The best team UM played this NC season?

Osu was the best team we played imo with Bama a very close 2nd.

'Bama was probably the most talented team we played, because 'Bama under Saban is always one of the two or three most talented teams in the country in any given year.

Washington was probably the most well-coached team we played. What Kalen DeBoer has done with that program is nothing short of amazing. They just ran into our buzzsaw of a defense.

Ohio State was probably the best overall team we played. Their defense was elite, and their offense had the best WR room in the country this past season. 

My top 5 toughest teams we played this season.

1.) Alabama

2.) OSU

3.Washington

4.PSU

5. Maryland.

My top 5 toughest teams we played this season.

1.) Alabama

2.) OSU

3.Washington

4.PSU

5. Maryland.

4 turnovers against BGSU. Clearly Bowling Green was the best team.

This post reminded me of this CBS mock draft -- I'll save you the look if you like:

• there are no Wolverines.
• 16 of the 32 selections were on teams we beat.  with cudgels.
• 2 more were on teams we beat last year.

*This post has been protested by the Stars Matter Foundation

Maryland.

The national championship was played on November 25, 2023 in Michigan Stadium.  Those were the 2 best teams in the country.

Bama

Bama.  Not particularly close.

If I take off my maize and blue tinted sunglasses and if I opt not to be a spiteful man, it was OSU and its not particularly close. Every other team had fairly glaring mismatches that Michigan was able to exploit. 

Penn State couldn't do anything on offense. Zip, zilch, nada, and everyone on Michigan's sideline knew it. 

Alabama couldn't protect Milroe to save its life. 

Washington just could not hold up in the trenches. Penix was made to be extremely uncomfortable the entire evening. 

---

OSU is the only one of those teams that I look at and say if Michigan has to play in a rematch, I'm not sure Michigan wins it again. They absolutely could, but OSU could've won that game without needing any help from Michigan to do so. Alabama needed Michigan's worst special teams outing in years to be in that game, for example. 

OSU has an argument to be the #2 team in the country at full strength, but again, I'm a spiteful man when it comes to OSU. And while a lot of credit should go to their team and their players for giving Michigan a great game, they are riddled with a soft fanbase, collectively comprised of a bunch of people who act like toddlers who are only ever used to getting what they want, and now that they've been beaten a few years in a row, they moan and whine like a five year old who has had their toy taken away. So they stomp their feet, scream, cry and complain about how its not fair and Michigan must've cheated. 

Penn State. Then Bama. Then Washington. Then Maryland. Then UNLV. Then Iowa. Then BGSU. Then Indiana. Then Nebraska. Then Minnesota. Then ECU. Then Purdue. Then Rutgers. Then OSU. Then MSU... In that order.

I have to agree with some of the other posts. Ohio State was the most dangerous and best team we played. Their offense would have been the difference against Alabama, had OSU played them.

All this 'Ohio Soft' stuff is nonsense. We beat a strong OSU team, not a weak one.

Let's give credit where it's due, and eschew the first-grader insult stuff.

Iowa. They held Michigan to a season low 26 points! /s

I will actually say Washington was the best team Michigan played. Washington just didn't match up well at all with Michigan. If I go by how the teams played vs Michigan its probably Ohio State but with a 100% JJ I think Michigan wins that game with a much more comfortable lead.

I'd say the toughest team they played all year was the NCAA/B1G team. That was the closest we got to being taken down all season. When those two fucks teamed up it was for keeps. So thankful we beat them anyway.

Ohio State. Without a doubt. That team was loaded and not as flawed as Alabama. 

Ohio State.

They had a legit change to win it all this year, as they did in 2021.

But they did not, because we beat them.

And that is so, so sweet. 

I'll go with OSU. Who knows what happens if not for the INT at the end. And for those who favored the Washington WR over MHJ, I wonder if they changed their mind. 

Toss up for me between Bama and Ohio State.  Bama / Ohio State would be a heck of a game, imo.  

I felt equal joy in both of those victories.

Personally, I think the best team we played all season was ourselves.

And we didn't beat ourselves.  We just beat everyone else.

The best team Michigan beat was OSU.  We were all puckered through that whole game.  Alabama took us to OT, but we knew that was only because of the ST blunders and the meh offense in the middle sections.  Just like last night, though, Sherrone pulled his head out for a breath of fresh air just in time against Bama.

There were no late offensive heroics that we knew was available from the get-go against OSU, just a hard fought game the whole way.  That was the game that paid off the debts of fighting so hard against the Stalions bullshit.  It wasn't easy - it was never going to be.  But McCord out-played both Milroe and Penix in that game.

I'm kinda glad those idiots in Columbus ran him off.  Will Howard just doesn't worry me.

I think OSU was the best of our opponents.  In retrospect, and only looking for the 4 "best" teams (rather than most deserving), the playoff "should have" been Michigan, Bama, OSU, and UGA.  Now, I'm glad that didn't happen because a B1G/SEC playoff featuring guaranteed rematches would have been terrible for the sport, but I think that would have given us the most compettive/least predictable matchups.

Podcast HOT TAKE: I think the "actual" NCG was either played in Ann Arbor or Pasadena.  

I will agree with the OSU folks because the score was close at 30-24. The Bucks had 378 yd total offense to Michigan's 338. They passed for 271 yds and had 22 1st down to our 18. It was the key defensive INTs that iced the game for our guys.

The Special Teams mishaps by Michigan kept 'Bama in the game despite the 6 sacks to Milroe. JJ passed for 221 yds to Milroe's 116 yds. The game stats don't always tell the story. In both games it was the Michigan-D that iced each game.

The highly stressful Penn State game ranks up there due to the adversity of losing Jim an hour before kick off. The injured JJ during the Maryland game also ranks up there.

It's great to 15-0 and National Champs!

In order I’d say: Washington, OSU, Alabama, Penn State, Iowa, Maryland, Rutgers, Nebraska, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, UNLV, MSU, BGSU, ECU. 
 

I think you can justify the top three in any order. Penn State in a group of their own at 4. 

I guess I'd go with OSU too, but ... when people talk about how many mistakes our special teams made against Alabama let's not forget the consistent bad snaps Milroe had to deal with. I know that's been a problem for them all year, so it's not quite the same thing, but I'm not sure we got their best game either.

And otherwise ... I think Alabama's defense is legit, and Milroe is a stud.

(Still, yeah, I'd go with OSU as well)

It better be OSU...they spent 2 years crying and trying to figure out UM...they nightmare about UM in between studying film.

Had private investigators studying us for christ sake.

If you ask the media I'm sure we still haven't played anybody

I really like this topic, good post OP. 

I try to look at each game in the broader context of the season. I think that the circumstances surrounding PSU and OSU made those games more challenging than the UW game despite UW being an incredible team. PSU on the road with the last minute suspension of Coach Harbaugh. Their defense was definitely the best and made that game incredibly challenging. OSU was probably the best team top to bottom, but they're so poorly coached and in their own heads by this point, that you could kind of tell that McCord didn't have it in him to rise to the occasion. The Rose Bowl is always filled with crazy hiccups and weird turns of events, but that's kind of inherent to the game, less Bama specific. If I'm ranking the games: 1) Bama 2) PSU 3) OSU 4) UW. In terms of team personnel: 1) OSU 2) Bama 3) UW 4) PSU. 

It was Washington IMO. The score got away from them at the end, but to come back from that first-quarter blitzkrieg Michigan put on them and make it a struggle throughout most of the game was impressive. Although Alabama ultimately came closer to winning, it was only because M's mistakes held them in the game. Washington benefited from a couple Michigan errors, but for the most part they earned their own way back into the game and came within a couple plays of really threatening Michigan.

Bama was the real championship. 

The correct answer is: Georgia.

OK, we didn't play them, but that's the only team in CFB this year that could look us eye to eye in the trenches. OSU and Bama were obviously very competitive with us by, basically, trying to run around us, not through/over us. 

We'd have won that game (and as support for that statement, I cite to: Paul Finebaum this AM on Get Up), but the Dawgs are the only team I'd think could win half its games vs UM.

Bama and Ohio St are about even IMO. Bama relied on Milroe to do too much and he's just not ready for that yet. OSU had more ways to beat you on offense. Both defenses present a challenge because you have a tough time pushing them around at the LOS. Washington had some nice receivers and Penix was capable of playing lights out, but a lot has to work out for that recipe to be successful week in and week out. Especially if you don't have a top 10 defense. Best coached unit was easily Iowa's defense. They never get out of position. It's unbelievable. 

Aside from the last play of the game against Bama, the most nervous I was all season was when we punted the ball back to Maryland, with 4 minutes left, only up 5 points.

Bama had 18 five stars and Nick Saban

It was bama

Ohio State. The team that played Mizzou in the Cotton Bowl was a shell of a team that played in Ann Arbor. Kyle McCord was the most successful QB against Michigan's defense all year. The Ohio State defense was night and day improved from last year.

It's not Alabama. Had Michigan not spotted Alabama 11 points on ST miscues, that game would be a blowout. Their offensive line was the weakest in recent Alabama history, and yet oddly enough dominated the SEC defensive lines. The QB was not a good passer. The Michigan defense feasts on weak passers.

OSU.

We played very nearly perfectly against them, and they could have chucked it up to MHJr at the end and pulled out a win. Actually, it's quite amazing how well we've played against OSU these past three years - so confident and so mistake free for the most part.

Against Bama we played like crap at points and won a close one. If we play as well as we did against OSU, we win rather comfortably.

PSU has no offense. Washington is not so great on defense.

The other teams sucked more or less.