Why it's hard to see Michigan 'supplant' Georgia, per Joel Klatt

Michigan is a popular pick to finally win it all in 2023, but Joel Klatt said it might be hard for them to pass Georgia.

The Bulldogs are in position to win their third straight national title while the Wolverines are largely considered the No. 2 team going into the season. Could it be Michigan’s best team under Jim Harbaugh? Sure.

But, the recipe for success in Ann Arbor doesn’t necessarily beat the one down in Athens.

“It’s so hard for me to tell you that I think Michigan can be the one that supplants Georgia because Michigan doesn’t play with the blueprint that Georgia (does),” Klatt said Thursday on The Herd. “In the event they have struggled or even been beat in the last two years, it’s been a very similar style of team. It was Alabama who could really throw it with Jameson Williams and Bryce Young. And it was Ohio State this last year that could really throw it with CJ Stroud and Marvin Harrison Jr.”

Michigan predicated itself on solid quarterback play from JJ McCarthy, a stout running game and a suffocating defense. That sounds like Georgia doesn’t it?

“That’s not Michigan,” Klatt said of the air it out type of offenses like Alabama and Ohio State of the last two years. “So Michigan is going to try to just line up and go toe to toe, roster against roster at the line of scrimmage. Nobody has been successful doing that against Georgia in the last two years. Nobody. So when I look at teams that at least have the blueprint to go out there and supplant Georgia, it would be an LSU, it would be an Ohio State.”

But if there’s one team that really wants to be Georgia, and pretty much said it publicly, it’s Michigan. The Wolverines implemented a “beat Georgia” drill this summer.

Some of the players went in depth on what it meant during Big Ten Media Days.

“Yessir, there was indeed,” Michigan defensive lineman Kris Jenkins responded, asked to confirm whether Michigan implemented the drill into practice. “It was really just you know, pushing ourselves as a team. You know, getting gritty. Getting in the trenches. Working on, really working on our run game. You know, every aspect. Like not just necessarily being you know, ‘Beat Georgia Drill,’ but how can we take our minds to the next level, how can we be a better football team, and how can we really be what everybody’s talked about.

“You know, being the next team that’s up. So you know, just taking that aspect of our game and taking it to the next level, and eliminating all of that complacency.”