Looking back at our 2023 preseason predictions: What we did right and what we did wrong

Ahead of the 2023 season, many locally and nationally were excited about the Michigan Wolverines. Most acknowledged Michigan’s easy schedule early in the season, followed by the challenge late in the season, but all acknowledged the abundance of talent returning to Ann Arbor.

Today we’re taking a look back at some of our predictions to see how we fared as a team, and also taking a look at some national predictions.

In our last staff round before 2023 begins, we gave our predictions for the entire year. Every single one of us at Maize n Brew expected Michigan to make the College Football Playoff (CFP), but some of us assumed the Wolverines would lose a game on the way there. Interestingly, we were wrong in our predictions regarding the Wolverines’ opponents after reaching the CFP, as both USC and Notre Dame were mentioned.

When asked who would win the CB2 and starting edge spots, our team as a whole correctly identified Josh Wallace as the cornerback. The edge discussion became a moot point for the most part, as Michigan rotated the edges so often that it’s hard to truly qualify anyone as a starter.

Our own Andrew Bailey attempted to name the CFP entrants as well as the first two CFP dropouts last August. He correctly identified Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines as the best team in the country. However, he rounded out the CFP field with LSU, Florida State and Georgia. LSU went 10-3 and was ranked No. 12 in the AP poll. Florida State narrowly missed the CFP and would have been in had its quarterback been healthy. Likewise, Georgia narrowly missed out on participation after losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship.

However, Andrew had CFP runner-up Washington as one of the first two teams in the race, so we’ll give him some credit for that.

Nick Durand focused specifically on Michigan and wrote a preseason article about reasonable expectations for the 2023 season. He settled on a lower limit of 9-3 with a ceiling of 12-0 and an expected finish of 11-1.

Finally, Andrew gave us three bold predictions for Team 144.

Michigan has a 1,000-yard receiver

No points here, as Michigan didn’t come particularly close to a 1,000-yard receiver. Roman Wilson was the best receiver, but he only managed 48 catches for 789 yards. After Wilson, Colston Loveland collected 649 yards and Cornelius Johnson 604 yards. None of the other receivers managed more than 250 yards.

Amazingly, Jeremy Gallon is the last Michigan receiver to surpass the 1,000-yard mark.

Michigan doesn’t stay undefeated, but wins the CFP by 14+

This should be a half point because the first assessment is wrong and the second is correct. However, this is essentially a correct assessment because Michigan won the national championship by 21 points. It’s incredibly impressive when you predict your plan and the team backs it up, regardless of how it got there.

Michigan defender challenges Hutchinson’s sack record

No points. Aidan Hutchinson’s record of 14 sacks in a season remains unchallenged. Jesse Minter rotated too many players for anyone to get that many sacks. Jaylen Harrell led the team with 6.5. Josaiah Stewart was second with 5.5 and Derrick Moore finished with five.

Nationally, many pundits were excited about Michigan in the summer of 2023, although that was obviously before the Stallions. The national narrative certainly changed overnight after that. Before the season, however, Bruce Feldman had Michigan as the No. 1 team in the country, as did Rece Davis of ESPN.

Back then, Michigan, LSU, USC and Georgia were the media darlings, and many expected Caleb Williams to bring the CFP trophy back to Southern California. Elsewhere, Penn State was mistakenly given a lot of love, while Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns were by far the most underrated team.

There was a general consensus both internally and externally that Michigan had a chance to win it all from day one, and those expectations have been met. Despite the media hype this season, the preseason predictions have largely come true.