If Michigan football takes next step, these 3 storylines will be the difference
The Michigan football team begins its 2023 fall camp on Tuesday, Aug. 1, and for the second straight season, expectations in Ann Arbor are as high as they've been at any point in the Jim Harbaugh era − if not since the 1997 national championship season.
Michigan, the two-time defending Big Ten champion, is 25-3 across the past two seasons and returns a roster with perhaps more than a dozen potential NFL draft selections.
The rushing attack, led by unanimous All-American Blake Corum and his partner Donovan Edwards, is among the best in the nation.
U-M returns more than 90% of its ground production behind an offensive line that was named the best in the country each of the past two seasons. The quarterback was named All-Big Ten second team in his first year as a starter and is widely projected as one of the top signal callers in the country.
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The defense is highlighted by All-American caliber defensive back Will Johnson, but whether it's Mike Sainristil and Rod Moore in the secondary, Junior Colson and Ernest Hausmann in the linebacking corps, or Kris Jenkins, Mason Graham and a host of others on the defensive line, perhaps as many as 10 players defensive players are capable of earning all-conference honors.
Here are three underrated story lines entering the 2023 campaign, in which a national championship is the final hurdle ahead of them:
Who will catch on?
The Wolverines had three players with at least 400 receiving yards last season, but two of them (Ronnie Bell and Luke Schoonmaker) are now in the NFL.
In total, U-M lost 49% of its pass-catching production from a season ago. At wide receiver, the top two options right now are returning seniors Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson, both of whom had an up-and-down 2022 season.
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Johnson will go down in U-M lore for last November in Columbus — he had four grabs for 160 yards and two long first-half touchdowns to flip the momentum of what became a 45-23 win. But outside of that game, his season was largely forgettable. He had three catches for 39 yards combined in the Big Ten title game and the College Football Playoff, and prior to his outburst against OSU, Johnson was held to two receptions or fewer in five of 10 games and had more than 60 yards receiving once.
Wilson was a similar story. The speedy junior started the season with a boom (two catches for 65 yards and the season-opening 61-yard touchdown) and finished the same way (five catches for 122 total yards and a touchdown against TCU) but seemingly fell out of favor in the middle. In the six games prior to the season finale, Wilson had four total catches for 19 yards, but U-M is counting on consistency from him this year.
"Roman has a complete skillset, just being able to utilize that," wide receiver coach Ron Bellamy said on the "Inside the Trenches" podcast earlier this summer. "Roman knows that he's a special football player. Now, just challenge him to be the most dynamic football player in America. That's something that he's chasing every day."
The secret weapon may be tight end Colston Loveland. He broke through in November and became a force, finishing each of the final five games of the season with at least 35 yards receiving or a touchdown.
“The longer he takes to realize how good he is, the better off he’ll be,” Harbaugh said of the sophomore last week at Big Ten media day. “But I'm pretty sure the secret is out.”
Harbaugh and the Wolverines are also high on Tyler Morris, Darius Clemons and Payton O'Leary as well as Indiana transfer tight end A.J Barner.
Can kicking game continue to excel?
It was a cute joke to be sure, but what Harbaugh said about the state kicking game wasn't just funny. It's true.
“Somebody else asked me earlier: 'What do I tell a kicker when they miss a big kick?' I’m gonna have to remember that,” Harbaugh said last week. “It’s been that long since I had to say something to a kicker after he missed a big kick or somebody that shanked a punt. Gosh, we’ve been so blessed.”
Jake Moody, who set nearly a dozen single-season and career-long program records, is gone.
Now, it's a battle between two local products: James Turner, a Saline graduate who transferred after three years at Louisville, and Adam Samaha, a true freshman out of Ann Arbor Huron who was most recently an Under Armour All-American.
“I think James has the lead," Harbaugh said of the contest. "But throw the balls out there and go from there."
Turner went 20-for-22 on field goals and 38-for-39 on extra points a season ago.
As for punter, the battle seems to be even more clear cut. The job appears to belong to Tommy Doman, the former No. 2 rated punter in the nation in the Class of 2021 from Orchard Lake St. Mary's, who got limited experience kicking extra points, kickoffs and punts a season ago.
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"As a punter, he’s a special talent, we haven’t seen a leg like this since I’ve been here at Michigan,” Harbaugh said. “I think he’s in a great place right now.”
Handling history, pressure
Like it or not, Michigan will start the season with a cloud hanging over its head.
The expectation is the years-long NCAA investigation into Harbaugh and U-M's Level I and various Level II violations will soon end with a four-game suspension for the head man and one game each for Sherrone Moore and Grant Newsome.
But even once U-M navigates those waters, presumably with an unbeaten record, the real work begins.
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Michigan travels to consecutive Big Ten West foes, Nebraska and Minnesota, in Weeks 5 and 6 before it hits the meat and potatoes of its schedule two weeks later. A road night game at MSU will be a tough challenge mentally, followed by a bye and home night game against Purdue.
The next week is a potential top-five matchup with Penn State, before U-M wraps up its regular season with rival OSU, both of which are among the hardest games anywhere in the nation.
A season ago, outside of a scare against Illinois, Michigan didn't face any true trouble until TCU. Even if the Wolverines are improved this year, it's hard to imagine them steamrolling every opponent in the same way and their ability to execute in those big moments will make all the difference.
Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.
For openers
Matchup: Michigan (13-1 in 2022) vs. East Carolina (8-5 in 2022), season opener.
Kickoff: Noon Sept. 2; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: Peacock (online only); WWJ-AM (950), WTKA-AM (1050).
Line: TBA.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football storylines you need to watch this season
