OPINION: If any championship mettle remains, Michigan Football must show it now

Michigan has looked nothing like the championship program of the past three years, but a showdown with USC provides Wolverines a chance to flex their mettle...

Michigan running back Donovan Edwards (7) warms up ahead of the Rose Bowl game against Alabama at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Through the first three weeks of the 2024 season, Michigan football has looked nothing like the program that beat Ohio State three consecutive years, won three straight Big Ten championships and a national title back in January.

The Wolverines have been undisciplined, turning the ball over seven times in three games after just eight giveaways in 15 outings last year. The least penalized team in the country in 2023, Michigan is committing 5.33 per game in 2024, tied for 46th in the country.

Other factors, like the offense's slow start in the run game and inability to make plays through the air, or the defense's struggles against the pass and on third down, can be chalked up to a whole lot of new faces playing starting roles this season. But that missing discipline, determination and toughness that Michigan played with, which led to so much success from 2021 through 2023 — that's a scarier problem facing this batch of Wolverines.

Michigan didn't just lose most of its best players off the 2023 national title-winning team. It also lost just about every leader it had in the program — guys like Mike Sainristil, Blake Corum, J.J. McCarthy, Trevor Keegan, Zak Zinter, Kris Jenkins. That's not even to mention former head coach Jim Harbaugh, the entire defensive coaching staff and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. While everything the Wolverines' lost was talked about ad nauseum throughout the offseason, perhaps we didn't appreciate just how much each and every one of those individuals meant to this program.

“This isn’t last year’s team,” running back Donovan Edwards told reporters this week . “This is Team 145, not Team 144."

Michigan running back Donovan Edwards (7) walks into the locker room as team arrive before the Texas game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 7, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Sherrone Moore finds himself in a difficult position. The 38-year-old, first-time head coach was promoted from offensive coordinator in large part in order to keep Michigan's championship culture, habits and a highly-talented junior class intact. However, in the days and weeks immediately following Moore's promotion, the program was gutted of just about every champion of that culture and form of leadership it had for the previous three seasons.

This current Michigan roster, almost exclusively, is filled with guys who have only known success in Ann Arbor. Only four players — safeties Makari Paige and Quinten Johnson, running back Kalel Mullings, and offensive lineman Jeff Persi — were on this team during the disastrous 2020 campaign. Those four have seen the difference between winning and losing at Michigan. The other 100-or-so players on the roster have not.

Complacency is a human characteristic. It's natural, subtle and incredibly difficult not to fall into when all one has known is success. As Bane tells Batman in The Dark Knight Rises: "Victory has defeated you."

It's not for me to say whether complacency took root in Ann Arbor this offseason. I'm inclined to believe Michigan's short-comings and struggles through three games have more to do with the talent that was lost, both on the field and on the coaching staff. Regardless of the reason, there's too much talent, and too many guys who played a crucial role in the Wolverines' recent success to allow what we've seen this season continue.

Michigan defensive linemen Mason Graham (55) and Kenneth Grant (78) warm up before the start of the game against Fresno State at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press / USA TODAY NETWORK

If any of that championship mettle remains in Ann Arbor, it must show up this Saturday against No. 11 USC. This team belongs to Edwards. It belongs to defensive lineman Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, to cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Will Johnson. It belongs to Mullings and Paige, the starters who have seen success and failure with Michigan football. Each of these players played crucial roles in the Wolverines' national championship last season. They were a part of a new golden age of Michigan football over the past three seasons

Head coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans arrive looking to prove they're ready for life in the Big Ten Conference, and wanting to reintroduce themselves on a national stage. Who better to do that against than the program that has won the league three straight times?

Michigan can tell a different story on Saturday. This narrative about a "rebuilding year", or the Wolverines time being over — they can prove those premature. Michigan can look across the field at USC's defense, which looked improved in games against LSU and Utah State, and say, "Meet 233-pound Kalel Mullings, 212-pound Donovan Edwards and 235-pound Alex Orji. Try and tackle them for three and a half hours."

Coming out of the gate slowly against Fresno State, with all those new pieces in starting roles, can be explained. Losing (even badly) at home against Texas, the new No. 1 team in the country, is somewhat understandable. But, the time for excuses or explaining things away is over.

We saw a glimpse of what Michigan is capable of last week, when they ran for 301 yards and 6.8 per carry against Arkansas State, and the Wolverines' defense forced six consecutive empty possessions. That's what this team needs to be, for four quarters and 60 minutes, tomorrow against the Trojans.

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