Last offseason, there was this ridiculous notion being passed around that Michigan football was still “one year away.” I hate that on principal because it’s a cliche that has practically saturated every team sport (and because no one is ever pushed to answer what exactly they’re “one year away” from). But I also took issue with it because it seemed to be just blatantly false.
That was a senior-laden team coming off its first double-digit-win season since 2011. That they lost three of their last four games was devastating mainly because they spent every game up to that point looking like a playoff team.