Michigan Wolverines 2026 Season Preview

Michigan's Mirage Record

The 9-4 mark that greets Kyle Whittingham on arrival is softer than it looks. Michigan won three of its one-score games and outproduced Big Ten opponents by 74.3 yards per game while winning those league contests at a 77.8% clip, well above what that margin typically buys a team, both classic signs of a record that overstates the team underneath it. The offense also needed more yardage than the league median to score, so points were left on the field even in a winning season, meaning Whittingham inherits a roster whose ceiling exceeds what last year's ledger suggests, but whose floor is lower than 9-4 implies.

Ground Game, Air Raid Gap

Michigan's identity is written in the split between a rushing attack that ranked 14th nationally and a passing game that finished 107th, and Bryce Underwood is the one tasked with closing that gap in year two as the starter. His 2025 line, 2428 yards with 11 touchdowns against 9 interceptions, reads like a passer still catching up to the run scheme around him rather than one carrying it. New coach Kyle Whittingham inherits a defense that already ranks 24th in yards allowed per game, so the swing season comes down to whether Underwood's second year turns that lopsided rush-pass split into an offense that no longer needs to lean so hard on the ground.

Bryce Underwood threw for 2428 yards with 11 touchdowns against 9 interceptions as a true freshman, numbers that explain why Michigan ran the ball 211 yards a game (14th nationally) while its passing attack sat 107th and its explosiveness ranked 119th. Kyle Whittingham inherits Underwood rather than searching for him, and the job now is cutting the pick total while turning that ground-and-pound identity into more explosive plays through the air. Tommy Carr, Brady Smigiel, Colin Hurley and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi arrive for depth, but this room's trajectory in 2026 rides entirely on Underwood's decision-making improving from year one to year two.

Justice Haynes is gone, but Jordan Marshall's 932 yards and 10 scores make this an easy handoff rather than a rebuild, and Michigan's ground game (14th in rushing yards per game) doesn't need to be reinvented under Kyle Whittingham. The intrigue sits behind him: five-star Savion Hiter arrives with the pedigree to eventually push Marshall for touches, while Oklahoma transfer Taylor Tatum adds another body to a room thin on proven depth beyond the starter. Michigan's passing game ranked 107th nationally last year, so expect Marshall to carry an even heavier share of the offense while Hiter gets eased in behind him.

Andrew Marsh (45 catches, 651 yards, 4 TD) was the lone proven target in a passing game that finished 107th in the country, and Michigan answered by bringing in JJ Buchanan from Utah, who caught 26 balls for 427 yards and 5 scores. Donaven McCulley and Semaj Morgan are both gone, wiping out real production, so four-star arrivals Travis Johnson and Jaime Ffrench Jr. need to find the field fast alongside holdovers Channing Goodwin and Kendrick Bell. If Buchanan slides in as the clear second option opposite Marsh, this room finally has the vertical juice a 187-yard passing offense was missing.

Zack Marshall's 16 catches for 199 yards were second on the position group behind departed Marlin Klein, whose 24 grabs and 248 yards now walk out the door along with Max Bredeson. That leaves Marshall as the clear veteran target with Deakon Tonielli and Hogan Hansen filling in around him, while three-star signee Mason Bonner arrives straight from high school at Mullen with no college stat line yet. Kyle Whittingham inherits a passing game that ranked 107th in yards per game, and this group has to create more explosive plays than the 119th-ranked mark the offense posted last season if Michigan wants the ground-heavy attack to stop carrying the whole load.

Michigan ran for 211 yards a game behind this line, good for 14th nationally, but the passing game limped to 107th and the departures of Greg Crippen, Giovanni El-Hadi, Kaden Strayhorn, Ty Haywood and Ben Roebuck among 8 total losses gut the room's experience just as Kyle Whittingham takes over. Nathan Efobi, Jake Guarnera, Andrew Babalola, Brooks Bahr, Blake Frazier and Avery Gach are all back, but with no depth chart to lean on this is effectively a fresh build up front. Four-star tackles Malakai Lee, a high school signee out of Kamehameha Kapalama, and Marky Walbridge headline the incoming class alongside interior additions Ace Hamilton, Tommy Fraumann and Houston Ka'aha'aina-Torres, and how fast that group blends with the holdovers will decide whether the ground game stays the identity of this offense or the pass-blocking issues spread to the run.

Michigan lost the bulk of its production up front, with Rayshaun Benny, TJ Guy and Damon Payne all gone, leaving Dominic Nichols and Cameron Brandt as the only returning edge pieces with real tape. Kyle Whittingham's staff answered that hole by importing John Henry Daley from Utah, who racked up 11.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss last season, plus five-star Gonzaga product Carter Meadows, giving the position group a projected difference-maker it didn't have in 2025 when the unit managed just 28 sacks. Daley slots in as the headline starter immediately, and how fast Meadows and fellow four-stars Titan Davis and Alister Vallejo push into the rotation will decide whether this front can turn last year's modest pass rush into an actual strength.

Ernest Hausmann (68 tackles, 5.5 TFL) and Cole Sullivan (44 tackles, 5 sacks) are both gone, and the group replacing that production leans heavily on newcomers rather than proven returners like Troy Bowles, who managed just 27 tackles. Christian Pierce arrives with 64 tackles and 2.5 TFL from his prior stops and projects as the early answer in the middle, flanked by transfers Max Alford (BYU, 21 tackles) and Aisea Moa (Michigan State, 12 tackles), while high school signee Kaden Catchings joins as part of the incoming class. With so much of the tackle production walking out the door and a defense that already ranked just 85th in run-stuff rate, Michigan is betting its linebacker overhaul, not its holdovers, keeps the front seven honest in 2026.

Kyle Whittingham brought Utah pieces with him, landing corner Smith Snowden and Salesi Moa from his old program along with Memphis safety Chris Bracy, who piles up tackles and gets behind the line at a level none of Michigan's returning defensive backs matched. That matters because Brandyn Hillman and Jaden Mangham are gone from a defense that ranked 24th in yards allowed per play but only 54th against the pass, and the group still has Jyaire Hill and Mason Curtis back to anchor coverage. Bracy and Snowden slide in as instant starters rather than projects, and the pass defense should tighten before the run defense does.

Dominic Zvada, who made 17 of 25 field goals with a long of 56, is gone, and Michigan didn't wait around to replace him, importing Trey Butkowski from Pittsburgh, who hit 20 of 23 kicks for 103 points with a 47-yard long, and Providence Day recruit Jacob Baggett. That competition matters more than anything on punt duty, where Hudson Hollenbeck already averaged 43.2 yards on 40 punts a year ago and gets pushed by UNLV transfer Cameron Brown, who averaged 43.8 on 46 attempts of his own. The bigger swing is at kicker, and Butkowski's track record makes him the clear favorite to stabilize a spot that limped through 2025.

A Whole New Machine

Kyle Whittingham inherits Bryce Underwood, whose 2428 yards last fall now come attached to almost nothing else around him, with Justice Haynes, Donaven McCulley and Marlin Klein all gone from the skill corps. The Utah pipeline restocks it, JJ Buchanan arriving to catch passes and John Henry Daley bringing 11.5 sacks off the edge, while linebacker gets rebuilt wholesale through Christian Pierce, Max Alford and Aisea Moa after Jimmy Rolder and Ernest Hausmann departed. Thirty-three players out is roster teardown, not tweaking, and Underwood is the one holdover asked to make it look seamless immediately.

Bryce Underwood

Underwood threw 9 interceptions against 11 touchdowns last season, and Michigan's ceiling under new coach Kyle Whittingham rides entirely on cutting that number down. Jordan Marshall's 932 yards give him a run game to lean on and Utah transfer JJ Buchanan adds another target, but this offense goes only as far as Underwood's decision-making takes it.

Michigan's Market Gap

Michigan won nine games straight up in 2025 but covered only 31% of the time, a split that points to a market that has already priced in the Wolverines as the better team on the field every week. That gap shows up starkest against ranked competition, an 0-3 spread mark that matches the 0-3 finish outright, and as a road underdog, where Michigan is 0-2 against the number. Kyle Whittingham inherits a program that keeps winning games but rarely beats expectations, and until that changes, bettors are better off fading the number than trusting the name on the jersey.