There are a lot of reasons why Michigan football has gone 40-3 over the past three seasons and this is another one.
Michigan football has been as dominant as any program in the country over the past three seasons and there are a lot of reasons why. Jim Harbaugh has proven to be an elite head coach and he has made some incredible hires, most notably at the defensive coordinator position. For one year, it was Mike McDonald. Then, after losing McDonald to the Baltimore Ravens, Harbaugh hired Jesse Minter, which ended up being an absolute home run move.
Throw in the development of JJ McCarthy, the return of several key offensive seniors like Blake Corum, Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter, along with plenty of key players on the defensive side of the ball and you had somewhat of a perfect Michigan storm, especially in 2023, which obviously resulted in a national title.
There’s another area, that is extremely important to overall team success, and Michigan has been dominating there as well. Sometimes it gets overlooked, but not at U-M. In fact, Michigan has done something with its special teams that no other program has done over the last three years.
It’s amazing that over the course of three years, not giving up a kickoff return of more than thirty yards, can be accomplished, even if college football these days is full of touchbacks. In the tweet above, special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh states that it truly is an example of a hard-charging, diligent mindset. It will trickle down if you have 11–15 players that are prepared to put their everything on the line for the kickoff squad. It’s the opening play of every game and a crucial play that can occasionally change the momentum following a score. That statistic demonstrates how seriously Michigan’s kickoff players took their roles.
