Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12

 

J.J. Buchanan (image via X)

A win is a win. This is a common refrain around here, but this one still goes in the record books as a victory. As Herm Edwards famously said, "You play to win the game."

I have lots of issues with the offense. This was not a well organized or executed game plan, and I'll say that from top to bottom. Kyle Whittingham, Jason Beck, Bryce Underwood, the offensive line, etc., they're all accountable. I've seen a lot of heat thrown in Underwood's direction. He's not a difference maker right now, true, but other people - who are more experienced - need to be better. So he's not even my #1 problem.

Jason Beck. I think this game might have been a wake-up call for Beck. This is not to say that I don't think he's up for the challenge, but Beck got a live look at what can happen in Michigan Stadium at 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, when a solid MAC team takes its best shot at a big-time program. I think Beck (and some of the players) thought they would walk into the stadium, steamroll a lesser opponent, and then try to walk into the Oklahoma game after having a warmup. That's not what happened. There are two things I'm most surprised about:

1. Beck said he had a specific number of touches he wanted for his skill guys. Jordan Marshall should get more than 11 carries, and Andrew Marsh should get more than 2 catches. You can't go a whole game and only find a way to get Marsh the ball twice. It's not like he's an outside X receiver who can be taken away if you double him. He's capable of catching screens, deep balls, in-breaking routes, getting an occasional reverse/end around, etc.
2. The passing concepts were vanilla and/or poorly executed. Now maybe the vanilla aspect has to do with the quarterback, but guys often weren't getting open for Underwood. People get mad at the quarterback when he sits back there and doesn't throw the ball, but there has to be a place for him to go more consistently. (Yes, Underwood missed some open players/plays at times, which I'll address below.)

Hit the jump for more.

The Rhino Package. Over the summer, I talked about getting "your best eleven" on the football field. This is an old coaching staple I've clung to for a long time, and I think it has served me well. And it comes with the understanding that, yes, you do have to use different packages and personnel groupings. You're not going to have the same 11 guys out there for 70 plays on offense. That's understood. Also, Manuel Beigel isn't one of Michigan's best eleven players on offense. Nobody came into this season thinking, "No matter what, we have to find a place to get that German kid on the field who has barely played college football." And it the original plan was to have Andrew Babalola out there at the Rhino spot, then the game plan should have been changed, because we've known that Babalola was going to miss the game for a while. Maybe he will return from injury next week and kick Beigel to the sideline so the whole package looks better. Travis Johnson, Jaime Ffrench, Deakon Tonielli, and Hogan Hansen are all better football players than Beigel right now. Find ways to get them on the field.

The offensive line was bad. I'm not going to overreact to Michigan not pushing Western Michigan around up front. Michigan should be better and they should have run for 200+ yards. However, we have seen Michigan start off slowly in recent years with heavy offensive line criticism, and then they pick it up and kick it into gear as the season goes along. That's not to excuse offensive line coach Jim Harding, the players, etc. for playing poorly, but it is a reason why I don't think the offensive line's struggles are a death knell for the season. I fully believe that unit will get better, probably soon. It's a mentality, and when you get stalemated by a MAC team, it's a mentality that will likely change. The Wolverines have too many good linemen, highly regarded recruits, and solid leaders up front for this group to get pushed around consistently. I am both highly disappointed in this group and also fairly confident that they will turn it around.

Bryce Underwood plays like an entitled freshman. The off-season hype about Bryce Underwood had a lot of people thinking he was a changed man, but when the lights got bright on Saturday night, he looked an awful lot like he did in 2025. As is most often the case, the quarterback gets the most criticism when things look bad, and he gets the most praise when things look good. And things looked bad on Saturday. He was 12/22 for 170 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception; he also ran 9 times for 47 yards and 1 touchdown. Those numbers aren't awful, but they're aided by a couple big throws in the fourth quarter, including the Hail Mary game-winner. Underwood had happy feet at times. He missed a couple open receivers. He threw at the feet of an open running back. He threw the ball into traffic too often. He's also too tentative at using his feet. Late in the game, he fumbled the ball because he didn't protect it going to the ground, and that happened against Texas in the ReliaQuest Bowl last year, too. I posted on X after the game that he needs to start approaching the game like a walk-on, not like a 5-star.

I really like J.J. Buchanan. The more I watched of Buchanan from last year, the more I liked him. One of the underappreciated parts of his game is his ability to adjust to balls that are thrown behind him, a skill he showed off on Saturday night, too. He's not the fastest guy or the most exhilarating after the catch, but he's tall, has decent speed, and has excellent ball skills. His touchdown catch on Saturday night to win the game was an amazing catch, one that deserves to go down in Michigan history. Regardless of the opponent, that was a clutch play and emblematic of exactly why you want that type of receiver on your roster. I don't think any Michigan fans were questioning the addition of Buchanan to the roster, but that transfer paid off immediately. He had 6 catches for 126 yards (21.0 yards/catch) and the 1 score.

Adding one second. I feel like this has been discussed endlessly since Saturday, but here's the point I haven't seen made by very many people: if we want instant replays of everything - balls and strikes, game-winning three point attempts, etc. - then why are we drawing the line at football game clocks? The play was immediately reviewed and the Big Ten pretty quickly shared on social media the replay video of the officials discussing how much time was left on the clock. Instant replay did its job. If people want to go back to pre-instant replay days of human error, that's fine. But let's be consistent.

I realize I didn't say anything about the defense yet. I have some takes, but I've run out of time to share them unless I put off posting. The edges are good, the defensive tackles are questionable, the linebackers were solid, and the defensive backs were pretty good except for a couple coverage busts.