The Downfall of the 2023-2024 Michigan Wolverines Football Team

The downfall of Michigan football started with winning the college football championship. In the 2023-24 season, this team had a Big Ten record of 9-0 and an overall record of 15-0. Under Coach Harbaugh, the team scored on average 35.9 points per game with a high of 52 points against both the University of Indiana and the University of Minnesota. A winning team is both dominant on offense and defense and this 2023-24 team was the definition of dominant, scoring 538 total points while only giving up 156 points. This Michigan team had great leadership with leading upperclassmen such as Junior JJ McCarthy QB who threw for a 72.3% completion percentage, 22 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, Senior Running Back Blake Corum who ran for 28 total touchdowns leading all of college football, Junior linebacker Junior Colson who led the team with 96 total tackles, and Senior wide receiver Roman Wilson who totaled 12 touchdowns with 48 receptions and 748 yards. The downfall of this team starts with the loss of Head Coach Jim Harbaugh who took a job with the Los Angeles Chargers signing a 5-year contract for an annual salary of $16 million per year. Jim Haurbaugh was a big loss for this program due to his ability to make smart play calls which allowed him to outcoach other coaches in tight games. Michigan hired Sherrone Moore who has never had a head coaching role prior to his time this year with the team. Sherrone Moore was chosen for this job after his great performance during his time as the interim head coach during coach Haurbaugh’s four game suspension where he led the team to 4-0 record. This year, the same Sherrone Moore is not performing like the year prior; this year the team is 3-3 in Big Ten play and an overall record of 5-4 which is the worst start to a season for Michigan football since the 2014 team who started off the year 4-5 in their first nine games. Sherrone Moore has also led this team to only scoring on average 21.0 points per game and only totaling 189 points while giving up 210, which is not a good ratio if you are trying to win a championship. Furthermore, this Michigan team set a school record with 13 of their players getting drafted over the course of the 3 day NFL draft, causing the team to now rely on younger guys to step up and make big plays. During Michigan’s 15-0 season, the QB, JJ McCarthy threw for 2991 yards and 22 touchdowns. This season, the QB, Davis Warren has only totaled 732 two yards and 5 touchdowns which is 2259 yards and 17 less than JJ McCarthy. Last year’s Michigan football team was more reliant on the run game as they scored 40 touchdowns on the ground and 24 touchdowns in the air whereas this year they have had more of a balanced approach only scoring 11 touchdowns on the ground and 10 touchdowns in the air, conveying their struggle to win games. Even though this year's Michigan team has a tougher schedule than the year prior, having a tough schedule is one of the few downsides of being champions. This Michigan team is on a downward trend and will have to make serious changes this offseason in recruiting personnel and coaches to regain their prior status of Champions.

Oliver Gates