With the Big Ten Media Day less than a day away, the start of the college football season is right around the corner.
Former Michigan Wolverines offensive lineman Jon Jansen is extremely optimistic heading into the fall. On his “In The Trenches” podcast Wednesday, he explained exactly why he thinks the Wolverines can be successful this upcoming season.
“You can and I think this is one of those groups,” Jansen said on the podcast. “Every year, I go into the season optimistic that we’re going to win a championship. It takes something special even now it’s harder because you only have four teams that make the College Football Playoff. You can probably put two of those teams already in there with Clemson and Alabama because of their reputation, what they’ve done and what they’re expected to do this year.”
Jansen is confident in Michigan, especially with new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.
“When you have a senior quarterback like we have in Shea Patterson, a guy that’s very familiar with this offense,” Bredeson said. “It’s a new offense to Michigan as a team, but to Shea Patterson, it’s not wholly new because he ran a similar one when he was at Ole Miss. You bring in Josh Gattis and the offense and the whole goal of this offense is to create explosive plays, to get the ball downfield and taken advantage and keep the defense on the heels throughout the game.”
Jansen thinks that Michigan has some of the best wide receivers in the nation.
“When you players at the wide receiver position like Tarik Black, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins, Mike Sainristil, you have a depth of talent that I think is very unique,” Jansen said. “Most teams have one or two receivers they are hoping to get the ball to; we have a whole stable of them.”
While Michigan has significant experience at quarterback, offensive line and the wide receivers, the running back room doesn’t have that experience.
The Wolverines lost Karan Higdon, however Jansen believes in the running back group as a whole.
“You take some of the core elements of the offensive line, the quarterback, the receivers and then you throw in the talent we have at running back,” Jansen said. “It might not be experienced talent, but when you have Christian Turner back there with the speed that he has, Tru Wilson, there’s nobody more reliable on this football team than him. The coaches trust him with the football, the coaches trust him in pass protection. And the unknown of Zach Charbonnet
On the defensive side of the ball, Michigan loses players such as Rashan Gary, Chase Winovich, David Long and Devin Bush Jr., but that doesn’t keep Jansen from thinking the defensive unit will be strong.
Pairing the offense and the defense, Jansen said that Michigan has championship aspirations.
“Defensively, you lose a few key components, but at Michigan, you just put guys in place, Carlo Kemp, Kwity Paye, Josh Uche, Michael Dwumfour, Ben Mason going from offense to defense, Josh Ross at linebacker, you can keep going down the list of guys who are ready to go in there and play,” Jansen said. “I look at it and say, a couple a years ago, the question mark was depth. This year, I believe we have the depth, we have the experience, we have the talent. We have all the components in place for a championship.”
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