How close is Michigan to winning College Football Playoff National Championship?

Michigan has made consecutive College Football Playoff appearances over the last two seasons but has nothing to show for it. Heading into 2023, are they any closer to achieving their ultimate goal? Or has Michigan peaked under Jim Harbaugh?

The Wolverine’s Chris Balas recently joined Andy Staples at the On3 Roundtable to discuss just how far off Michigan is from winning it all.

“I think they’re still a little bit away if you look at the offense, for example, they don’t have the elite skill position players with the exception of receiver,” Balas told Staples. “If you look at Ohio State and how they matched up with Georgia, they had the formula to play Georgia tough. I don’t know that Michigan would have gone in there and played Georgia as closely as Ohio State. In fact, I strongly suspect they wouldn’t have.

“But not getting by TCU was really kind of a kick in the groin for them. They really were kind of overlooking that. Speaking to a lot of the guys this spring, they said the same. They took it for granted [and thought] that they were going to be playing Georgia.”

Lots of Michigan’s standout players from last year returned to Ann Arbor for another season. QB1 JJ McCarthy is back, Michael Barrett, Blake Corum, they’re back. The locker room leaders are still around — the ones that have experienced the gauntlet it takes to earn a shot at the Big Ten Championship and CFP.

The ‘Beat Georgia’ moniker is a bold statement given the fact that the Wolverines are not slated to play the Bulldogs during the 2023 regular season. That means the expectation has been set for Michigan to shoot for a third-straight CFP. It’s the new standard in Ann Arbor.

But isn’t that the same mindset that in turn led to Michigan underperforming against the Horned Frogs in the 2022 national semifinal?

“They have their eyes on Georgia. They have the beat Georgia drill because they understand that Georgia is the big dog right now, but it doesn’t mean they’re looking overlooking Ohio State,” Balas said. “Michigan has the roster to beat Ohio State because they were beating him in the trenches. They kind of see Ohio State as a finesse team, but to beat Georgia to beat Alabama as we saw a couple of years ago, there was no contest.

“So, still a little ways to go in my opinion.”