The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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8 THE WOLVERINE ❱ FEBRUARY 2026 D usty May sailed uncharted waters in his post-Wisconsin powwow with the media. The scoreboard actually forced him to talk about a loss. Fourteen times after games he'd been flooded with questions about his team's prowess. Three of them featured close contests, where the Wolverines needed to summon up their superior skills late to nail down victory. Most were jaw- dropping routs, the kind that left May fielding inquiries about historic blow- outs, Final Four chances and getting to a magic Monday in April. The Badgers brought Michigan back to earth, like an engine falling off a 737. They hammered home 15 three-point- ers, going 10-for-17 (58.8 percent) be- yond the arc in a second half that left the Wolverines scrambling to defend and May unwilling to defend their deficits. He put it bluntly afterward — they've got issues to fix, and fast. "They exposed some things with our plan, with our team, that we thought were going to be issues this year," May said. "We just didn't think we would see so many of them on the same night. They made plays. Our plan, our coach- ing, our playing wasn't up to our stan- dards, but in reality, it's been four games since we've really played well. "The only thing I was disappointed in was when we started competing at a high, high level, it looked different than the other 25 or 30 minutes of the game. We can't be a team with what we're playing for that has two different levels of intensity, of relentlessness, and that's what happened today." Key words: with what we're playing for. May understands perfectly well. So do his players. The talent exists in maize and blue — in abundance. The depth represents an enviable bounty in a long season. The coaches and players all know where they plan to steer this ship over the next couple of months. Junior guard Elliot Cadeau, whose 19 second-half points kept Michigan in it amid the Badgers' torrent of bombs, in- sisted afterward the Wolverines' expec- tations of competing for the national championship didn't waver a bit with the loss. And they shouldn't. Nobody's get- ting through this regular season with- out a few dents. Five teams remain in the no-loss spotlight — Arizona, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and Miami of Ohio. Their time is coming, some perhaps sooner than expected — like Michigan. In the Big Ten, aside from No. 4 Nebraska's 16-0 romp so far, No. 7 Purdue has dropped a game, No. 11 Michigan State two, No. 13 Illinois three, and No. 21 Iowa four. This isn't football, where a couple of losses have a team teetering on the edge of College Football Playoff extinction. At the same time, everybody's playing for an NCAA Tournament seed and to build momentum along the way. Sometimes, there has to be a rebuild. Sounds like May has his wrenches and screwdrivers out, not to mention a well- placed boot when it comes to the Wol- verines' intensity level. He also didn't like the defense, par- ticularly his team's three-point cover- age. Asked if the latter represented part of the exposure, he kept it brief: "Yes, absolutely." There's not much time for this race car to be in the shop. Michigan's West Coast swing to Washington and Oregon precedes a crucial stretch of games: home against Indiana, Ohio State and Nebraska, with a showdown to follow at MSU. They all take copious notes. They'll test the fix, while the Wolverines look to rev the engines. * * * Kyle Whittingham's coaching staff ad- mittedly found itself "drinking from a firehose" when it came to getting settled into Schembechler Hall and attempting to hit the ground running. Early results from the hugely important transfer por- tal featured the Wolverines losing much more than they gained, with a trickle of special teams performers highlighting the early returns. It wasn't going to stay that way. It couldn't. Soon the Wolverines were add- ing several key pieces to the 2026 puzzle, while securing returns of their starting quarterback, anticipated tandem of top running backs, several experienced of- fensive linemen, their leading receiver and starting cornerbacks. Key adds include former Colorado State quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nico- losi to work behind sophomore-to-be Bryce Underwood; former Texas wide receiver Jaime Ffrench Jr. (we're not stut- tering); former Utah tight end/receiver JJ Buchanan; former Utah defensive tackle Jonah Lea'ea; and former Utah defensive end John Henry Daley. In other words, Whittingham, offen- sive coordinator Jason Beck, defensive coordinator Jay Hill, and the rest of the staff aren't going into their first season in maize and blue empty-handed. Far from it. Given Michigan's 2026 schedule, they'll need to gun their own engines early — and plan to do precisely that. ❏ WOLVERINE WATCH ❱ JOHN BORTON First Loss Forces A Refocusing Head coach Dusty May was disappointed with his team's intensity in its first loss of the season, to Wisconsin on Jan. 10. "We can't be a team with what we're playing for that has two different lev- els of intensity, of relentlessness," he said. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Senior writer John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @JB_Wolverine.