Michigan football's top five regular season surprises

Michigan football is the 2021 Big Ten Champion and has punched the program’s first College Football Playoff ticket. There are still three weeks to go until the game against Georgia kicks off, which provides the opportunity to reflect on the season that was.

The Wolverines sit at 12-1, which is only the third time in program history that win total has been reached (1905, 1997). A Michigan team has never won 13 football games, so more history is on the line in the Orange Bowl.

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Here are the five biggest surprises from Michigan’s season so far and how they got here.

1. Michigan football’s poise to get over the hump

Nobody will ever be able to sit here and say they are surprised Michigan was talented enough to get it done. That has frequently been the case since Jim Harbaugh took over in 2015. Self-inflicted wounds and bad luck defined the first six years of the Harbaugh era. The sample size was big enough for questions about the future to be justified.

Michigan and Harbaugh looked hard in the mirror and internalized all criticisms of the program. Then, they went to work. No catchphrases. No revenge tour. Just play smart, physical, cohesive football.

Mission accomplished.

When looking back on the season, things started to truly feel different during the Wisconsin game. The Wolverines played a bad half of football the previous week at Rutgers and the Badgers made it a game at halftime. Michigan had not won in Madison since 2003. Was this moment going to be too big for them?

As it turns out, it was not. Michigan throttled Wisconsin in the second half and made themselves part of the trademark “Jump Around” moment instead. A bitter bill was swallowed after blowing a two-score lead at Michigan State, but the team regrouped and vowed to not let it happen again. The Wolverines won their next five games (and counting) en route to a rivalry win over Ohio State and a Big Ten Championship over Iowa.

So much had to come together and it was going to take a special group of players and coaches to get it done. And get it done they did.

2. They said they would run and they did

Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis won the Broyles Award as the best assistant in college football, and for good reason. The Wolverines lacked a consistent identity offensively early on in his Michigan career, but he called his shot during fall camp.

“That’s got to be a commitment — to run the ball,” Gattis said in August. “You’ve got to start games fast. We’ve got to play great, complementary football and I’ve got to stick to it.

“There were times last year where, per game, I kind of got away from it, and that’s a bit of an acknowledgment. We’ve got really good running backs. Hassan Haskins, Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards – those guys need the ball. We’ve got to make a firm commitment to run the ball more. That’s how your numbers go up from that standpoint.”

Michigan committed to running and was rewarded for it. The Wolverines are 10th in the FBS in rush offense (223.8 yards per game) with only one Power 5 team ahead of them (Ole Miss, 224.2 ypg).

A tone was set early by the coaching staff and by Michigan’s offensive line, which as a group is a finalist for the Joe Moore Award. Offensive line coach and co-coordinator Sherrone Moore helped craft this identity, along with Gattis and running backs coach Mike Hart.

There were questions all year about whether the identity was sustainable, but Michigan took care of that on its own with how talented its backs were and how physical it played at the line of scrimmage. When teams were able to key on the run, they were able to take advantage of matchups through the air.

Gattis hit his stride as a play-caller this year and won a Broyles Award for it. He deserves as big a tip of the cap as anyone.

3. Michigan played the quarterback situation perfectly

One of the biggest gripes against Harbaugh had been an inability to find a quarterback that could beat Ohio State. We thought that meant talent and the ability to keep pace in a shootout. However, we were proven wrong.

Michigan needed a leader that could run the offense and put clutch drives together when it was critical to do so. Third-year passer Cade McNamara was the guy in that regard all season long. Outside of a poor stat line vs. Washington and late-game turnover at Michigan State, he was everything he was asked to be and more.

The elephant in the room was a true freshman in J.J. McCarthy with a five-star skillset on and off the field. He is the future of the program, but many fans were hoping he could also be the present and help win football games now. In a roundabout way, he was.

The Michigan coaching staff worked McCarthy in and out of the line as a run threat at quarterback and someone that gave the defense something else to think about. McNamara’s numbers rarely popped off the sheet, which might have ruffled feathers in other quarterback rooms. Not this one.

McNamara and McCarthy embraced the platoon throughout the season and seemed to feed off each other’s success. That could make next season’s quarterback battle the most hotly contested in program history. In the here and now, Michigan has two pretty good quarterbacks that have helped the team in key moments this season. Winning cures all.

4. Defensive concerns were all proven wrong

Michigan’s defense needed a facelift in the worst possible way. Harbaugh went to a familiar source when hiring Mike Macdonald away from the Baltimore Ravens. What happened from there was a development that move quicker than anyone anticipated.

Macdonald ripped Michigan football’s defense down to the studs and started from scratch. This was a whole-home restoration, not some tweaks here or there. The Wolverines played a lot of two and three-man fronts this year while mixing up coverages and moving its primary pass rushers to outside linebacker. That allowed Aidan Hutchinson to showcase his versatility but also gave Michigan a ton of flexibility in the way it used its personnel.

Scheme changes can take time, especially with the depth and question marks that Michigan came into the season with. The Wolverines are tied for fourth in the country in scoring defense (16.08 points per game) and 13th in total defense (316.2 yards per game). Everything was cleaner and more adjustments were made on the fly throughout the season. It will be interesting to see how things develop on that side of the ball as the talent that comes through the program increases.

5. Harbaugh hit home runs in Michigan staff renovations

We have mentioned plenty of staff members here, but the man at the top deserves as much credit as any. Harbaugh has been through a lot in Ann Arbor and taken a lot of shots, some deserved and some not so much. He was challenged in every sense of the word, including having his salary sliced in half. He will say it was never a sacrifice because he loves Michigan and coaching the football program, but that came with a ton of pressure.

Harbaugh looked inward same as everyone else and used criticisms towards the program to fuel its rebound. The hires of Hart, Macdonald, Matt Weiss, Ron Bellamy, George Helow and Steve Clinkscale were all home runs. The same can be said for shuffling Moore’s responsibilities and retaining Shaun Nua. It took a player-led group of guys to turn the ship around. However, these coaches fostered a culture that allowed them to get there. Harbaugh and his staff put players in positions to win all season long. Guys in the locker room took care of it from there.

As a result, Michigan finally had a championship-winning team build in Harbaugh’s image. It will be a challenge to stay on top of the Big Ten, but this group has the goods to keep doing it. Harbaugh is likely set to get some money back and enhanced security, as well.