ANN ARBOR -- Michigan’s 10-game winning streak last season brought it one game away from playing for a Big Ten championship, and potentially the program’s first trip to the College Football Playoff.

Instead, the Wolverines ended 2018 in disappointing fashion, with a pair of blowout losses to Ohio State and Florida in the Peach Bowl.

And rather forget all of it, Jim Harbaugh did his best to remind his players of it last week.

“(He) gave us some shirts the other day with ‘co-Big (Ten) East champs’ on the front and all the scores of the games we lost on the back,” tight end Sean McKeon said Friday. "So, I took the shirt and hung it up in the tight-end room with the scores.

“Just a reminder of how the season ended. We don’t want to go through that again."

You might recall, Michigan kicked off 2018 with a 24-17 loss to eventual CFP-qualifier Notre Dame, then rattled off 10 straight wins -- knocking off ranked Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State in consecutive games -- to clinch a share of the Big Ten East title.

Then came the regular-season finale against Ohio State, a 62-39 loss to the Buckeyes in Columbus during which Michigan surrendered 567 yards of total offense. The Wolverines followed up with a 41-15 loss to Florida in the Peach Bowl.

“Yeah, they hurt,” said offensive lineman Ben Bredeson, who buried his short in the bottom of his locker. "They hurt a lot. You never want to lose the last game of the year. Everybody here knows what the Ohio State game means to us. To them. To both of our fanbases.

“Losing these games in the manner that we lost them, yeah, it really sucks and it was something that we think about every single day.”

Harbaugh seems to have a similar sentiment. During a brief appearance last week on WJR radio in Detroit, he was asked about what excited him for the 2019 football season, which kicks off Aug. 31 vs. Middle Tennessee State.

Harbaugh said there are players flying under the radar. He also sounded optimistic about his team’s conditioning for spring practices.

But there was something else.

“They got a chip on their shoulder,” Harbaugh said. "Yeah, we understand what happened in a couple of our ballgames last year. And there’s a chip on our shoulder and we’re wearing that.

“We understand that we’re pretty far along, too. We’re ready to just get it over the top and get to the very top and win that championship, and not have it be a co-championship.”

Michigan is 38-14 in four seasons under Harbaugh, but without a trip to the Big Ten title game. The program’s last league championship came in 2004, and it has not played in the College Football Playoff since it launched in 2014.