College Football: 5 reasons Michigan wins 2017 National Championship

3. Upside in secondary

A big detraction that people will take from Michigan coming into the 2017 season is the amount of talent that they lost in the secondary from last season. Anyone who’s saying that they didn’t is either just talking out of their rear-end or didn’t watch the Wolverines a year ago. Losing Jabrill Peppers (though he played more in the hybrid than at safety), Jourdan Lewis and Channing Stribling is a lot to contend with for any team. At the same time, however, this team still has a ton of upside with their defensive backs.

Admittedly, this is going to be a young group leading the way for Michigan this season. At the same time, though, these young players were almost unanimously highly sought-after recruits as they entered the college ranks. As such, they all have tremendous athletic profiles and potential, thus making the possibility for them rising to the occasion a likely one.

The biggest upside is undoubtedly at cornerback with Lavert Hill and David Long. These two sophomores both have talent bursting at the seams and the ability to be playmakers. They’ve yet to show it at the collegiate level, but no one would be surprised if they were breakout stars. Combine that with likely solid safety play from Tyree Kinnel and Josh Mentellus and this group could well make the losses feel far less substantial than many are expecting.