The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Michigan is still pretty good.
It’s not that Michigan was coming into 2022 appreciably worse than the version that won the Big Ten title and went on to the College Football Playoff, it’s that Ohio State appears to have fixed the defensive glitch and is now back to being national championship-level amazing again.
That still might mean Michigan is one of the four best teams in college football.
It’s only two games, and the team got to do whatever it wanted against totally miserable Colorado State and Hawaii squads, but this matters.
Does beating those two by a combined score of 107-17 mean it’s about to be a repeat of 2021?
No, not because of that, but the Wolverines had some rebuilding to do on the defensive front, they added a new center to the O line mix – and a great one in Virginia’s Olusegun Oluwatimi – the quarterback situation needed some massaging, and enough new players came aboard to matter.
Using the first two games as true tune-ups was a luxury, there’s another with UConn coming up, and so now – unlike a slew of other teams that had to survive tough fights right away – Michigan got to have an NFL-like preseason.
And what’s up after all of these light scrimmages?
Maryland, at Iowa, at Indiana, Penn State, Michigan State, at Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois.
The toughest games are at home, the Wolverines will be double-digit favorites in the three road games, and all of that means 11-0 might really be possible before dealing with Ohio State.
With the way this season appears to be going, and with all of the key losses early by top teams, get to Columbus unbeaten, don’t get annihilated, and at 11-1 – assuming Michigan loses – the four-team tournament might have an invite waiting.
In the end, getting the first part of the season to practice might be the difference.
– CFP, Bowl Ties Winners & Losers
– Sun Belt, Fun Belt One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2