What was the difference?

[Tharvot]

#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.

I'd argue our defense was good but not great. Didn't have a pass rush. Combine that with a decent but not great offense and you have a good team but not a championship caliber team. And, frankly, they proved that over the course of the season. There wasn't a single game where i thought anything outside of "this is a pretty mediocre Ohio State team".

 

[Red_Alert]

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.

And I listed them.

You apparently didn't comprehend them tho.

 

[osubuckeye89]

I'd argue our defense was good but not great. Didn't have a pass rush. Combine that with a decent but not great offense and you have a good team but not a championship caliber team. And, frankly, they proved that over the course of the season. There wasn't a single game where i thought anything outside of "this is a pretty mediocre Ohio State team".

That was my thought all year as well. We basically win 10 games a year by default because we just out talent everyone in the B1G outside of Michigan and Ped State significantly. Yea we won 11 games, but this was probably the most bleh "contending" team we've had since Tressel was outed.

 

[CoalTrain]

Quarterback.

JJ is the best QB Michigan has ever had.

Harbaugh said it and he is correct.
Don’t give me Brady, he was a bum in college. Guy couldn’t beat out a baseball player.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

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.

lol. Must be the cheating and not the fact that CJ threw 2 picks and Mikey knocked another TD away.|

Of course Michigan played "good teams" closer than bad teams? What is this? Am I talking in the twilight zone? Name a championship team that didn't play good teams closer? I'll wait.

 

[Across The Field]

And I listed them.

You apparently didn't comprehend them tho.

You said that the Big Ten is a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" conference and I provided plenty of examples of how it's not. I guess you can't comprehend that though.

 

[Across The Field]

lol. Must be the cheating and not the fact that CJ threw 2 picks and Mikey knocked another TD away.

You said it.

 

[Tharvot]

That was my thought all year as well. We basically win 10 games a year by default because we just out talent everyone in the B1G outside of Michigan and Ped State significantly. Yea we won 11 games, but this was probably the most bleh "contending" team we've had since Tressel was outed.

Yep. Frankly it's all on the offense. McCord would have been a perfectly fine QB option if they had a strong rushing attack. But the O-line was so bad this year that it couldn't run block consistently or effectively pass block. Best WR core in the nation and manage just to eek inside the top 50 in total offense. Pretty rough.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

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.

I think it's flawed that just because there was more parity in CFB this year, doesn't mean it was a "down year". I think you'll find that Michigan may not have the 1st rounders, but may have a near record year for the program in terms of players drafted. Michigan was good this year not because of a few elite players that will be high draft picks, but because they had a lot of old players and most of them will be draft picks.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

You said it.

This wasn't sign stealing. In fact, he was even late to that.

 

[ELTEXAN]

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.

Nothing. There just wasn’t an elite team this year. So, they happened to catch Washington on a sleepy night and win a natty

 

[ellupo]

lol. Must be the cheating and not the fact that CJ threw 2 picks and Mikey knocked another TD away.|

Of course Michigan played "good teams" closer than bad teams? What is this? Am I talking in the twilight zone? Name a championship team that didn't play good teams closer? I'll wait.

Were those 2 picks because the D knew where the play was going?

You are right about the twilight zone. Little brother finally getting a unanimous after about 80 years is sure twilight zone material.

 

[Red_Alert]

You said that the Big Ten is a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" conference and I provided plenty of examples of how it's not. I guess you can't comprehend that though.

STFU, you flaming idiot. You gave Ohio St as an example and no others.

It is still a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" conference.

Look at the vast majority of Big 10 teams Total Offense and Passing Offense rankings.

Regarding Ohio St winning "5 of the last 7" as you bloviated about, how many NCs did that garner?

The last NC game Ohio St played in was a 24 - 52 loss.

 

[Across The Field]

View attachment 114458

This wasn't sign stealing. In fact, he was even late to that.

LOL wild how the game was actually a whole bunch of plays and not just one. Ironically, one of the plays most exemplified to show michigan's cheating was from that game too, when they somehow knew to crash the safeties early on when we were in an obvious passing down but decided to run it.

 

[Across The Field]

STFU, you flaming idiot. You gave Ohio St as an example and no others.

It is still a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" conference.

Look at the vast majority of Big 10 teams Total Offense and Passing Offense rankings.

Regarding Ohio St winning "5 of the last 7" as you bloviated about, how many NCs did that garner?

The last NC game Ohio St played in was a 24 - 52 loss.

You really shouldn't be getting this upset just because I brought up a valid point.

 

[Tharvot]

You said that the Big Ten is a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" conference and I provided plenty of examples of how it's not. I guess you can't comprehend that though.

Perhaps we've unlocked why Nebraska has been so shit since joining the conference.

They've been prepping their defense to stop attacks that only Iowa and Wisconsin still run. Unfortunately, they're still a combined 2-18 vs those schools in the last 10 years.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

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.

Michigan's defense was the difference. Last year we had multiple true freshman starting and playing major roles defensively. Will Johnson, Kenny Grant, Mason Graham. We had guys who changed from the offense to the defense, like Mike Sanistril and we didn't have the depth on the defensive line we had this year.

So at every level, we had inexperience and at the most important level, in the trenches, we didn't have depth. We added Josiah Stewart at DE, we added 4 year starter Mike Wallace at CB, we added Ernest Hausmann at LB from the portal.

Michigan was able to rotate 8-10 guys on the DL, without any drop off. We rotated 4 guys in and out at Safety without any drop off. With the addition of Wallace and the extra year of experience with Will Johnson and Mike Sanistril. They were a well oiled machine. Michigan didn't even play a clean game defensively against Washington. I haven't seen them blow two coverages in a game all year. They did it against Washington. Thankfully Washington missed on one. The other was the only big play we gave up all game on the deep ball to Odunze.

Michigan's offense is no different. It is the exact same offense, but with an OL that wasn't as good as the last two years, but with more depth. Hell -- our OL wasn't as good this year, even when we had our All-American OL Zinter. We lost him for the year in the OSU game. So we ran for the 300+ in the title game without our best OL.

Lastly -- returning so many guys from last year allowed Jesse Minter to put in new wrinkles in his defense. Allowed him to add in more disguised coverages, more hidden blitzes. Michigan doesn't have an actual elite DE. We overwhelmed many teams with defensive schemes that would simply confuse OL's. That is exactly what we did against Bama and Washington. We had so many guys with free runs at the QB, because of the confusion the defense brought up front. Also -- Michigan is unbelievably strong at the DT position and it allowed our DL to only rush 4, as they will push the pocket and make the QB uncomfortable.

So while I typed a whole lot. The difference was WAY more depth, another year of experience playing under the same DC (Minter was a 1st year DC for UM last year) and great additions from the portal.

 

[Red_Alert]

You really shouldn't be getting this upset just because I brought up a valid point.

You said "I provided plenty of examples of how it's not." a 3 yards and a cloud of dust conference.

You provided one point and that one point was Ohio St.

How did that Ohio St "we're not a 3 yards and a cloud of dust" offense fare on the national level?

I'll tell you how..... The got their dicks kicked in 24 - 52 in the NC.

(10-4) Oregon even beat Ohio St in Columbus.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

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.

QB play is what was down this year. The top QB's played on teams with HORRENDOUS defenses, like USC and North Carolina. The normal big dogs all had new QB's to break in.

 

[NewPhoneWhoDis]

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.

That is part of Harbaugh's big thing as a head coach. Take care of the ball and minimize mistakes.

Michigan was the least penalized team in college football this year (2.7 per game)

Michigan was either 1st or 2nd for fewest turnovers in CFB

Michigan was #1 in the turnover/takeaway category.

All Harbaugh teams are like this. Not sure how he gets his teams like that -- but somehow he does.