Blake Corum: 'Confidence is through the roof' for Michigan in 2023

Michigan is expected to be good in 2023 and that's an understatement, so let's try that again. The Wolverines are expected to be elite in 2023. So much so that they have the fourth-best odds to win the College Football Playoff National Championship, per BetMGM. 

One gets the sense coming out of Ann Arbor that the Wolverines know they're going to be good as well. Anything can happen, of course. This is college football after all. 

According to senior running back Blake Corum, though, the Wolverines know they're operating on a high level.

“Confidence is through the roof,” Corum recently said on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast (h/t On3). “Yeah you know, the way we’ve been working this offseason the way the team’s camaraderie is, we’re on a whole ‘nother level right now and going into camp tomorrow, it’s gonna be crazy.”

This is a whole different level for the Wolverines, as it's the most hyped they've been in the Jim Harbaugh era. In fact, it's the most hyped they've been in years. 

Michigan is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. That's the Wolverines' highest preseason ranking since 1991. Only back-to-back defending national champion Georgia is ranked higher.

Kirby Smart's UGA team has done the one thing Harbaugh hasn't been able to do just yet, though and that's actually winning in the CFP. Michigan lost to the aforementioned Bulldogs, 34-11, in the 2022 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl. Last season, the Wolverines lost to TCU, 51-45, in the CFP Semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl.

Could this be the season Michigan finally gets over the hump?

Harbaugh is returning an offense that features Corum — easily one of the best running backs in the nation — as well as explosive junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Many of college football's other supposed contenders, including UGA, TCU, Alabama and Clemson, are breaking in new quarterbacks, so it's easy to see why people are so high on the Wolverines heading into 2023.

Michigan's last national championship win was in 1997 when the national championship was split between the Wolverines and Nebraska Cornhuskers.