Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia grades the offense for Michigan football (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) by position, looking at how each unit has fared through five weeks.
Quarterback: D
The Wolverines' success (or failure) will almost likely be determined by quarterback play and so far, Bryce Underwood is a big reason why U-M has underachieved. The sophomore passer has completed 59.6% of his passes, with five touchdowns and four interceptions. He escapes the dreaded "F" grade because of his work on the ground, with 212 yards (on 57 carries, for a 3.7-yard average) and two touchdowns. Even that hasn't been a total success, however, as he has fumbled three times (losing two of them).
But back
to the passing: It's really not good. His Pro Football Focus passer rating (61.9) ranks No. 76 nationally out of 95 passers with 125 or more dropbacks while his overall rating on offense (66.7) ranks No. 68. He's just 4-for-18 (22.2%) on passes of 20 or more yards downfield – one of which was that Hail Mary vs. Western Michigan – and he has crumpled when pressured, having completed just eight of 23 (34.8%) passes under duress, with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Underwood has been held to 111 yards or fewer twice this year and completed 55% or worse three times. There's no way around it: this has been an uninspiring start for Underwood in Year 2.
Running backs: F
This is perhaps the only aspect of the offense more disappointing than Underwood. Few Big Ten teams appeared more loaded with backfield talent than Michigan entering this season, with co-captain Jordan Marshall returning after rushing for nearly 1,000 yards in 2025 and Savion Hiter joining the fold as the nation's top-ranked running back recruit.
Instead, neither has been terribly effective. Marshall has a team-high 244 yards (on 4.4 yards per carry) and three touchdowns. The junior's longest run this season is just 17 yards − he had six games with at least one run longer than that a season ago, including a carry of 36 yards or more in each of his final four games of the year. He has just three carries of more than 10 yards this season and is averaging 2.8 yards after contact (compared to 3.9 last season).
Hiter has struggled even more. The freshman has 145 yards (3.2 per carry) with one run of more than 8 yards, a mere five missed tackles and seven first downs. He has shown some potential in the passing game, catching five passes for 59 yards, but only one of those catches – for 19 yards – has come in the past three games.
Bryson Kuzdzal has run nine times for 31 yards.
Wide receivers: B+
The offense's lone bright spot has been its wideouts − imagine reading that sentence at any point in the past decade. Michigan has a legitimate one-two punch in JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh, who have an argument as perhaps the best wide receiver duo in the Big Ten.
Buchanan, who arrived from Utah along with coach Kyle Whittingham, is a big-bodied possession receiver, with 24 catches for a team-leading 446 yards (18.6 yards per catch) and four touchdowns. He has three games with at least five catches, 90 yards and a score and is on pace for 1,070 yards, which would make him Michigan's first 1,000-yard receiver since Jeremy Gallon in 2013.
Marsh, meanwhile, has a team-high 25 catches for 268 yards (10.7 per catch) and one touchdown. Marsh started slow, with just five catches for 28 yards the first two weeks, but then ripped off back-to-back 100-yard games.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, all other Michigan receivers have combined for three catches for 33 yards and one touchdown. The vast majority of those belong to Salesi Moa, who had two catches for 23 and the score from Tommy Carr in garbage time against UTEP.
For all the problems this team has, this unit hasn't been one of them.
Offensive line: D+
The offensive line is the engine of an offense and right now, Michigan's is leaking oil.
Part of it is due to injury; U-M has been without Andrew Sprague for three games, Manuel Beigel for two and prized recruit Andrew Babalola hasn't played a snap for the Wolverines in his 1½ seasons. As a result, Michigan had to move Blake Frazier from left tackle to right, Evan Link from left guard to left tackle and Brady Norton and Nathan Efobi (who were rotating at the right tackle spot) have filled the guard positions.
Still, U-M has worked with the same configuration for three consecutive games.
"I believe that how the offense plays [is] a direct reflection of the offensive line," OL coach Jim Harding said last week. "If we play well, everybody else is going to play well. If we’re not doing what we’re supposed to, [it] doesn’t matter what skill kids we have around it. It’s not going to be as efficient as and as explosive.
"We’re not where we need to be offensively, and so that’s the same answer for the offensive line.”
Efobi has allowed five pressures, per PFF, with Frazier at three and Norton and Sprague at two apiece. Jake Guarnera, a 2025 All-Big Ten honorable mention, has been solid at blocking but has been five penalties – the most on the team and fully half the OL's 10 penalties as a group. The pass blocking, overall, has actually been pretty good, but the lack of push in the run game has been alarming. Marshall has had 151 of his 241 yards (62.7%) after contact. That means he's had just 90 yards of room before he was touched – an average of just 1.6 yards per carry.
Tight ends: D-
Only a productive run in Big Ten play has kept them from getting an "F," as well. U-M's tight ends have combined for 65 yards on just nine carries – an average of less than two catches and 13 yards per contest – and more than half of that has come from Hogan Hansen, who missed the nonconference slate.In losses to Iowa and Minnesota, he hauled in five passes for 35 yards.
One of the more shocking downgrades has been Zack Marshall. The senior had 199 yards on 16 catches last year but has played just 69 snaps (less than 14 per game) this year, with only 26 routes (5.2 per game). Jalen Hoffman leads the room with 147 snaps, but even that's a mixed bag: His pass blocking (a 72.2 grade, per PFF) is his best strength, but his run blocking (50.6) and overall offensive (50.1) grades from PFF are both below average.
Hansen's return might be the only hope for a true contributor from the unit this season.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football offensive grades by unit heading into bye week
