Joel Klatt on how Michigan became 'the second-best program in the country' over last two seasons

Michigan Wolverines football has notched victories in 25 of its last 27 games, won two straight Big Ten titles and is in the College Football Playoff for the second consecutive season. Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia are the only other teams to have made the playoff in back-to-back years.

Michigan and Georgia are the only two constants in the playoff the last two seasons. The Bulldogs beat the Wolverines in last year’s semifinal, before beating Alabama for the national championship. FOX analyst Joel Klatt believes those have been the top two programs in the nation over the last two years.

“It is interesting to me, for the first time in a while, maybe since Clemson kind of entered the fray, if you look at the last 18 months, it’s actually Michigan with the second-best record in college football,” Klatt said on the ‘Ryen Russillo Podcast.’ “Georgia, the No. 1 record, and they’ve been dominant, obviously defending champ. And then Michigan kind of put themselves in that position where, OK, they may not have recruited on the level that the others have, but I do find it fascinating that over the last 18 months they’ve been the second-best program in the country.

“And I don’t think people saw that coming after the COVID year. There has been a little bit of movement in college football.”

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Michigan caught lightning in the bottle last season, winning its first Big Ten championship since 2004, behind great defense and a strong run game. But the Wolverines lost quite a bit of production — especially defensively — so pundits placed Ohio State as the favorite in the Big Ten. Unexpectedly to many, the Maize and Blue ripped off a 13-0 season and defended their conference crown, playing only two games that were decided by single digits.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this good for them this year,” Klatt said of Michigan. “They were losing their top-end defensive players.

“I knew that their offense would be good coming into this season. I didn’t know if they were going to be better. They have turned out to be that way.”

The defense has been that way, as well, allowing 13.4 points per game, four less than a season ago, and ranking third nationally in total defense (277.1 yards per contest).

“The most shocking part is that, statistically, at least, they’re a better defense,” Klatt continued. “Which, that kind of blows everyone’s mind, right? Because you don’t have [Aidan] Hutchinson and [David] Ojabo, who should’ve been a first-round pick save for the Achilles injury. You have Daxton Hill, first rounder. And it’s like, OK, you’re not supposed to just replace those guys with a former wide receiver and a combination of ends, and be better statistically — and they were.”

Michigan built ‘Harbaugh family football team’

After a dismal 2-4 2020 season, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh took a pay cut that saw his salary slashed in half, but didn’t complain. He made necessary changes to the program, retooling his assistant coaching staff. That included bringing in Matt Weiss and Mike Macdonald from the Baltimore Ravens on each side of the ball. Jesse Minter, who also has a Ravens background, took over the defense when Macdonald departed after the 2021 campaign.

Harbaugh recommitted to having a run-first offense — and now Michigan is zigging while everyone else zags. That’s caused issues for opponents, including Ohio State. Michigan has now beaten the Buckeyes two straight seasons for the first time since 1999-2000.

“I think that it speaks to the overall philosophy,” Klatt said. “Jim, when he faced adversity, really for the first time in his coaching career, because he had success and an upward trajectory everywhere he had been. It went south in San Francisco. I think it was more personal than it was on-the-field play. I think we would all probably admit that. So this was the first time when it’s like, hey, are you good enough, Coach, after the COVID year? 2-4. Hadn’t beaten Ohio State. And it’s like, ‘Ahh, we should move on.’ There were some calls for that. He takes a pay cut — a significant pay cut, which is just unheard of in college football.

“And I think that what happened was, he went back to his roots, and he built what is — and there’s no other way to describe it, at least I haven’t found another way to describe it — it’s like the Harbaugh family football team. He went back to his roots offensively, and his brother’s roots defensively. And that, in conjunction with him kind of, I would say, reinventing himself from a personal side and the chemistry side of his team, has been, gosh, really perfect for them.

“Michigan has a very specific identity. And I feel like when Jim finally was comfortable with not chasing what others thought he should be is when they really took off. For instance, the [former Michigan offensive coordinator] Josh Gattis, I would call it an ‘experiment,’ at Michigan because Jim thought he needed to become more like Ohio State. OK, I need to spread it out, I need to change and evolve offensively.

“He had a defense that was [former Michigan defensive coordinator] Don Brown’s defense that was very successful, so long as he had better players on the field than the opposition, because he would just bully them, really, to death with man coverage. And then as soon as they got into a situation where they had like players or they were at a deficit from a talent perspective, they would get beaten up badly — those bowl games, late in the season against Ohio State.”

By going back to his brother, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh‘s, roots defensively, as Klatt described it, he actually made a cutting-edge move in college football, the analyst explained.

“The defense is very good,” Klatt said of Michigan. “The structure of the defense is very good. And it’s not lost on me, by the way, that the most successful defenses of the last few years in this modern style of college football are defenses that are more modeled after the NFL.

“You have really good defensive tackles. You build a run wall. Georgia last year had them; I think Michigan this year has them. You create hard edges on the exterior with good pass rushers that are stood up, hard to get outside of them. Then you have hybrid style players on the second and third level, with good cover corners.

“That’s what Georgia has been doing, that’s what Alabama has been doing, now that’s what Michigan is doing, and those are the most successful teams, at least defensively, over the last few years.”

Michigan takes on TCU in the Fiesta Bowl Dec. 31 with a national title appearance hanging in the balance. That’s when the college football world will know if Michigan has taken that next step with a chance to capture its first national championship since 1997.