43 days until Michigan football: Best offense since 1904?
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan scored 40.43 points per game during the 2022 season, its most since 1904 (56.7), taking things to another level under head coach Jim Harbaugh. That mark is the fifth-best in program history, too, behind 1902 (58.5), 1904 (56.7), 1901 (50) and 1903 (47.1).
Head coach Fielding H. Yost, for whom the hockey (and formerly basketball) arena was named after, led those offenses. His teams in his first five seasons 1901-05 were dubbed the “point-a-minute” squads, and the name basically says it all. The 1901 team, by the way, didn’t allow a single point all season long, going 11-0 en route to the national championship, which was earned with a 49-0 win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl.
Michigan played 14 games — tied for the most in program history with 2021 — last season, and that obviously plays a factor, but the Wolverines accumulated 6,423 total yards, the most in Wolverine history, ahead of 2010 (6,353), 2021 (6,203), 2003 (5,807) and 1992 (5,603).
Michigan was great at controlling the ball last season, which was exemplified by the next two stats: The Wolverines had a time of possession advantage of 106:17 over their opponents, the second-greatest in program history behind 2018 (111:52), and they racked up 326 first downs (most in Wolverine history).
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A well-documented storyline of last season was how prolific Michigan was in the second halves of games. The Wolverines put up 319 second-half points in 14 games, the most in program history ahead of second-place 2021 (271).
In short, Michigan smashed some records and put itself in a lot of top groups in the record book in 2022. The Wolverines are looking to become even more dynamic in 2023, and could find themselves etching their names into the history books even further.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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