The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1523593
THE WOLVERINE 2024 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 21 BY MARK PANUS W e are entering a new era of college football, with the Big Ten and SEC having planted their respective flags as the two super-confer- ences that matter most. The College Football Playoff will ex- pand to 12 teams this year (and likely 14 in the future), but don't mistake greater inclusion for greater parity. The com- petition at the top will be fierce, but the reality is still somewhat jarring. In most preseason Top 25 polls, the Big Ten (now up to 18 member schools with the addition of Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA) and SEC (now at 16 with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma) com- prise at least eight of the preseason top- 10 spots, and sometimes nine of the 10. In this case, might makes right, and since there is no limit on the number of CFP participants from a conference, everyone else besides those two conferences might just be playing for table scraps. Oddly enough, the U-M program, which has gone 40-3 over the last three years and is coming off a dominant na- tional championship season, now finds itself predicted to be either the third- or fourth-best team in its own conference. At the same time, the Wolverines are still ranked as a consensus top-10 program nationally in the preseason. It's almost like an alternate universe, or in "Seinfeld" or "Superman" parlance, a "bizarro world" where down is up and up is down. Michigan players didn't get distracted by external noise last season, and this year's bunch looks to carry on the same "Michigan vs. Everybody" mindset and focus. What follows are the highlights from three of the longest-running season preview magazines covering the sport: Lindy's Sports, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele's College Football. Lindy's Sports Lindy's picked Michigan at No. 6 over- all and third in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State and Oregon. Its quick takeaway on U-M can be summed up in three bullet points: • Good news: "Sherrone Moore showed promise as a fill-in last year." • Bad news: "No [Jim] Harbaugh, no [J.J.] McCarthy, no [Blake] Corum … you get the picture." • Our call: "Playoff worthy? Probably. But the Wolverines will take a step back after three B1G titles." Like every other prognosticator out there, Lindy's seems to be betting the house on Ohio State making its return to the top of the Big Ten table and a run for the CFP crown come Jan. 20 in At- lanta. "It's Ohio State or Georgia, right?" Lindy's asks. Similar to Michigan in 2023, it's CFP or bust for the Buckeyes in 2024. Still, Lindy's aptly notes several key chal- lenges — "the climb is steeper than ever" and "the pressure is on [OSU head coach Ryan] Day." The preseason magazine, now in its 27th year, tagged junior cornerback Will Johnson as its Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten, also singling him out as the best cover corner in the league. In addition to picking Johnson as a pre- season All-American, Lindy's rated him as the No. 1 player at his position nation- ally, and he was joined in this rare air by two other U-M juniors. Defensive tackle Mason Graham and tight end Colston Loveland also earned the No. 1 spots at their respective positions as well as first- team All-America status. Lindy's gave Loveland the "best hands" recognition in the Big Ten as well. Senior running back Donovan Edwards and junior defensive tackle Kenneth Grant were rated as the No. 10 players at their positions nationally, with Edwards also receiving preseason third-team All- America honors. When it comes to the schedule, Lindy's rated Michigan's 2024 slate as the 10th- toughest in the nation. It also ranked the Sept. 7 matchup with Texas as its No. 1 nonconference game of the year. Michi- gan is included in three of Lindy's top 15 Big Ten games, too: No. 2, Michigan at Ohio State; No. 7, Oregon at Michigan; and No. 15, USC at Michigan. From an anonymous Big Ten assistant coach, the scouting report on Michi- gan looks like this: "Happy for Sherrone Moore. He's poised but passionate. The dude's worked his way up and he's go- ing to win a lot of games, but nothing is guaranteed in this sport. It's always about the right coach, right time, right place. So, on the other hand, I don't see how Moore can ever live up to the standard in Ann Arbor. … "They're headed into camp with an open quarterback competition. Things get tricky fast. … It sounds like the ath- letic kid [Alex] Orji is probably going to take that job. But they've still got to lean into the run game. Donovan Edwards is a BIZARRO WORLD BIZARRO WORLD Prognosticators See Michigan Solidly In Top 10, Yet Just Third- Or Fourth-Best In Big Ten Conference