4th quarter. The thing is that was a super talented Alabama team that fought injuries all year (especially Tua going down @ Miss. State) with Mac Jones, DeVonta Smith, Najee Harris, etc. that would become what I believe the best team in Alabama history in 2020. Michigan just became mentally tougher IMO. Not a super team in the All-Time sense but definitely the best and toughest team in 2023. They are a very deserving CFP Champion in my book.
 
Across The Field said:
Compared to the other years of the CFP? Yeah.
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um. What years? In consecutive games Michigan beat #2 Ohio State, #16 Iowa, #4 Alabama and #2 Washington.

Are you suggesting that because Michigan WAS the elite team this year, that it's not as fair because we didn't have to functionally "upset" someone?
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
Click to expand...
In both 2021 and 2022 Michigan still had some significant holes on the team that were either developing or didn't exist. This year's defense was better than both years, and that really makes up a lot of the difference here. We had a really old team that stuck around to do this very thing, so the difference was pretty simply development related. Especially important in an era of football where kids don't tend to stick around long. Corum also got injured at the end of 2022, and Edwards broke his hand. So we entered the end of our season last year with our top two backs functionally out or limited.
 
outofyourmind said:
Looked like the Defense to me.

Maybe Michigan just didn't have any 'bad luck', which is absolutely required for an NC.
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We were pretty lucky with injuries this year (sans our top offensive lineman breaking his leg).
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
We were pretty lucky with injuries this year (sans our top offensive lineman breaking his leg).
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I swear your line started blocking better after that dude went down in the game against us
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
um. What years? In consecutive games Michigan beat #2 Ohio State, #16 Iowa, #4 Alabama and #2 Washington.

Are you suggesting that because Michigan WAS the elite team this year, that it's not as fair because we didn't have to functionally "upset" someone?
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#2 OSU was nowhere close to elite. Our defense was very, very good but our offense was mediocre at best. When you start at OSU and then your next stop is Syracuse because that's the best you can get, you know things didn't go well.

#16 Iowa was half of a team. You shut them out and won by 26 and that was only good for their third worst shutout loss of the season.

#4 Alabama was probably one of Saban's five worst teams in his entire time at Bama. FFS they needed a hail mary prayer to get by a pathetic Auburn team that was boatraced by Maryland without their QB.

#2 Washington was a great story and a fantastic offense, but their defense was truly awful. They were very similar to TCU last year only this year you guys didn't shit down your leg and also got some extremely favorable officiating calls that turned the tide of the game.

All in all, congrats on going 15-0. You beat OSU and Bama (barely) in down years, and beat an upstart Washington team that was extremely lucky to be unbeaten as long as they were. Nobody you beat is remotely close to being one of the more elite teams of the CFP era.
 
Across The Field said:
#2 OSU was nowhere close to elite. Our defense was very, very good but our offense was mediocre at best. When you start at OSU and then your next stop is Syracuse because that's the best you can get, you know things didn't go well.

#16 Iowa was half of a team. You shut them out and won by 26 and that was only good for their third worst shutout loss of the season.

#4 Alabama was probably one of Saban's five worst teams in his entire time at Bama. FFS they needed a hail mary prayer to get by a pathetic Auburn team that was boatraced by Maryland without their QB.

#2 Washington was a great story and a fantastic offense, but their defense was truly awful. They were very similar to TCU last year only this year you guys didn't shit down your leg and also got some extremely favorable officiating calls that turned the tide of the game.

All in all, congrats on going 15-0. You beat OSU and Bama (barely) in down years, and beat an upstart Washington team that was extremely lucky to be unbeaten as long as they were. Nobody you beat is remotely close to being one of the more elite teams of the CFP era.
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Derp.



Michigan's team finished with the 2nd highest rated defense since 2000 according to the SP+ rankings.

Like I said, if you ARE the elite team in the league then you play teams that are worse than you all season long. Your logic is weird.

Every team that played us, including the #1 offense in the country, looked like dog shit for a reason. Ohio State didn't look like dog shit, until they played us. That's how it works. Elite defenses win championships.
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Derp.



Michigan's team finished with the 2nd highest rated defense since 2000 according to the SP+ rankings.

Like I said, if you ARE the elite team in the league then you play teams that are worse than you all season long. Your logic is weird.

Every team that played us, including the #1 offense in the country, looked like dog shit for a reason. Ohio State didn't look like dog shit, until they played us. That's how it works. Elite defenses win championships.
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Actually all of the good teams outside of Iowa that you faced played you very close, so that would make you only slightly above dog shit by your logic. That's nice about your SP+ rankings, just backs up my point about there not really being any truly elite teams this year. If there's ever been an indictment on michigan cheating, it's that a CJ Stroud OSU team with 3 NFL offensive linemen only scored 21 at home against you while a Kyle McCord team with a dogshit OL scored 24 on the road. OSU's offense didn't look good for nearly the entire year, not sure what you're talking about there. Congrats though.
 
IMO a lot of things simply came together for Michigan.

As noted by others they returned a lot of experienced players. If you consider redshirts and the extra covid year they had 6 year players on the team.

My point over the last couple years is that Harbaugh's got a good formula down to win the Big 10.
He knows you have to run the ball in the Big 10 which is still a "3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust" conference. Thus nicknames such as "The Big Slow, etc).
Over the years he'd been criticized in early season OOC games for not blowing out cupcakes like everyone else does. However, what he was doing was working on the running game for when he got to Big 10 play where he'd really need it.

Add in a QB like McCarthy that manages the game well and doesn't make stupid mistakes. QB is 50% mental.

McCarthy went from a 64% completion rate in 2022 to a 72% completion rate in 2023.

Regarding McCarthy not making too many stupid mistakes....
In 2022 he had 22 TD's to just 5 INTs.
In 2023 he had 22 TD's to just 4 INTs.

Michigan as a whole wasn't a team that was going to beat themselves.
 
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Red_Alert said:
My point over the last couple years is that Harbaugh's got a good formula down to win the Big 10.
He knows you have to run the ball in the Big 10 which is still a "3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust" conference. Thus nicknames such as "The Big Slow, etc).
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Ohio State won 5 in 7 years with an offense that was anything but a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" offense. It was part of what worked for Harbaugh these recent years, but there were obviously other more important factors.
 
Deep Creek said:
I've got a question for all you CFB geniuses. What was the biggest difference in Michigan's team this year compared to their 2021 and 2022 teams?

I'll admit I didn't watch all of MIchigan's games this year, but they looked very identical to the 2021 and 2022 teams IMHO. Yet this team won a natty and the previous two lose to Georgia and TCU in the 2021 and 2022 CFP semifinals. This year they beat Bama and Washington in back to back CFP games to win a natty.

Explain it to this old man please.
Click to expand...

TBF, last year's michigan team should have shit on TCU but instead shit on themselves in the first quarter. Georgia would have probably still won the natty, but it wouldn't have been a blowout.
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Derp.



Michigan's team finished with the 2nd highest rated defense since 2000 according to the SP+ rankings.

Like I said, if you ARE the elite team in the league then you play teams that are worse than you all season long. Your logic is weird.

Every team that played us, including the #1 offense in the country, looked like dog shit for a reason. Ohio State didn't look like dog shit, until they played us. That's how it works. Elite defenses win championships.
Click to expand...


Michigan was definitely elite compared to the rest of college football this season, but I do think it was a down year across the board. That's not to take away from their title, but I don't think this Michigan team is up there with teams like 2019 LSU, 2020 Bama or 2021 UGA. It just doesn't have the top end talent those teams had(meaning 1st rounders). Michigan was an old team, going up against the normal contenders who were all relatively young.
 
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