Michigan football prepared for its 2026 season with a number of objectives in mind.
Installing the offensive scheme, understanding the defensive assignments and investing in the new culture established by head coach Kyle Whittingham were all at the top of the list. But perhaps as important as any of those aspect was getting to the season as close to healthy as possible.
The Wolverines, who open the 2026 campaign against Western Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 5 (7:30 p.m., NBC), have been able to do that − at least as well as anybody could reasonably hope for in this sport.
"Fall camp went as about as good as it could have possibly gone, came out of it very healthy," Whittingham said Monday, Aug. 31 as he previewed the season-opener. "Really lost you
know the one young man that we talked about, Ace Hamilton, to the lower leg injury. That will be long term, but otherwise there may be a few guys that are not quite ready for this game one, but they'll be ready shortly after.
"So we couldn't really be in a better spot injury-wise."
While Whittingham didn't disclose everybody who will be out, he pulled the curtain back on a few players. Chief among them, Andrew Babalola, the former five-star offensive tackle who missed all of 2025 with a torn ACL. He suffered what was described as a relatively minor injury earlier this camp but the expectation is he will not be back in time to compete against Western "barring anything miraculous between now and then," per Whittingham.
The two most notable injuries on defense are currently in slightly different places. Rod Moore, who earlier this month insisted he was 100% healthy and had ramped up where he played a full week of practice recently, is still not quite at full strength according to Whittingham.
"Rod is on the come," the Whittingham said. "He's, you know, going to play Saturday and he's going to be play quite a bit, but he's not quite where he was prior to the to the to the setback."
It's a different situation with John Henry Daley. The junior All-American transfer who followed Whittingham from Salt Lake City to Ann Arbor comes off a significant injury to his Achilles but has seemingly checked off every box on his return-to-play to-do list.
"On hundred percent, he's ready to roll," Whittingham said of Daley, who seems in line to start on Jay Hill's unit. "In fact, he's more explosive and quick than he's ever been, and that's very positive for our defense."
Edge Dominic Nichols, who missed time last week with a minor tweak, will also suit up this weekend, per Whittingham. Though he didn't want to discuss any element of depth chart or starters outside of the obvious names, it seems like there's a decent chance Nichols could start opposite of Daley.
U-M was extremely intentional this offseason in how it tried to approached injury prevention. The Wolverines tackled less this season than most Whittingham teams have in the offseason because the staff felt they were "a little bit thin at some spots."
Perhaps most importantly, it started at quarterback, where the Wolverines wouldn't even send true rushes at Bryce Underwood. While that can make it difficult to know exactly how he will respond when he's flushed in one direction or another during live action, because he's U-M's No. 1 guy, Whittingham and Co. couldn't risk anything happening, even in a non-contact jersey.
"We've been keeping the linemen away from him because if he threw and followed through and hit a helmet or something like that," Whittingham said. "So we've been very protective of Bryce."
There's been thud and tackle in some of the scrimmages and in drills U-M has at times wrapped up to practice the "basics that you need to be an efficient tackler," but as Whittingham reminded, there are no reinforcements coming to help the team, so it's paramount to keep them as healthy as possible.
Whittingham said clean tackling is one of the aspects he hopes to see vs. WMU but wouldn't be surprised if it's not up to the standard the staff expects. The staff's goal is to miss nine tackles or fewer per game as a team to know "we're tackling pretty good."
Last year Michigan had 126 missed tackles in 13 games (9.7 per contest), per Pro Football Focus.
"We don't have a waiver wire, we can't make trades, I mean, we got what we got," he said. "So you got to make sure to get them to the dance, which we have done now. If the tackling isn't quite as sharp, so be it. But we're coming in pretty healthy. I think it's the trade-off."
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 will be without 5-star OL for season opener vs WMU
