The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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AUGUST 2025 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 21 2024-25 YEAR IN REVIEW Since Michigan last won the national championship in 2014, Oklahoma ran off four consecutive national titles from 2015‑18, followed by Stanford's run of five titles, interrupted only by the CO‑ VID cancellation year. Juda asserted the Wolverines might not have been the field's most talented squad this year, but nobody awards titles on pure talent. "Michigan's team this year wasn't filled with the massive number of high‑caliber, senior national team athletes that repre‑ sent the USA on the major stage," Juda as‑ sured. "We are, at the end of the day, Mich‑ igan Men. We grind; we grind a lot. We're not the most talented. We have an insanely smart, athletic team. So many people are in engineering, or doing something with high‑level GPAs, and we still show up to the gym every single day. Of course, we respect everyone on campus equally. "I believe the thing that put us over the top was the ability to not worry about keeping a streak alive. We were really the hungrier dogs at the bottom of the hill." U‑M's roster wasn't even filled with its best gymnasts early on. Junior Fred Richard — the all‑around title holder (84.264) at the NCAA Championships — and Juda, the runner‑up (82.164), spent the first half of the season on tour with Gold Over America. The 30‑stop national tour of some of the world's top gymnasts was billed as "a high‑flying pop concert‑style spectacle." Back in Ann Arbor, Michigan wasn't looking spectacular. "I honestly felt that I wasn't uphold‑ ing my captainship role," Juda offered. "I wasn't in the gym grinding with the boys. I wasn't there to welcome the new freshmen as much. I wasn't able to bond for those first couple of months. "But as soon as we got back, you could feel the immediate shift in energy. It was real. It was time. We had a countdown for the number of days until NCAAs. We knew what our mission was." They faced other pot‑ holes in the road to the title. Junior Landen Blixt, counted on significantly in three events, blew out his ACL in the opening competition of the year. That meant counting on freshmen, and the next wave stepped forward. "I want to commend our fresh‑ men," Juda said. "They stepped up be‑ yond measure. Early on in the season, if you're a freshman and you realize, 'Hey, I haven't gotten to compete much this year,' you might think maybe about call‑ ing it quits. Our freshmen did just the opposite. They wanted to be in the lineup so aggressively and so badly, they willed their way in. Obviously, a special shout‑ out to Carson Eshleman, Aaronson Man‑ sberger and of course, Solen Chiodi." In fact, one of them figured into the moment Juda believed Michigan went all in for the championship. The captain sat in the recovery room in Ann Arbor prior to Day 2 of the NCAA competition, and he received a final‑lineup text that gave him chills — good ones. "It's the lineup that will go to war to‑ morrow," he noted. "There was a question of whether that freshman, Carson, was going to be able to handle the spotlight. His routine on high bar, if he does it well, it's a top‑scoring routine in the country. But with a lot of reward comes a lot of risk. He's a freshman, it's a huge routine, it's one of the highest‑start values in the country. His last competition was in Jan‑ uary or February. Do we put him in? "He was trending, but there wasn't a definitive an‑ swer. When I opened up that email attachment, and I saw Carson's name was in on high bar as the anchor position, I had no doubt that the coaches were all in. There's a certain sense of security and motivation that when your coaches put all their chips in the middle of the pot, you do everything you can for them. They're not backing down. When they're all in, you're all in. "I'm getting goosebumps just think‑ ing about it." He remembers well the feeling of hav‑ ing everything on the line — which it was on his own last vault as a Wolverine, with the NCAA championship hanging in the balance. Juda's landing wasn't pristine. He stepped out to his right to gain firm footing. Potential agony. Then ecstasy. "As soon as I landed, I didn't know if I had done enough," Juda recalled. "I was really worried. I didn't even realize I had almost gone out of bounds. I just looked down, when I realized I didn't stick. I was so upset. But you wrap arm‑in‑arm with brothers, and people come up and start hugging you and loving you and saying how much you meant to them. I'm saying, 'We can talk about all that after. Let's watch the score.' "You're with brothers whom you've seen cry, seen them rip their hands with blood, seen them tear ligaments and break bones, dislocate parts and seen emotional trauma. You're hugging and holding and waiting to see whether or not the score comes in. "As soon as that Michigan logo flipped to the top, everything was worth it. Everything we'd ever gone through was worth it, and it forever will be." ❏ Men's Basketball On A Scorching Rise One other Michigan men's team earned its way to the voting for Male Team of the Year. Dusty May's basketball squad finished as our runner-up, but delivered a Big Ten Tournament champi- onship, an NCAA Sweet 16 and the promise of so much more to come. In his very first season as head coach, May took Michigan from a chilling 8-24 record in 2023-24 to 27 victories, 14 wins in the Big Ten regular season and the thrilling run to the conference tour- nament title. His ability to quickly assemble a team in the NCAA transfer portal era, along with his squad's up-tempo attack, made the Wolverines a fan favorite. During the past few months, May proved this was no fluke. The Wolverines should be in for a monster 2025-26, and beyond. — John Borton Hoisting the national championship trophy in their own building was a cathartic moment for the Wolverines. Pictured from l-r: Javier Alfonso, Evgeny Siminiuc, Fred Richard and Carson Eshleman. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY