How the Michigan Wolverines’ powerful revival was born in the COVID darkness

They were down and done, and in the COVID fog of 2020, Michigan football faced a true reckoning. The Wolverines had gone 2-4 and cancelled the Ohio State game, spawning white-flag jokes and jeers. Too many players were sick to play. The assumption was, the program itself was ailing just as badly.

It was easy to lose perspective then. The Wolverines went 0-3 at home in an empty Michigan Stadium and got clobbered on the road by Indiana. Jim Harbaugh’s contract was expiring after 2021, and without a victory over the Buckeyes or a Big Ten title in his first five seasons, fear and anger were in full bloom. All the cancellations and player opt-outs made the season seem less than real, but in college football, speculation and judgment never get cancelled. In Ann Arbor, a crisis appeared to be unfolding, with the Wolverines a meager 11-10 since late 2018.

“Oh man, 2020 was dark,” senior receiver Ronnie Bell said three weeks ago, after the Wolverines won their second straight Big Ten title, posted the program’s first 13-0 record and headed back to the playoff. How did they get here — 25-2 since 2020 ended, preparing to face TCU in the semifinal Saturday at the Fiesta Bowl — from there?

From the darkest of depths, Michigan is back as a national powerhouse, and while it seems silly to suggest, the pandemic might have been the best thing to happen to the program.

It forced harsh introspection by Harbaugh, who agreed to a contract extension that slashed his salary by 50%. He shook up his staff, firing longtime defensive coordinator Don Brown. He brought in six younger assistants, including former Michigan players Mike Hart and Ron Bellamy. He took the advice of his brother, John, and grabbed Mike Macdonald, then 33, off the Ravens staff. When Macdonald returned to the Ravens, Harbaugh hired another up-and-comer in Jesse Minter. When Josh Gattis departed, Harbaugh promoted Sherrone Moore, then 34, from tight ends coach to co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, and UM’s line has been named the nation’s best two years in a row.

The Wolverines were humbled, which wasn’t a bad thing. More important, they were inspired. Harbaugh bet on himself with the incentive-laden contract extension and returned to the style he knew, pounding with the run and shunning recklessness from his quarterback — first Cade McNamara, now J.J. McCarthy.

He also bet on others, taking chances with first-time coordinators. He put renewed emphasis on tight ends and the trenches, which had softened as UM sought speed and skill to catch Ohio State, which had won eight in a row in the rivalry. Now, the Wolverines have convincingly won two in a row and the Buckeyes are scrambling to catch up in the toughness department. If you can’t out-talent them, you can out-physical them.

The pandemic served another purpose, fueling Michigan’s motivation. It was the following offseason when Ryan Day uttered his infamous “Hang a hundred on them,” providing gristle the Wolverines still chew on. Harbaugh doesn’t appear to chase stars as feverishly, as stars chase NIL money, and UM’s latest recruiting class was ranked 17th. He stocks up on linemen with the occasional five-star sprinkled in — McCarthy and Donovan Edwards, for instance.

Lingering lessons of 2020?

“We had a lot of selfish players,” offensive lineman Trevor Keegan said. “We didn’t really have a good culture.”

“There were guys that just wanted to be here for themselves, and have the name Michigan behind them and go to the league,” offensive lineman Karsen Barnhart said. “Now, everyone wants to be here, and everyone wants to play for each other and win.”

The nadir might have come on Oct. 31, 2020, when Michigan lost to rebuilding Michigan State, 27-24. Or perhaps it was Nov. 14 in a stunningly desultory 49-11 loss to Wisconsin. The Badgers handed Michigan its worst home defeat in 85 years, and ABC commentator Kirk Herbstreit summed it up on the broadcast with a mournful, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Locking down

Soft and selfish is no way to play football. No one’s naming names, but several high-profile players transferred or opted out, which certainly was their right. What was left was a smaller band of players determined to police each other. The weight room was tidied up, rules were enforced for the tiniest details, such as how shoes were laid out.

“Everything feels so much more tightened up, locked down,” Bell said. “If 2020 did one thing, it definitely squeezed out what we didn’t need. And the ones that still came along were the ones that really wanted to be a part of it. If you didn’t really love this game, you didn’t hang around very long. The ones that made it through, stuck it out, I feel that’s what really turned this whole thing around.”

For starters, the Wolverines needed leaders, players who would accept Harbaugh’s hard-driving ways and demand that others follow. Aidan Hutchinson immediately stepped up. He suffered a broken leg during the Indiana loss, opted to return for another season, then aligned with strength coach Ben Herbert to become a pass-rushing machine, capped with a legendary performance against the Buckeyes.

In barely two years, the atmosphere at Schembechler Hall transformed from edgy paranoia to joyful cohesiveness, a “happy mission” as Harbaugh likes to say.

“I think Jim feels unburdened now,” said his father, Jack. “It started with Aidan. He took over the leadership and passed it on to others, and Jim felt freed. All the smiles and laughs in the building, it’s so great to see.”

Hutchinson and James Ross, captains of the 2021 team, pulled others along. Hutchinson made it his mission to restore UM to the program he knew when his father, Chris, played here. Yes, legacies matter.

“You’re supposed to have that Michigan standard,” Hutchinson said after a recent Lions practice. “I was hellbent, everyone on that team was hellbent on turning things around. I felt our senior year, new coaches, everything aligned. The people who were the leaders were in the right place, and the coaches were in the right place.”

The Wolverines finished 12-2 after a 34-11 loss to Georgia in the playoff, and even then, some wondered if it was sustainable. The pull of the NFL has benefits and distractions. Three UM defensive players were taken in the first two rounds of the draft, and yet the defense is just as dominant. Harbaugh flirted briefly with the Minnesota Vikings, then signed a reworked five-year contract that, with incentives, again makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.

The theory in college football is, you can’t be a national power without star power. It might be easier that way, but Michigan is showing it’s doable another way, with stellar coaching and player development. According to Fox Sports, Georgia has 68 combined four- and five-star players on its roster. Ohio State has 66. Michigan has 44. TCU has 17.

Harbaugh has called this a “no-star” defense, but what he really means is an “any star” defense, with any number of difference-makers in Mike Morris, Mazi Smith, Kris Jenkins, Mike Sainristil and others. They call it a brotherhood, a common characterization for a football team. But, this group grew from uncommon ground, buried by many in 2020, as others happily piled on.

Harbaugh’s record has risen with his renewed vigor — 74-24 (.755 winning percentage), equal to Lloyd Carr’s (.753). The 25-2 mark is the best two-year stretch in program history. But ask him about personal satisfaction and he’s more likely to talk about the team’s walk-ons. On-field reporters usually get one, maybe two postgame questions before Harbaugh pushes a player in front of the camera and dashes off.

That doesn’t make him a favorite with the TV people, but it’s consistent with his players-first mentality.

“I don’t think I’ve changed one bit,” Harbaugh, 59, said after UM beat Purdue for the Big Ten title. “When you get to this age, you’re not going to change. I think the players really appreciated that. We made it about the guys on the team.”

This didn’t happen solely because 2020 happened. It’s not like the Wolverines were lost in the dark for years. But, if you go 2-4 and lose how they did, no matter the circumstances, the ridicule will come. And with it, the resolve.

“The mindset has been there since after COVID, because that’s when we got counted out as a program,” Sainristil said. “It was like, all right, that’s how everybody feels about us — let’s go prove them wrong.”

Two years and 25 victories later, the Wolverines have emerged into the brightest light. They once had to strain to envision it, but no squinting necessary now.

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This story was originally published December 29, 2022 at 2:18 PM.