ESPN has Michigan football near the top of Preseason Football Power Index

Michigan may have had a disappointing end to their 2018 season, but pundits are optimistic about their chances in 2019 and believe they could be one of the top teams in the country.

ESPN released their Preseason Football Power Index top ten on Wednesday, and Michigan made the cut:

The Wolverines coming in at No. 5 shows that ESPN feels that the addition of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and the changes he will bring schematically equal Michigan winning a lot of football games in 2019.

Michigan had key departures to the NFL on defense including the likes of Rashan Gary, Devin Bush, Chase Winovich, and David Long. But even with those departures ESPN must believe that the defensive coaching staff along with the up and coming talent on that side of the ball with offset the departures.

It’s way early to predict anything in my opinion, it’s all a beauty contest at this point, but if Michigan wasn’t included in this top ten people would notice. Better to be on it than left off it.

How the national media views Michigan heading into the season won’t change much, year two with Shea Patterson is generating a lot of the same hype as year one, and it’ll be up to Michigan to decide if being placed so high up rankings like this is justified.