Michigan Wolverines News: Michigan Football finishes No. 3, NFL departures and more

Michigan football finished third in the final AP poll for the second consecutive year plus more in our latest Michigan Wolverines news roundup. 

After Georgia dismantled TCU in the college football national championship game on Monday night, the final AP poll came out and for the second year in a row, Michigan football finished as the No. 3 team.

This marks the first time that Michigan football has notched consecutive top-3 finishes since winning the national championship in 1947 and 1948.

TCU obviously finished second. Ohio State was fourth and Penn State wound up seventh. No other Big Ten team ended up being ranked in the final poll.

It was also a historic season for Michigan football in terms of wins too. 13 is the new high for the program and we’ll see if the Michigan Wolverines are able to make it three consecutive AP top-3 finishes in 2023.

Blake Corum announcing Michigan football return

One thing that will surely help in that effort is the return of Blake Corum. The leading rusher of the Michigan Wolverines this past season and a Heisman Trophy contender announced his intention to play one more season in Ann Arbor.

Corum told Rich Eisen that he didn’t know if Jim Harbaugh was going to come back and that his decision wasn’t impacted by that. We’ll see but if Jim wants to win a national championship or a Super Bowl, next year’s Michigan football team might have a decent shot.

Michigan football NFL draft departures

While Corum coming back was good news, there were some expected departures from the Michigan Wolverines that were officially announced on Monday.

Mazi Smith was one of those. He declared for the NFL draft. Like Luke Schoonmaker, he had another year of eligibility if he wanted to use it, but NFL teams will have plenty of interest in Smith who is a true nose tackle.

Michigan football’s top edge rusher Mike Morris also declared for the NFL draft. Morris was slowed by injuries at the end of the season but finished with 7.5 sacks and did an admirable job filling in for Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo.

Morris leaving was also sort of expected. He’s got a chance to be a first-round pick so it’s hard to pass that up.

We’ll see what happens in the coming days for the Michigan football program but hopefully soon, Jim Harbaugh will make a decision one way or the other.

Right now, it seems like Broncos or bust. I was hoping an announcement about a new deal would come for Harbaugh to stay with Michigan football but that might not be coming.

All we can do is wait and hope.