The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 23 said. "So, that's what it was. And then we had one second, and the thought was give my guys an opportunity — and that's what I did." Michigan had practiced the scenario before, "probably about three or four times in the last month," Underwood said after the game. But Buchanan did not have the luxury of adjusting his ap- proach between the first failed attempt and the second try. His job was simple. "I just knew I had to get as straight of a path as I could to the end zone," Bu- chanan said. "There was one guy who tried to reroute me a little bit, so I just had to avoid him as best I could and get to the spot. "We're kind of all supposed to meet in the middle of the goalpost. We all line up differently, and we're all just trying to meet in one spot to give us all the best chance for one of us to come down with it." Underwood's first try, which sailed long and out of reach, did not give any- one much of a chance to make a play. The second went exactly where it needed. "Obviously, the first one he sailed out the back, which gives us no chance to catch it," Whittingham said. "And JJ made a phenomenal catch. It doesn't surprise me — that's who he is. I see him make contested catches every day in practice. I had a great view. Like I said, a perfect throw. JJ backed in and boxed out perfectly and went up and got it." That's not how that game was sup- posed to end. In fact, it was never sup- posed to be close. The Wolverines were four-touchdown favorites, and the ag- gregate performance was nowhere near what had been expected. U-M got a gift and a second life, and Whittingham knew it. "My reaction was just, 'Thank good- ness,'" Whittingham said after the game. "But I didn't move. I was mad. I'm still pissed." T h a t v i b e se e m e d to p e r m ea te throughout the locker room in the af- termath, but it was still hard to avoid the excitement of U-M's sophomore con- nection making a play. "We built a lot of trust over the last eight, nine months," Underwood said. "So I gave him an opportunity, and he made a play." Simon credited Buchanan's prepara- tion for the moment as the anonymous, repetitive kind that never makes a high- light reel. "It's the work he puts in," Simon said. "He trusts his hands completely. There's not a ball he hasn't practiced catching, and that's a credit to him, a credit to the work ethic he's put in over the summer. We were on the JUGS before workouts, 6 a.m. — it's all those reps repeated. So when situations come, he just makes the play. He doesn't overthink it." Buchanan, who had 6 catches for 126 yards and the game-deciding score in the winning effort, described a routine dating back to the offseason for why he was prepared to start the season the way he did. "Going back to January, right when I got here — within the first day, me and Bryce were already throwing the ball," Buchanan said. "I've caught thousands and thousands of JUGS [passes from a machine], literally thousands. I live in this facility after mandatory hours — I'm in this facility literally all day long. It's just not on this stage. It's by myself, af- ter hours. I just see myself do it over and over and over again, and now it's just in front of a couple more people. "Honestly, I don't do a number — I'm probably there 30, 45 minutes. I don't really have any allotted amount, it's just until I feel good." Buchanan's presence on that final play traces back to a switch that wasn't his idea, but one that he embraced fully. Last summer, he arrived at Utah listed as a tight end before switching into the Utes' wide receivers room. That move paid early dividends, with Buchanan recording 26 catches for 427 yards and 5 touchdowns as a true fresh- man. "I actually didn't have any conver- sation with [Kyle Whittingham]," Bu- chanan said. "It was after Wyoming, I believe — we had a meeting going over the film, and [tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham Jr.] kept me in the meeting room for a little bit after everyone left. He said, 'I think your role in this offense — you'll learn more in the receiver room, and Whit would like you to be in the re- ceiver room, and Simon is obviously ac- cepting of it, so I think you're going to move there.' "So it wasn't my decision, but I com- pletely agree with it, and I was happy with it." Buchanan's catch secured a 13-12 vic- tory and put the Wolverines in the Week 1 win column, but the ending continued to generate controversy well beyond the final whistle. The NCAA's FBS oversight committee said Sept. 17 that it "does not have the authority" to overturn the result of the game, despite Western Michigan officials and the Mid-American Confer- ence requesting the result be overturned after the controversial final second was added. The Big Ten defended the ruling 90 minutes after the game, explaining that video review showed WMU defender Mi- cah Davis had jumped from an out-of- bounds position and made contact with the ball with 1 second left on the clock, based on a synced, direct shot of the in- stadium clock. Initially, the MAC had accepted this explanation, but in a letter dated Sept. 8, MAC commissioner Jon A. Steinbrecher asked the NCAA and College Football Playoff to recognize the defending con- ference champions as the "actual win- ner," arguing that "the final outcome was directly affected by a replay officiating error resulting from the failure to follow an established and specific protocol gov- erning precisely this type of end-of-half timing situation." In response, the NCAA rolled out new guidance standardizing how replay of- ficials handle game-clock reviews going forward, directing them to rely on either the broadcast's embedded game clock or its on-screen clock graphic so the same confusion does not repeat at other games. The oversight committee claims replay protocols were not properly followed in Ann Arbor, and that the outcome would have been different if they had been. Whatever consensus the powers that be reached about protocols, the record will show "Michigan 13, Western Michi- gan 12" in a game decided in the final sec- ond, by a throw that found its mark on the second try, and a receiver who never stopped trusting his hands. A Hail Michigan for the ages. "This game will go down in Michi- gan history," Whittingham said. "I don't know if it's in a positive way, but it will go down in history, for certain." ❏