Almost all the college football analysts you listen to have high expectations for Michigan football in 2022.
Rightly so, just one year after the Wolverines went 2-4 during the 2020 — COVID-19 — season, the maize and blue went 12-2 with a win against Ohio State and made their first College Football Playoff appearance. Jim Harbaugh made some tough decisions after that atrocious 2020 season letting go of assistant coaches and bringing in a youth movement with great football minds to help mold a new Michigan team — it worked out very well.
The question going into the 2022 football season is going to be how Michigan handles the expectations. The Wolverines went into 2021 with people not giving the maize and blue much of a chance, but going into the current 2022 season, we see a ton of rankings that has the Wolverines inside the top five.
Speaking of another top-five prediction, famous college football analyst Phil Steele — who has his 2022 college football preview magazine available or you can purchase online — has Michigan ranked fifth in the country in his preseason top 40 poll.
What a difference a year makes! Last year Michigan was off a 2-4 season, Coach Harbaugh took a pay cut and they were not ranked. I put them on my Most Improved List but they burnt me in 2019 as a Suprise Team so I did not have them on that list. Michigan finally slayed the Ohio St dragon and beat Iowa in the Big Ten Title game to make the playoff for the first time ever. This year they have 9 starters back on offense and my #1 rated OLine plus two capable QB’s. The D has just 4 starters back losing two #1’s and a #2 DC. Michigan figures to be favored in all 11 games heading into Columbus and a win there would put them back into the playoff.
Later in the magazine, Steele previews the Big Ten and writes a little column on each of the teams. He lists the Wolverines as No. 2 in the Big Ten east behind Ohio State. In this column, he talked about how he predicted a team with the least amount of experience in 2020 would have a big rise in 2021, and Michigan fit that bill. Steele wrote that Michigan was ranked No. 120 in his experience chart going into 2021.
Steele says even though Michigan loses Aidan Hutchinson, David Ojabo, Josh Ross, Dax Hill, and Vincent Gray, the Wolverines still return plenty of starters and they return Cade McNamara at the quarterback position. Steele believes that a road game against Iowa could be the only thing standing in the way of an…