Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh talks about the receiving corps

Michigan football checks in at No. 6 in the preseason AFCA Coaches Poll on Monday and a big reason why the Wolverines are close to cracking the top five is due to how much talent they return on the offensive side of the ball. Michigan lost some top defensive players from 2021 like Aidan Hutchinson, David Ojabo, Daxton Hill, Brad Hawkins, and Josh Ross.

But the Wolverines return every high-level skill player from 2021 on the offense, save for Hassan Haskins.

Jim Harbaugh was on the ‘In the Trenches’ podcast on Monday with Jon Jansen, and he addressed the state of the team. The head man for the Wolverines had a ton of positives to say about his team offensively and defensively, but one thing that stood out was the talk about the wide receiving corps.

The Wolverines return eight out of nine pass catchers that made an impact from 2021, the lone one being Daylen Baldwin. The Wolverines gained three high-level freshmen from the 2022 recruiting class, but the biggest addition for the 2022 college football season just may be a familiar player.

Ronnie Bell caught just one ball during the 2021 football season — that one reception went for 76 yards and a touchdown — before suffering a season-ending injury. But Jim Harbaugh says that Ronnie Bell is back and healthy. He says that Bell is doing something new every day that he didn’t know if he would be able to do after suffering that injury.

“Really excited,” says Harbaugh. “Every day, I think he does something that I might have been worried about. ‘Can I do that? Can I make this cut? Can I make this play? Can I leave my feet and make a catch and come down?’ And then, just yesterday, go up with another player. I think he went up with — I can’t remember who the DB might have been, I think it might have been DJ Turner — he went up with DJ Turner, who can get up. Ronnie can get up. And for Ronnie to come down with the defender with him. And then he did. I’ve never seen Ronnie in a better…