A year ago, Jim Harbaugh made waves at Big Ten media day when he said Michigan would beat its rivals and win the Big Ten championship -- "or die trying." He upped the ante this year.
Asked Tuesday what he hopes to achieve this season, Harbaugh said, "Our goals would be to beat Ohio State and Michigan State in the same year, win the Big Ten Championship and win the National Championship. Those are our four goals."
Harbaugh and the Wolverines came close to reaching their goals last year, two for three with a loss to Michigan State. Returning 12 starters from a team that claimed the program's first outright Big Ten title since 2003 and its first ever berth in the College Football Playoff, it's natural for Harbaugh to set the bar higher in 2022.
"We’re just going to continue to attack, and that’s what I really love about this team," he said. "They literally attack everything that’s put in front of them."
One of those returners is Cade McNamara, who enters training camp in a battle with J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job. Asked what would define a successful season for Michigan, McNamara said Tuesday on Big Ten Network, "This team, we need to win again. We need to show that last year was not a fluke."
"What we need to do better than last season is, we definitely need to beat Michigan State. We need to win every game in the regular season, without a doubt. I think that would be a huge stepping stone," McNamara said. "(Last year's team), we didn’t get that job done, so now it’s our job to do that this season. We need to continue to help Michigan football keep this winning mentality and this atmosphere that we have as a foundation for the guys to come after us."
Harbaugh said the Wolverines have had a "tremendous" offseason, calling it a "really good continuation from last year's team."
"Some of it is the players who were on that team and put in that work. They know what it was like and that good feeling of taking care of your business and being rewarded for it," Harbaugh said. "They also saw other players on that team, like Aidan Hutchinson, Hassan Haskins, David Ojabo, who put that work in and how much it paid off for them. Using your head and your noodle, pretty easy to think, 'I want to do it just like they did it. I want to be where they are now.'"
Harbaugh has set his sights on a national championship since signing a five-year extension with Michigan after interviewing for the Vikings head coaching job this offseason.
"We could win college football’s greatest trophy," he said in March. "We could win the national championship -- and that’s plenty good. It would be great to win a Super Bowl, but I'm completely focused on winning the national championship."
That's the fourth and final goal for Michigan this season, and it starts with achieving the first three.
Listen live to 97.1 The Ticket via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker