Michigan football ranks No. 2 in preseason coaches poll
The college football preseason coaches poll was released Monday, and Michigan Wolverines football checked in No. 2 behind top-ranked Georgia, the two-time defending national champion. Despite ranking No. 2, the Wolverines didn’t receive any first-place votes. Alabama (four) and Ohio State (one) did earn first-place nods, with the Bulldogs grabbing the other 61.
Michigan has never been ranked higher in the preseason coaches poll. The Maize and Blue were unranked to begin the 2021 season and slotted No. 6 last year. They wound up No. 3, behind national champion Georgia and runner-up TCU. Michigan and the Bulldogs are the only two teams to make each of the last College Football Playoffs.
Michigan is 25-3 over the last two seasons, coming off a 13-1 2022 campaign that set the program record for most wins in a season. The Wolverines are back-to-back Big Ten champions searching for their first three-peat since 1990-92. They’ve never won three outright conference championships in a row, however.
No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 USC, No. 7 Penn State, No. 8 Florida State, No. 9 Clemson and No. 10 Tennessee rounded out the top 10.
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Besides the three Big Ten teams that rank top 10 — Michigan (2), Ohio State (4) and Penn State (7) — there is just one other program from the league to appear in the top 25, Wisconsin at No. 21. The Badgers are helmed by first-year head coach Luke Fickell, who took over after a successful stint at Cincinnati. Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland and Illinois received votes but did not make the top 25.
Michigan is heading into its ninth season under head coach Jim Harbaugh, who’s won 74 games on the job, the fourth-most in program history. His .747 winning percentage ranks fifth among U-M coaches with 90-plus games. The Wolverines have had 25 losses under Harbaugh.
Michigan has the seventh-most victories among all college football teams since Harbaugh was hired ahead of the 2015 season. That 74-win mark ranks second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State (90).
Harbaugh insisted at Big Ten Media Days in late July that there hasn’t been any complacency with his Michigan team despite all the success the last two seasons.
“I would just say in the conversations that I have with the players, where I used to tell them a message, they will tell that message to me now,” the coach explained. “‘Coach, it doesn’t matter what we did last year, it doesn’t matter what we did the last two years. Now we’re doing it again. And the only time that matters is now.’ That would be my evidence [of ‘cultural momentum’].
