Midseason review: Michigan football climbs from cellar to contender

Wolverines ranked No. 12 in AP Poll

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It's amazing how much can change in a year.

One year ago, the University of Michigan football team lost its fourth game at the halfway point of the season, coming off a third straight loss to an unranked opponent and garnering national scorn for the abysmal handling of the Concussion-gate fiasco against Minnesota.

Long story short, Michigan was in a very, very bad place.

Much of the damage came well before former head coach Brady Hoke took over in Ann Arbor. The team's 31-0 drubbing at Notre Dame wasn't the most embarrassing loss of the decade, nor was five wins the team's fewest in a season. But when Michigan failed to even scrape the fringes of Big Ten Championship contention for the sixth time in seven years, it sucked the wind out of the program's sails.

The Wolverines lost the final meeting with Notre Dame, the Paul Bunyan Trophy to Michigan State and even the Little Brown Jug to fringe-rival Minnesota. When Michigan traveled to Ohio State in what used to be the biggest game of every college football season, nobody outside of Ann Arbor and Columbus took any notice.

Less than 10 years removed from the longest active bowl-streak in the country, Michigan failed to qualify for the postseason for the third time in seven years.

Fast-forward to the present. Michigan is on a five-game winning streak and pounded the No. 13 team in the country on Saturday. On Sunday, the new rankings landed the Wolverines deservedly into the top 12 for the first time since 2011. They've beaten five straight teams without breaking a sweat, and two of those teams were in the top 25.

This changed in just one year?

Let's get one thing straight: Michigan should not be considered a College Football Playoff contender, at this point. The Wolverines were favored in all five of their victories, after all, and already suffered a loss at Utah. Another loss this season would knock Michigan officially out of the race, and anyone who expects six more wins to close out the season is jumping the gun, for now.

It's only because of where Michigan has been over the last seven years that this 5-1 start is catching so many eyes.

But whether or not you think Michigan can contend on a national scale, it's impossible to ignore the mammoth leap its taken in just one year. The same players who lost to Rutgers, Minnesota and Maryland last season are steamrolling some of the top teams in the country this season.

Let's go step by step through the transformation of the Michigan program over the last 12 months.

Stage 1: Michigan unofficially plummets into national irrelevance

Key dates: Michigan shut out by Notre Dame (Sept. 6); Minnesota takes Little Brown Jug at the Big House (Sept. 27); Michigan botches press conference about Shane Morris injury (Oct. 1); Wolverines lose third straight game, falling 26-24 at Rutgers (Oct. 4)

When Michigan lost to Big Ten bottom-feeder Rutgers in Week 6 of 2014, it really put the state of the program into perspective. Michigan fell to 2-4 on the season and 0-2 in conference play just one week after being embarrassed by Minnesota in the Big House. Hoke was clearly losing hold of the reins and local grumblings about athletic director Dave Brandon turned into full-blown rallies on the university's campus.

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At this point, Michigan fell to 4-10 in its last 14 games and showed no signs of competing on a national scale. In it's only game against a ranked team, the Wolverines failed to score a point for the first time this millennium, falling to rival Notre Dame, 31-0, in South Bend.

The program was also under heavy fire nationally for the mishandling of Morris' apparent head injury in the loss to Minnesota. Hoke said he didn't see the hit that left his quarterback wobbling up to the line of scrimmage, but Brandon threw his coaches under the bus, saying Hoke and his staff showed "a serious lack of communication."

Watch: Brady Hoke press conference about Shane Morris

Hoke tried to keep the situation under control, but a fan base fed up with losing and hungry for change jumped on the opportunity to make its voice heard. The "Fire Brandon" and "Fire Hoke" movements picked up steam and Michigan football became, for the most part, not about football.

Stage 2: Rock bottom

Key dates: Another blowout loss in East Lansing (Oct. 25); Dave Brandon resigns (Oct. 31); Half-empty stadium against Maryland (Nov. 22); Loss to Ohio State clinches a losing season (Nov. 29); Brady Hoke fired (Dec. 2)

Michigan's 2014 season ended with a surprisingly close 42-28 loss at the Horseshoe, when backup quarterback Cardale Jones burst onto the stage to lead to Buckeyes after J.T. Barrett went down with an injury. It was Ohio State's 10th win over Michigan in 11 years and propelled the Buckeyes into the Big Ten Championship Game.

Despite wins over Penn State, Indiana and Northwestern in the final six weeks, Michigan failed to qualify for a bowl game thanks to a 23-16 home loss to Maryland.

The Wolverines pulled off one of the sloppiest wins in recent memory, beating Northwestern 10-9 after Trevor Siemian fell down on a two-point conversion attempt, to put themselves into position to make a bowl game. But a poor performance against Maryland signaled the unofficial end to that season and a bad era of Michigan football.

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This, more than any other moment over the past seven years, demonstrated how far Michigan had fallen. With a bowl game on the line at the final home game of the season, the crowd at Michigan Stadium was, essentially, a no-show. Ann Arbor's streak of consecutive games over 100,000 fans officially lived on (the announced attendance was 101,717), but as the smallest football crowd in recent Big House memory watched its team hand away a late lead, it didn't look like Michigan's situation could get much worse.

On Dec. 2, Interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett announced that Hoke would not return for a fifth season as Michigan's coach. Hoke finished his Michigan career with a 31-20 overall record, but four years of steady decline were enough to put an end to another short era.

Michigan fell to 46-42 over seven seasons with claim to only a handful of significant wins. Fans were left hoping that Hackett, who came into the picture so suddenly when the AD job opened up, would land a coach that could put the program back on the map.

Stage 3: Hackett lands his guy

Key date: Michigan hires Jim Harbaugh (Dec. 30)

Hackett shocked the entire football world when he ripped Harbaugh from the clutches of the NFL and brought him back home to take over a college program desperate for a return to its former glory.

Even though Michigan struggled to beat college teams on the field, it beat half the NFL during the offseason, landing Harbaugh over a host of reportedly interested suitors.

Harbaugh's carried a sparkling coaching resume into Ann Arbor. After resurrecting the University of San Diego and Stanford University to kick off his coaching career, Harbaugh moved on to the NFL and enjoyed immediate success, winning 13 games in his first season and eventually carrying the 49ers to three straight NFC Championship Games.

He even came minutes away from a Super Bowl championship in 2013, but a 23-3 comeback run in the second half fell just short and the Ravens escaped with a 34-31 win.

But despite the national mockery by NFL personnel at the suggestion that Harbaugh would leave the pros to return to Michigan, the most coveted coach in the country did just that.

Watch: Jim Harbaugh introduced as Michigan coach

Harbaugh's return sparked an avalanche of anticipation that hadn't hit Michigan football since well before Rich Rodriguez's hiring in 2008. Season ticket demand skyrocketed as Harbaugh flew around the country, putting together an All-Star coaching staff and working to attract last-minute recruits.

The hiring threw the Michigan fan base into a frenzy. Blogs and social media accounts surfaced all over the internet, naming themselves after Harbaugh. Thousands of fans changed their profile names and pictures, dedicating them to the new coach. Khakis popped up at other Michigan sporting events. Harbaugh-mania was in full force, and he hadn't even coached a game.

After his welcoming parade ended in early January, Harbaugh got to work on the football team, with hundreds of thousands of eyes on his every move.

He was a hero before his team ever stepped foot on the field.

Stage 4: Turning the tide

Key dates: Michigan loses opener to Utah (Sept. 3); Michigan shuts out BYU (Sept. 26)

All the speculation about what Harbaugh might do at Michigan finally started to form into a picture of what he would do on Sept. 3. Michigan opened the college football season with a Thursday night game in the mountains of Utah and nobody really knew what to expect from a team with an undeniably gifted coach and a cast of talented, but unproven players.

The Wolverines got a bit of a wake-up call in the opener, falling to Utah, 24-17, to kick off the Harbaugh era. Iowa transfer quarterback Jake Rudock struggled in his Michigan debut, throwing three costly interceptions, one of which was returned for the eventual game-winning touchdown.

But Michigan stopped the bleeding over the next two weeks, notching a pair of easy wins over lesser nonconference foes. The Wolverines blew out Oregon State and UNLV by a combined score of 63-14.

The back-to-back wins gave Michigan its first winning record in a calendar year and set up a big game against battle-tested BYU.

The Cougars, coming off games against Nebraska, Boise State and UCLA, came into Ann Arbor ranked No. 22 in the country. They left with their tails between their legs.

Michigan routed BYU, 31-0, and held the dynamic Tanner Mangum-led offense to just 105 total yards. It marked the program's biggest win since a Sugar Bowl victory over Virginia Tech in January of 2012 and fueled the already blazing fire behind Harbaugh-mania.

While Michigan coasted through three straight blowouts, the rest of college football was racked with a slew of upsets and near-upsets. As a result, the Wolverines made their first appearance in the AP Poll the day after crushing the Cougars, replacing BYU as the No. 22 team in the nation.

Michigan's blowout win over BYU hinted that Harbaugh's effort to turn the program around was running ahead of schedule.

Stage 5: Back in the picture

Key date: Michigan stomps Northwestern (Oct. 10)

A pair of shutout wins by Michigan and Northwestern in Week 5 set up one of the most anticipated defensive matchups in recent Big Ten history. Michigan's defense blanked Maryland to complete a string of eight straight scoreless quarters while Northwestern crushed Minnesota, 27-0.

The Wildcats carried the No. 1 scoring defense in the country into the game, with Michigan's No. 2 unit close behind. It promised to be one of the most physical, low-scoring games of the season.

It wasn't.

Michigan jumped on Northwestern from the opening kickoff, which Jehu Chesson returned 96 yards for a touchdown 13 seconds into the game. The Wolverines didn't let up, bullying the country's top defensive team with drives of 59 yards and 75 yards to make it 21-0 at the end of the 1st quarter.

Jourdan Lewis put the nail in the coffin with a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown that put Michigan up 28-0 at halftime.

The Wolverines scored 10 unanswered points in the second half, but nobody seemed to notice. All eyes were on the zero that adorned Northwestern's half of the scoreboard as the defense put up a third straight shutout.

Outscoring BYU, Maryland and Northwestern by a combined score of 97-0 vaulted Michigan to No. 12 in the country on Sunday.

Does Michigan deserve such a high ranking for winning four home games and beating a bad Maryland team on the road?

Well, Northwestern came into last weekend's matchup with wins over Stanford (No. 15) and Duke (No. 25) on its resume, both of which have only one loss on the season and continue to rise in the AP rankings. Michigan's complete dismantling of the Wildcats shows that, at the very least, it's back on the fringes of relevance in the Big Ten.

To be clear, blowing out Northwestern doesn't mean Michigan is "back" to its pre-2007 dominance. In fact, Michigan would likely have to knock off both Michigan State and Ohio State to win the East Division, a tall order for a team with a first-year system in place.

But it's obvious that Michigan is fielding its best team since 2007, Lloyd Carr's final year, and at least has a say in who will eventually don the conference crown.

The Wolverines are dangerous. Harbaugh and D.J. Durkin have built perhaps the best defense in the country and the offense continues to improve each and every week.

Teams knew they could dominate Michigan last year. Lately, Michigan has been doing the dominating.

And it's only been one year.