Michigan Football: Buy or sell Wolverines as top-25 team

One preseason ranking has Michigan football ranked as a top 25 team. The question is, do you buy or sell the Wolverines as a ranked team next season?

Now that spring practices have concluded across the country, it’s time for post-spring rankings and in a top 25 poll released by CBS Sports, Michigan football ranks 23rd heading into 2021.

That ranking seems optimistic based on the 2020 Michigan football season. The Wolverines were 2-4 and lost some ugly games. Wisconsin ran over U-M like it was nothing.

And to make matters worse, Michigan football just sent eight players to the NFL draft from that team, including some who could still be in Ann Arbor.

Big names such as Joe Milton and Zach Charbonnet have also transferred and despite the desire to add talent from the transfer portal, outside of quarterback Alan Bowman, it hasn’t happened.

Still, there are some reasons to be excited about next season. Michigan might not contend for the Big Ten, but it should be able to put together a winning season.

As far as being a top-25 team, here’s explaining why you should buy or sell that argument.

Buying Michigan as a top-25 team

A coaching overhaul on both sides of the ball is going to help. The defense has a new defensive coordinator in Mike Macdonald and a co-DC in Maurice Linguist who will focus on pass defense.

The Wolverines needed to move away from Don Brown. That system just was figured out and wasn’t flexible enough. Those moves will help, plus the additions of Mike Hart and Matt Weiss on offense, coaching QBs/RBs will help a lot too.

The Wolverines have talent on offense, especially at running back. Ronnie Bell will have another productive season and others such as Cornelius Johnson, Roman Wilson, and A.J. Henning all have breakout potential. Johnson seemed to have a solid connection with presumptive starter Cade McNamara.

Much of U-M’s fate will be decided by the quarterback. The offensive line needs to be better and it will be if the Wolverines are committed to playing the best five.

The schedule is tough but outside of games at Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State, each won is winnable. However, there aren’t a bunch of easy wins. It’s going to be a grind and a breakout season from either McNamara or J.J. McCarthy seems like the only way this team is top-25 caliber.

Sell

The lack of a proven quarterback is probably the biggest reason to sell on Michigan being a top-25 team next season. If I was to set an over/under on the win total, seven or eight seems like the sweet spot.

Michigan gets Indiana and Northwestern at home but also has to travel to Nebraska and Michigan State. Those four games are all winnable to me and if the Wolverines are going to be a top-25 team, they have to win at least three of those four, if not sweep them. You can throw Washington in the mix too.

Those five games are the toss-ups to me. Last year, Michigan struggled to run the ball and stop the run. Add in the inconsistency at quarterback and winning games in the Big Ten is nearly impossible.

So the defense has to get it figured out and just changing coaches won’t fix that lack of depth in the front seven. U-M desperately needs a defensive tackle or two in the portal. They have made some offers, but nothing yet.

Linebacker help is needed too and unless that happens, I think the defense is going to struggle. Outside of Ronnie Bell, Aidan Hutchinson, and Daxton Hill, the most talented players are underclassmen.

Conclusion

After laying out both sides, my conclusion is that while Michigan will be a much-improved team in 2021, I don’t see the Wolverines winning more than 7-8 games.

I do like how Jim Harbaugh has approached this season. He seems determined to rebuild the culture and I’m getting 2015 vibes from this group. The expectations weren’t high then either but U-M won 10 games.

Could something similar happen in 2021? I don’t know if a 10-win season is possible, but the Wolverines will take a step forward, at least compared to where they finished in 2020.

I still see them on the outside looking in of the top 25, but it’s close.