COLUMBUS, Ohio — Between Ohio State's status as the defending national champion and the arrival of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, there may not be two teams in college football that have been more talked about this offseason than the Buckeyes and Wolverines.
But if the recent slew of preseason award watch lists that have been released are any indication, that's where the similarities between the archrival programs end.
As one might expect for a team that returns 15 starters and is just six months removed from winning the first College Football Playoff, Ohio State players have been a staple of the eight watch lists that have been released over the course of the past week.
It started on Tuesday, when the Buckeyes had four players named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award (nation's best player)—including three quarterbacks—and continued throughout Friday, when five OSU defenders found themselves on the watch list for the BronkoNagurski Trophy (national Defensive Player of the Year).
The Buckeyes are practically a lock to be named the nation's preseason No. 1 overall team, and their plethora of players already being nationally recognized is the biggest reason why.
"I've got a bunch of really good players," Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said the day after the national title game. "The word 'repeat,' we'll have that conversation."
Meanwhile, at Michigan, the names of Wolverines players have been popping up less frequently throughout the past week—and have been entirely absent save for just one of the watch lists for college football's major awards.
No Michigan player could be found on either the watch list for the Maxwell Award (80 players) or the Nagurski Trophy (88 players), an alarming sign for a Michigan roster that appears short on talent heading into 2015.
To put those numbers in perspective, Ohio State had nearly half of its starting defense named to the Nagurski Trophy watch list, while the Wolverines weren't deemed worthy of having one player selected to a list that had enough room to represent 88 of the 128 FBS programs.
That may not exactly be a major revelation—we all knew the Buckeyes would have high expectations this season while Michigan is going through its third coaching change in an eight-year span.
But the lack of star power on the Wolverines' roster is still astonishing to examine nonetheless, especially when taking into account that watch lists have a history of favoring traditional powerhouse programs like Michigan.
Nevertheless, it's hard to argue with the scarcity of Wolverines that can be found on this week's watch lists after examining the roster Harbaugh will be inheriting following Brady Hoke's four-year run as the Wolverines' head coach. As first pointed out by Nick Baumgardner of MLive.com, Michigan doesn't possess a single player who has earned All-Big Ten honors in his college career following the transfer of cornerback Blake Countess:
That's almost hard to do at a school like Michigan, but it's not particularly surprising given the criticism Hoke received throughout his Wolverines tenure for his inability to develop players.
With that said, not all is lost for Harbaugh heading into his debut season on the Michigan Stadium sideline—and not just because tight end Jake Butt made the watch list for the Mackey Award (nation's top tight end).
For one, unlike Hoke, Harbaugh has a history of developing players, whether it be during his previous college stints at San Diego and Stanford or during his four seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.
After helping to transform the likes of Jim Dray, Toby Gerhart, Ryan Whalen, Richard Sherman, Owen Marecic, Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro from unheralded prospects to NFL draft picks during his time with the Cardinal, it'd hardly be a surprise to see a Wolverines players like Jabrill Peppers or Derrick Green emerge in just one season under Harbaugh and wind up on midseason award watch lists this fall.
And perhaps more important is the job that Harbaugh is already doing on the recruiting trail.
Michigan currently lays claim to the eighth-ranked class for the 2016 cycle, a promising sign for Harbaugh's ability to stockpile his alma mater with talent moving forward.
But even with all of the promise that Harbaugh brings, it's still hard to look at the 17 total watch list selections the Buckeyes have already received compared to just one for the Wolverines and not be astonished at the talent disparity between the two programs.
Both may have received plenty of attention this offseason, but right now only Ohio State is bringing the substance with two months to go until the start of the season.
And if the watch lists are any indication, that's not a trend that will be coming to an end anytime soon.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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