What they're saying about Michigan football following Big Ten Media Days

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh and four seniors — quarterback Cade McNamara, tight end Erick All, defensive tackle Mazi Smith and cornerback DJ Turner — attended Big Ten Media Days Tuesday.

The Maize and Blue discussed their 2021 Big Ten title, how they hope to repeat and reach even higher and much more. Following the event, media members also weighed in on Michigan and the other Big Ten teams, giving takeaways and analysis ahead of the 2022 season. Here, we’ve rounded up the best of what they’re saying about U-M coming out of Indy.

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Harbaugh was as energetic as last year — when he said his team would beat Ohio State “or die trying” — at Big Ten Media Days, with a pep in his step (and a bigger smile) fresh of doing just that, winning the Big Ten title and appearing in the College Football Playoff.

While the edge and chip on his shoulder has always been there, never more apparent than last season, he had a bit more confidence this time around. He showed up nearly 10 minutes late to his individual podium session and was seen stopping and talking to national folks like FOX’s Joel Klatt on his was across the Lucas Oil Stadium field. The media was on Harbaugh’s time, with a huge contingent (the biggest of the day) waiting to pepper him with questions.

And Harbaugh obliged. He was as open as ever with comments about both his team and off-field questions like NIL. He was holding court, and even took a jab or two at a local reporter who insinuated there’s a narrative about the way Michigan is handling its offseason compared to a year ago.

That Harbaugh swagger and charm was there, and most of it was due to what he likes about his Michigan team. It was similar to the way he spoke about the 2021 squad — how he has to “hold them back” and not “talk them into things” — and he’s optimistic about all three phases of the game.

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Offensive identity intact, but pass game set for more involvement

Michigan’s offensive identity last season was built around winning up front with a physical offensive line and backs that could punish you. That will always be a staple of what a Harbaugh offense looks like. Things change when you lose Hassan Haskins — as reliable a short-yardage back as there is — and have a deep stable of pass catchers. Harbaugh told the media that he does not expect many changes but sees reasons to get the passing game more involved.

It might be wise to tap the brakes on Michigan suddenly running the air raid, but this is a positive step forward. Harbaugh made a serious effort last offseason to ensure his team could be multiple in its looks on both sides of the ball. This staff has a willingness to adapt to its personnel. A cursory look at the roster shows a plethora of depth at wideout and tight end. There is too much talent not to get them more involved.

Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press: Michigan football’s Jim Harbaugh has reverted to old ways. Will it work?

Away from the spotlight, Michigan quietly laid the foundation for a program revival. In the months ahead, U-M transformed from a 2-4 eyesore into a 12-2 conference champion that played with precision and discipline. The Wolverines didn’t commit their first turnover of the season until the fourth quarter of their fifth game. They largely avoided the scourge of penalties, committing just 4.9 per contest. They covered all the details and excelled on special teams, earning the best grade in one national index. In short, they played like a team focused exclusively on football.

The question now is whether Michigan can channel the same level of concentration this fall after Harbaugh created a constant churn of headlines.

Austin Meek, The Athletic: Will Michigan, Jim Harbaugh’s feel-good run continue without desperation as motivation?

“People come up to me and say, ‘You look great, man. Big smile on your face. You look happy,’” Harbaugh said. “I am happy. And I’m reminded of where that happiness comes from: It comes from knowing that our players got to experience being a champion, winning the championship, beating Ohio State.”

That was a more upbeat message than the one Harbaugh delivered at this event a year ago, when he vowed to reach the mountaintop or die trying. Desperation is a powerful motivator, and there’s no doubt that it fueled Michigan’s rise to the top of the Big Ten. The Wolverines are starting from a different place this season, trying to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke or a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of circumstances.

“We had great players that we knew were going to be great,” defensive tackle Mazi Smith said. “We had great players that we didn’t know were going to be great who were surprising. I think we had a great coaching staff. I think we had great camaraderie. I think we had great leaders. We were just firing on all cylinders.”

Can Michigan do that every year? Can anybody? Probably not. But this team shares enough DNA with the 2021 Wolverines to make a repeat seem plausible. Michigan returns its top two quarterbacks, two of its top three running backs, three starters on the offensive line and almost everyone at wide receiver and tight end. A special teams unit that graded out as the best in college football returns virtually unchanged, and the defense has promising options to replace its departed stars.

Mike DeCourcey, The Sporting News: Michigan’s dominance in 2021 edition of The Game has restored the rivalry with Ohio State

OSU-Michigan’s position at or near the top of the great college football rivalries hasn’t been much more than a default position over the past two decades. It is, because it was — that’s a lot of what made people pay attention to this game as they’d line up in either Columbus or Ann Arbor and the Buckeyes would wind up celebrating at the end.

At the start of last season’s game, OSU had won eight in a row, nine of the previous 10 and 17 of the previous 20. Those streaks were ended or altered following Michigan’s 42-27 triumph.

Now they enter the 2022 season with the Buckeyes ranked No. 2 and the Wolverines at No. 6, according to TSN’s Bill Bender. Ohio State spent much of the offseason driven by the memory of the most recent game. Michigan spent it with a grander sense of confidence about what it can accomplish.

“When your season’s over, you look back and ask why, and what you could have done wrong,” Jaxon Smith-Njigba, OSU’s burgeoning star wideout, told TSN. “That’s a game where we can pull a lot of things from. You just see the scoreboard, and that’s motivation.”

For Michigan, a lot of what grew from the game was the product not just of the result, but the margin. Certainly the Wolverines needed to win, at last. If they’d merely squeezed out a victory on a fortunate bounce, though, it would not have resonated in the same way. UM winning so decisively that fans could spend the entire fourth quarter celebrating was great for the rivalry and a considerable boost to the team.

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“OK, so probably good for Michigan in the sense that I don’t think Donovan’s getting nearly the love or hype in the preseason — maybe until now — that he should,” Klatt said. “I think that he’s a dark horse Heisman contender. I think he’s a dark horse offensive player of the year and the Big Ten. And primarily because I think he’s about as complete as they come for a young player in particular.

“Even last year, as just a baby, when it comes to experience, he caught it really well out of the backfield. You saw that come to fruition in particular against Maryland in that game, the screen passes that became more prevalent after Blake left with his injury, in particular in the Big Ten championship game. He’s really good at that. But he’s also great running the football.

“I felt like he showed signs outside of the tackle box, inside of the tackle box. So while missing Hassan Haskins is hard, I think that Donovan could be a more complete player. Maybe not quite as powerful of a straight-ahead runner, but close because of his size. And yet he gives you the element of explosiveness of the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. And that one-two punch with him and Blake, as a combination, I think is as good as any out there.”

Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press: Michigan football, Michigan State begin 2022 on equal footing. Will they end it that way?

[Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker] spent part of his kickoff media conference at Lucas Oil Stadium explaining that MSU had a “chip on its shoulder,” an expression baked into the school’s mission statement, no doubt. 

“We need to bring a championship to East Lansing,” he said. “That’s what this is all about.” 

Well, not quite. It’s also about beating the rival Wolverines, which he has, twice. The first win gave him a little cheer in a dreary season. The second win propelled the Spartans into the national conversation for a minute last season, until the Buckeyes clocked them in Columbus. 

Taking another step was also part of the theme for Tucker this week. And so it was for Harbaugh. And while neither has to beat the other to take that next step — witness U-M last season — the season feels better for whomever beats the other.  

Now that Harbaugh has beaten the Buckeyes, his goal is beat Tucker, and preferably to beat them both in the same season. Do that and the Big Ten title is most likely in play.  

David Cobb, CBS Sports: 2022 Big Ten Media Days takeaways: Jim Harbaugh mum on Michigan QBs, Nebraska starts critical year in Ireland

Vintage Harbaugh on QB competition

If you were looking for clarity from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh on the Wolverines’ quarterback situation, think again. Michigan has new co-offensive coordinators this season in Sherrone Moore and Matt Weiss, who are replacing Josh Gattis, but the same QB philosophy applies entering preseason camp as last season.

“Both really good,” Harbaugh said of the two-man battle featuring senior Cade McNamara and sophomore J.J. McCarthy. “They ask sometimes at other positions who’s going to play? I mean, the best player is going to play.”

While McNamara held down the starting job last season on Michigan’s Big Ten title-winning team, McCarthy appeared in 11 games after entering as a five-star prospect in the Class of 2021. While it would be a natural progression for the Wolverines to increase McCarthy’s role, especially during an early-season stretch against Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn, Harbaugh remains publicly noncommittal about such an idea.

“Cade McNamara is going to be really tough to beat out for the starting quarterback job,” he said. “J.J. McCarthy is going to be really tough to beat out for the starting quarterback job.”