![]() ![]() Linebacker (3-5)Īccording to these scores, the strongest overall champion of the CFP era is the 2017 Alabama team, followed by Alabama in 2020, LSU in 2019 and Georgia in 2021. This team will be the ultimate test case for Michigan’s strategy of developing elite defensive players without signing as many elite recruits. ![]() Michigan has excelled at scouting and developing defensive linemen and edge players, from Aidan Hutchinson to Kwity Paye, David Ojabo and Mazi Smith. Josaiah Stewart was a middling recruit but played like a blue-chipper at Coastal Carolina. Kenneth Grant, a three-star nose tackle, could be Michigan’s equivalent of Jordan Davis. Kris Jenkins wasn’t a top-500 prospect in his class but could be a Day 1 or Day 2 pick. Now, the caveats: The Wolverines have a bunch of players up front who are going to be drafted much higher than their recruiting rankings would indicate. Talent-wise, Michigan’s score would be considerably lower than any other CFP champion. 49 in the 247Sports Composite for the Class of 2022. Michigan’s highest-rated player in this group is Derrick Moore, who was No. ![]() If Michigan wins the national championship in 2023, the Wolverines will be the only team in the era of the four-team CFP to do so without a stockpile of top-100 players on the defensive front. Alabama basically had its entire defensive front drafted from the 2017 championship team. ![]() Clemson’s championship teams had Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence and Clelin Ferrell, all blue-chip recruits and first-round picks. Georgia’s 2021 defense had five linemen or edge players drafted in the first round, including No. Paired with a talented quarterback and an elite running game, that’s enough to get the job done. The Wolverines have two experienced wide receivers in Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson and a talented pass-catching tight end in Colston Loveland, who might be the best NFL prospect of the bunch. Michigan is more in the Georgia mold than the molds of Alabama, LSU and Clemson. The exception is Georgia, which has had one wide receiver drafted so far from its championship teams: George Pickens, who was injured and had only five receptions in 2021. Winning a national championship doesn’t require a room full of five-star prospects at wide receiver, but the best teams on this list had elite quarterbacks throwing to draft picks. Maybe that’s good news for Peyton O’Leary, the former walk-on fighting for a spot in Michigan’s receiving corps. The premise of this project was to focus on the 36 players who contributed the most to each national championship team’s success.įor every Ja’Marr Chase or DeVonta Smith there’s a Hunter Renfrow or a Ladd McConkey who made significant contributions to a championship team without doing much to boost the recruiting score. Though all of those teams were loaded with talent, simply adding up draft picks and five-star recruits doesn’t tell the whole story. Georgia has dominated those categories for the past two years, as did Alabama, LSU and Clemson during their championship seasons. But how does Michigan’s roster measure up against Georgia and other national championship teams of the CFP era?Ĭhampionship rosters are built with five-star recruits, multiyear starters and draft picks. McCarthy and a slew of future NFL Draft picks, this Michigan team looks like the deepest and most talented of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure. Led by All-American running back Blake Corum, quarterback J.J. Let’s put everything into winning the national championship and getting to that goal,’” defensive back Mike Sainristil said. “The whole mindset coming back for that fifth year is: ‘Let’s put everything into that last season. ![]()
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