When Brian mentioned his game column about buying a mattress, I noticed his summary of the Michigan offense:
"The story of Michigan football over the past decade in a sentence: their offensive line sucks."

Once Michigan fixed that, they were off to the races.  I started wondering how much of that was foreseeable, and in the spirit of this review of Brian's "three opportunities to look stupid", I decided to look at the season 2023 preview.

Quarterback:
"I'm expecting [McCarthy] to be in a small tier behind Caleb Williams and maybe Drake Maye when the conversation turns to the best QBs in America."
Mostly correct.  Early on it seemed like he was in that top tier, but his injury and Michigan's "maximum-contempt-for-outmanned-opponents" pulled him back.  He's now the #4-7 QB on most draft boards.

Running Back:
"[Blake Corum] will merely continue being the best back in the recent history of Michigan football, and he will aspire to drop the qualifier from this sentence."
Dead-effing-center.  For most of the season, he was not 2022 Blake Corum, but then there was this.  And this.  And this.  And this and this.
"[Donovan Edwards] should be one of the best backs in America, and a Swiss army knife of a player whose impact is not encompassed by his 1000+ yards from scrimmage."
It was not meant to be, until it was.

Wide Receiver:
"I still believe that Johnson has something to show the nation. His targets aren't going to be high enough to draw a ton of attention from All-Conference teams and the like, but he should get up to 700 yards or so and get drafted in the middle rounds."
CJ became the WR to whom the team looked when it needed a tough catch...
"No disrespect to Bell, who got drafted about where Wilson is likely to, but if a lot of Michigan's targets move to Wilson there's some upside there just because events where a defensive back dares to get nosy are going to be few and far between."
... and Wilson was the one they looked to for big plays.

Tight End:
"Loveland should at least be a co-#1 WR with Wilson and Johnson."
Spiritually correct.
"... it's likely that Barner takes a significant step forward this year."
Oh my yes.

Interior OL:
"Michigan's offensive line is now a zombie apocalypse. You can shoot as many guys in the head with a shotgun as you want but the pile is gonna lurch forward with you under it."
Uncannily prophetic, as Zak Zinter went down and the line didn't miss a beat.
OT:
"[Barnhart] rarely makes mental errors and when he's not in one-on-one situations he's extremely effective. It kind of feels like he's in the wrong situation. If he was an Iowa lineman or in a Debord-era 'all stretch, all the time' offense he'd probably be racking up the accolades, but when Michigan is the gruntiest grunts and runs a bunch of duo he sticks out as not a hog-molly."
Barnhart was who we thought he was; the lineman who always knows what to do, but doesn't have that  smidgen of quickness/power to stay with NFL-grade rushers one on one.
"This ceded the momentum to Barnhart and Jones, but this space is betting that Henderson's upside takes over by midseason."
Pretty close, but Hinton got a lot more time than Jones as I recall.  Still they ended the year with Henderson/Keegan/Nugent/Barnhart/Jones and continued to pave people.

DT:
"Add twenty pounds, add some explosion, and maybe we're talking more about Jenkins blowing through guys and changing second and seven into second and twelve."
Oh yes very.
"Seth spent last year comparing Graham to a ready-made Ryan Glasgow, but I think he has the ability to be Mo Hurst. Probably not this year ..."
If I had left off the caveat, this would have been spot-on.  Instead he was even better!
"All that said, Grant's probably a year away from being fully actualized."
Make that half a year?  Again, predicting flashes of greatness and instead getting steady greatness!

DE:
"[Harrell]'s probably close to his ceiling as a role player, which in this defense is that of a Mario Ojemudia who can be trusted to babysit an edge while others go out for dinner."
Again, ceiling exceeded!  Harrell added a bit of pass rush and applied that always-know-what-to-do mentality to the gains made by teammates and was a major contributor on the nation's best DL.
"Stewart seems ready to be more than a situational pass-rusher. Expect a relatively even split with Harrell that varies based on opponent, with Harrell getting a greater share of 5-2 OLB work and Stewart's usage leaning towards four-man pass rushing situations. My stupid prediction is he leads the team with 7.5 sacks."
Stewart had 5.5 and Harrell had 6.5 sacks on the year, so pretty close.
"We're not predicting Hutchinson—that would be irresponsible—but I'd buy that McGregor has passed the inflection point."
Another key contributor.
"But for many reasons Moore looks on track for a big sophomore leap to Good, with a Watch Out planned for 2024."
I am on-board for that, because his 2023 went better than Good (although not Rashan Gary 2.0 - yet).

LB:
"Colson has big eyes; how much he can fill them with irises will decide if he's an All-American, Mouton, or anything in between."
Not All-American, but muted the highs and lows and didn't give away what the DL bought, while making a few plays of his own.  That was exactly what the team needed.
"He's turned himself into whatever this program needed again and again, and when that paid off he was the guy carrying the flag. If any insider comes along wanting to replace Barrett in the lineup he should be punched in the face told politely no."
"[Hausmann] Sounds like a great insurance policy, with a chance to pop into a star."
Pretty close to what we actually did.  Most notably, Colson and Barrett were the LBs not coming off the field by the end.

CB:
"But, I mean, this is it. This is the Worry Spot. This is the most concerning thing about the entire 2023 Michigan Wolverines: who is going to play opposite the reincarnation of Charles Woodson."
Wallace turned out to be as advertised - experienced, seen it all, solid - and then *got better* - becoming a solid tackler, wrangling people down in space.
"[Will Johnson] is an All American right now."
"Sainristil should be All Big Ten and play like an All-American; he'll get knocked for being too small and go in the late rounds of the NFL draft, whereupon he will have a 50-year career with stops at all 32 teams."
Check and check.

Safety:
"You can expect Moore to be arguably the best safety of the Harbaugh era this season."
That TD-saving stop against Milroe in OT is one we'll remember for a while.
"A reasonable expectation for Paige is ~3rd team All-B1G and then an interesting decision to make for 2024..."
Boring Safety, plus a few plays.
"Maybe there's a way for him to put it altogether mentally, but Johnson is now a fifth-year player. If it hasn't happened to this point, odds are it's not going to."
With a de-cleating pass breakup against OSU and a forced fumble against Alabama, maybe it did?
"...with a year under his belt (+ another six months since spring) and a grasp of the position/playbook, a talented blue chipper like Sabb be a usable safety in a reserve role... emphasis on 'should'."
He definitely flashed the talent, and I'm looking forward to seeing him improve.

Special Teams:
"The upshot is that if Turner doesn't go #collegekickers on us he won't be Moody but he'll still be one of the better Michigan kickers in recent history."
Sounds good to me!

5Q5AOffense:
"Michigan cannot be bottom quartile in play action passes attempted again, not with this running back room and this offensive line."
They did not attempt as many as the fans would like, but they saved it for a few key spots (like the 37-yarder to Loveland against Washington!).
"Let's move the QB run meter from 'extremely cautious' to 'sort of cautious.'"
They did not do this either, but Orji had some run at key points of the biggest games.
"Two things are likely to hold Michigan back, at least in terms of overall efficiency. One is that they will continue to pull in their horns against lesser teams and end up in rock fights when they don't believe the opposition is a threat. At this point you have to assume this is ingrained in Harbaugh and will not change.  The second is that they don't project to have an offensive tackle who can delete elite edge rushers without a thought."
Yup, but when they finally faced those rushers, they had a plan.

And a few more true shots:
"This should be the best offense of the Harbaugh era by some distance."
"Starting tackles by midseason are LaDarius Henderson and Karsen Barnhart. Barnhart takes a leap forward and gets drafted."
"Roman Wilson is Michigan's leading receiver and catches half of his 20+ yard targets."
"McCarthy locks in the deep ball and lives up to first round projections."
"Ben Hall gets enough run to make everyone believe he is RB1 in 2024."
"Drake Nugent is very little dropoff, if any, from Olu Oluwatimi."

5Q5ADefense:
"Because the 2023 Michigan Wolverines are by far the most loaded edition this blog has ever tried to preview this stands out as The Worry Spot, but… it will be fine."
It was better than fine.
"Derrick Moore emerges into the clear starting strongside tackle and is on NFL lips entering 2024."
"Mason Graham has five sacks and approaches a 90 PFF grade.  Ditto Kris Jenkins."
"Colson improves noticeably but not improbably; he does not fully harness his physical ability but covering grass is much less prominent; he enters the draft early and goes on day 2."
"Josh Wallace holds CB2 all year, though there's a significant amount of rotation."
"Last year's defense looked considerably more shaky than this and still finished 9th in SP+; they held OSU to 23 points, three in the second half. I mean… how are you supposed to temper expectations here? I punted on question four because there are not four questions about the 2023 Michigan defense. There are three.  Good God."
And in fact, it was a parade of defensive excellence, finishing with the crushing of PSU, the defenestration of Maryland, the coverage wizardry against OSU, the sacking of Alabama, and the utter domination of Washington.

And finally:
"12-0. Yes, fans of multiplying percentages together, 11-1 is probably the most likely outcome. Don't care. Hit dingers."
"On this here Michigan football site you can go back nine years to see if MeanJoe07 has a history of posting bizarre yet lyrical poetry about balsamic vinegar on the eve of the Michigan football season. It is a history of being a fan, with many, many downs and also some ups. Every single one of us has stared grimly at the wall wondering if it would ever happen. Well. Here it is. It might not happen, but by God they're gonna try."

All of this was pretty spot on (turns out they're pretty good at this!), and yet understated the case, because of [gestures] that.

-----

It turns out the most important line in the previews was this:
"But they do not seem burdened by it. They are joyful. They run like there is nothing in their pockets, nothing at all."

The team's ability to not be burdened, to never buckle under the seemingly-unending torrent of SignGate, to look the howling maelstrom in its eye and say "Bet" - their simple-yet-so-difficult resilience - was the key to the whole season.

Hail!