The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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32 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2026 BY CHRIS BALAS A fter a 13-12 Michigan vic- tory over Western Michi- gan in the opener, the panic started immediately among the Wolverines fan base. A run game expected to be among the best in the Big Ten was stagnant, man- aging only 106 yards, while sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood com- pleted only 54.6 percent of his passes for 170 yards, 47 of them on a Hail Mary to sophomore receiver JJ Buchanan to win it as time expired. An offensive line expected to be much better under new line coach Jim Hard- ing struggled to get much push up front, and the Wolverines only managed 4 first downs on the ground. "We just stopped executing," a disap- pointed head coach Kyle Whittingham said in his postgame press conference. "We stopped controlling the line of scrimmage. They ran a lot of movement with their defense, and if you want to be successful against movement, you've got to hit it. "They had too much penetration at times, and we did not do a good job picking up movement in the run game. That was one of our biggest deficiencies of the night." The ineffectiveness on offense was because they were on the sidelines for most of the evening, he added. Western controlled the ball for two-thirds of the game. "But even when we were out there, we weren't good enough on third down," Whittingham admitted. "We didn't run the ball well enough offensively, just barely got over 100 yards, which is not indicative of a Jason Beck offense." In addition, he added, Underwood was "not outstanding" and had a criti- cal interception before the half that ended in three points. They were very fortunate the defensive back stepped out of bounds or it would have been six. So, Michigan went back to the draw- ing board against Oklahoma, offen- sive coordinator Beck changing it up to play more conservatively. He added a heavy dose of the quarterback run against a Sooners defense considered one of the best in the country, espe- cially up front. The Wolverines didn't exactly light MAKING PROGRESS The Offense Is A Mixed Bag Through Three Games, But Showing Signs Of Life Sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood was occasionally brilliant during Michigan's three-game pre-Big Ten stretch. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL