After winning a national championship with a program built from the ground up by former head coach Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan Wolverines are sending 18 players to the NFL Scouting Combine, beating the previous record held by the 2019-2020 LSU Tigers.
The team the Wolverines beat in the title game, the Washington Huskies, are sending the second most players to the combine with 13. The Florida State Seminoles, who many believe should have made the College Football Playoff, are sending the third most players with 12.
The Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide are sending 11 and 10, respectively. Only the Penn State Nittany Lions were the other team able to send double-digit players to the combine from the Big Ten.
The Michigan Wolverines could break the record for most NFL Draft Picks in a year
The previous record for most NFL Draft picks in a single year was set by the Georgia Bulldogs in 2022. The Bulldogs had 15 players drafted after their national championship-winning year.
The Michigan Wolverines have accounted for a significant portion of the 321 prospects with their 18 players, and if all of them were to get drafted they would also break the record for most players drafted in a single year. The list of Michigan Wolverines that will be participating in the combine is as follows:
- J.J. McCarthy (QB)
- Blake Corum (RB)
- Cornelius Johnson (WR)
- Roman Wilson (WR)
- Josh Wallace (DB)
- Mike Sainristil (DB)
- Junior Colson (LB)
- Michael Barrett (LB)
- Jaylen Harrell (EDGE)
- Braiden McGregor (EDGE)
- Kris Jenkins (DT)
- Karsen Barnhart (OL)
- LaDarius Henderson (OL)
- Drake Nugent (OL)
- Zak Zinter (OL)
- Trevor Keegan (OL)
- Trente Jones (OL)
Many of these players were essential to the Michigan Wolverines’ ability to compete for the national title. Their departure, along with Jim Harbaugh’s departure, will be hard to recover from in 2024.
New head coach Sherrone Moore will have his work cut out for him with the departure of many key players as well as many key members of the coaching staff. When Harbaugh left to go coach the Los Angeles Chargers, he took a slew of significant coaching pieces with him.
Those coaches include Co-DC/defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, DC Jesse Minter, strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert, defensive line coach Mike Elston and graduate assistant Dylan Roney.
The mass departure of key Michigan Wolverines pieces is reminiscent of the 2019-2020 LSU Tigers
The previous record holder of most players sent to the NFL Scouting Combine was the 2019-2020 LSU Tigers. Like the Wolverines, the LSU Tigers had a team full of elite talent that helped them secure a national title, but the talent was so good that they’d all leave for the NFL next year.
Future NFL stars like Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase significantly boosted a well-rounded team into the conversation of one of the best college football teams of all time.
The 2019 LSU Tigers were on a different level 🐯 pic.twitter.com/l6R5w2dWEi
— Football Is Life (@FootbaIl_Tweets) January 19, 2024
We may never see a college football game with more NFL talent than LSU vs. Alabama in 2019 👀pic.twitter.com/HNZHG1Qofz
— 247Sports (@247Sports) July 27, 2023
The list of players that the LSU Tigers sent to the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine is as follows:
- Joe Burrow (QB)
- K’Lavon Chaisson (EDGE)
- Saahdiq Charles (OL)
- Lloyd Cushenberry (OL)
- Grant Delpit (DB)
- Michael Divinity (LB)
- Clyde Edwards-Helaire (RB)
- Blake Ferguson (LS)
- Kristian Fulton (DB)
- Justin Jefferson (WR)
- Rashard Lawrence (DL)
- Damien Lewis (OL)
- Thaddeus Moss (TE)
- Jacob Phillips (LB)
- Patrick Queen (LB)
- Stephen Sullivan (TE)
This list does not include the departure of star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who sat out the entire 2020 season due to COVID and ended up still being drafted at the No. 5 spot by the Cincinnati Bengals.
After the LSU Tigers went 15-0 and took home the national title under head coach Ed Orgeron, they fell to 5-5 during the COVID year in 2020. Orgeron went 6-6 in 2021 before being fired and replaced by former Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly.
Kelly has since brought the LSU Tigers back to two consecutive 10-win seasons, but they are just now recovering from the massive departure of talent in 2020. In an ESPN article, Orgeron explains that many things had to fall into place, just as they did for the Michigan Wolverines.
“It took some work,” Orgeron said at the time. “I had to get lucky. We got Joe Burrow. We got Joe Brady. There’s a lot of things that fell into place.”
The main goal of competing in college football is to win a national championship, so there is no doubt that the majority of fans would consider a couple of down years after a national title “worth it.”
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