Michigan football's spot revealed in initial AP Poll
The Michigan Wolverines have learned their initial standing in the first Associated Press top-25 poll of the season, coming in at No. 9 overall as they prep a defense of last year’s 15-0 record and College Football Playoff National Championship.
Michigan is one of 6 Big Ten teams in the first AP Poll as the conference officially expanded to 18 members as of Aug. 1 with USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon joining the mix. Also in the top-25 are the Ohio State Buckeyes at No. 2, Oregon at No. 3, Penn State at No. 8, USC at No. 23 and Iowa at No. 25. Michigan will play OSU, Oregon and USC this upcoming season.
The Georgia Bulldogs take the top spot in the first poll, followed by OSU, Oregon, Texas and Alabama. That makes Michigan’s Sept. 7 game against the Longhorns a matchup between the fourth and ninth-best teams in the country.
The full poll can be seen below:
- Georgia (46 first-place votes)
- Ohio State (15)
- Oregon (1)
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Florida State
- Missouri
- Utah
- LSU
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas State
- Miami (FL)
- Texas A&M
- Arizona
- Kansas
- USC
- North Carolina State
- Iowa
Michigan begins the 2024 season on Aug. 31 in a night game at the Big House against Fresno State.
Michigan HC Sherrone Moore speaks on season
Much of Michigan’s season will revolve around young guys stepping into bigger roles. New head coach Sherrone Moore believes his group is up for the challenge.
“I think when you have guys who haven’t played as much with as much game experience but you have enough of them, you know they have to take it up a notch,” Moore said at Big Ten Media Days. “They’re not satisfied, they’re very hungry to be successful. I’ve seen the times where it’s just guys in the building and they won’t leave and you want that, that’s what you need. You’ve got a great program and great culture set up.”
In addition to the young roster, it is also a new coaching staff with plenty of different ideas. Moore believes that his group can help lead Michigan where it wants to be.
“Feels like we got better, feel like we got some really good additions to our staff, really good people,” Moore said. “Super excited for, we call him Sweet Lou, Lou Esposito. I looked at the defensive side yesterday, all of our defensive coaches have been coordinators. It provides us with an avenue and outlet to have different voices and different views that have seen all different types of offenses. Cosch Brian Jean-Mary has been in the SEC, he’s dealt with the fastest offense in college football every single day at Tennessee. Lou, being in the MAC, Memphis, dealing with spread offenses, power offenses and LaMar, all types of offenses down in the south.
“For us, it’s been really cool. Obviously, Wink dealing with Pro Style and fast offenses and different things. We’ve got a lot of different and smart minds in there that can handle a lot of different issues that people try to present to us.”
