At long last, the season is in sight. Following a 13-1 season that left a bad taste in your mouth, Michigan Football is looking to be even better this year. Many are calling 2023 a championship or bust season.
With that said, there are a few questions that remained unanswered following Spring ball. Those questions lingered throughout the Summer, but with Fall camp beginning, we will finally get some answers.
While we won’t really know the specifics of this team until games roll around in another month, Fall camp allows for speculation and reasonable predictions. It gives us a hint of what the season is going to look like.
Let’s take a look at three storylines that everyone should be paying attention to during fall camp.
#1: Who is the Second Cornerback?
Will Johnson is the established cornerback on this team. He looks like a future first-round pick, and the Freshman All-American should be a nightmare for opposing teams all season long.
At the nickel position, Mike Sainristil returns after a tremendous first season on defense. He’ll undoubtedly be one of the leaders of the defense and should do an excellent job at the nickel.
But one position that has been a question mark ever since Gemon Green declared for the draft is the second cornerback position. Who will line up opposite Will Johnson?
At first, it seemed like Amorion Walker was the obvious answer. Then he got exposed during the Spring Game, and fans realized how raw Walker really is. He’s a tremendous athlete who has All-American potential, but he’s got to figure out the technicalities of the cornerback position.
Then, it seemed like Ja’Den McBurrows could be the guy. He had a tremendous Spring and played well in the Spring Game. He’s finally healthy and could be an impact player. Another guy who turned heads in the Spring Game was freshman Jyaire Hill.
He looks like he’ll be a future star at cornerback, but cornerback is such a tough position to play as a freshman that it’s hard to see him winning the job this season. Possible, yes, but unlikely.
Michigan then brought in UMass transfer Josh Wallace, who was a captain yet struggled with consistency. While Wallace has experience working in his favor, it’s still up in the air whether or not he can effectively cover elite wide receivers.
Michigan football has options here, but no definitive answer yet. Fall camp is going to change that. While I doubt we’ll know for a fact who’s going to start at the second corner position for the whole season, we’ll be able to hear who in the group is separating themselves.
This is one that the entire country is going to be watching. If one of these guys can step up and be a championship-level cornerback, the Wolverines’ defense is going to take a leap forward. This is undoubtedly the most important position battle of the offseason.
How much progress has J.J. McCarthy made?
This is the biggest story on the offensive side of the ball. How much of a leap will JJ McCarthy make in his second year as a starter? He’s received praise all offseason long, but it’ll be interesting to see how much better JJ looks.
While we won’t get an answer until the season starts, there’ll definitely be a reason to be excited if the hype continues to grow and if we see some video clips of JJ slinging it. If McCarthy truly makes as big of a leap as is being hyped up, this Michigan football team can reach a whole new level.
Look at this: Clemson made the playoffs every year from 2015-2020. That’s six seasons in a row. They went 4-2 in semifinal games, and 2-2 in national championships. From 2014-2020 Clemson finished with four top-10 recruiting classes and one top-five recruiting class.
They never out-recruited Alabama during that stretch, who was their biggest rival at the time. I’m sure many would consider their recruiting success relatively lackluster considering their on-the-field success. So why were they able to win?
Because they had Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence. Two elite high-draft picks at quarterback. They were the reason why the Tigers were able to beat the odds and consistently beat teams that recruited much better than them.
Michigan football is arguably a better recruiting school than Clemson. If JJ McCarthy becomes an elite, first-round caliber quarterback, this Michigan team can realistically win a national championship. It’s all about the quarterback.
The Wolverines need JJ to be an elite-level quarterback this season. Right now, the indications are that he looks poised to make a leap, but Fall camp will tell us much more about that.
What about EDGE?
Michigan has lots of depth at the EDGE position. What’s unknown, however, is if they have star power at the EDGE position. Do they have a guy who can take over a game when needed? That remains to be seen.
Braiden McGregor, Jaylen Harrell, Derrick Moore, and Josaiah Stewart all look like they have the potential, but who will step up? This is a very underrated storyline as we approach Fall camp.
The Wolverines lacked that star power last season, which forced them to blitz more than they should have. That burned them, especially against TCU.
For Michigan football to win a championship, it is ESSENTIAL that they have a star at the EDGE position. They need a guy who can consistently bring pressure by himself. They need a game wrecker.
My money is on Derrick Moore, but any one of these four could have a huge season. This becomes even more important if the second cornerback position remains open. Consistent pressure can make any cornerback look phenomenal.
With the expectation that the interior d-line will be elite, a dominant presence at the EDGE position would make this defensive line arguably the best in the nation. Pressure wins championships. Michigan didn’t get enough pressure last season, and it came back to bite them. It’ll be interesting to hear about who is stepping up on the edge.