A year ago, at Utah, Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck had one of the best offenses in college football. The Utes ranked No. 4 in the nation in both scoring (41.3 points per game) and total offense (482.9 yards).
It was propelled by perhaps the nation's top rushing attack, tops among FBS teams in yards per carry (6.0) and No. 2 nationally in both rushing yards per game (266.3) and rushing touchdowns (41). That success is why Whittingham preached the importance of the ground game frequently throughout fall camp.
"I mentioned many times before, the best friend of a quarterback and the thing that can take the most pressure off him is a strong run game," Whittingham said Aug. 19.
Will Bryce Underwood remain Michigan's QB?
That hoped for ground game went missing in U-M's season-opening 13-12 escape from Western Michigan. The Wolverines averaged a mere 4.2 yards per carry on their 25 rushes, with just one touchdown, and even that came from less than a yard out, on a QB leap from Bryce Underwood.
There simply was no explosion: Michigan had just three carries of at least 10 yards and none of more than 15 yards. Of those three longer runs, two came from Underwood, who led the way with 47 yards on nine rushes.
Jordan Marshall was the only U-M running back with a carry over 7 yards, and he only had one – a 15-yard burst late in the fourth quarter just moments before Underwood fumbled on a scramble. While the offensive line took criticism for not paving the way for the ball carriers, Whittingham didn't want to put the blame solely on Jim Harding's unit.
“We weren’t running very violent,” he said at his weekly press conference on Monday, Sept. 7. “We got to be more violent in our runs and sometimes instead of getting north-south, a little too much east-west going on. We need to be more north and south.
"That needs to be who we are.”
The advanced numbers are no better. U-M forced just three missed tackles all game on the ground, according to Pro Football Focus; two on Marshall runs, one by Underwood and none from five-star freshman Savion Hiter, who was bottled up for 15 yards on his five carries, three of which went for 2 yards or less.
As far as north-south goes, there simply wasn't much going up the middle: U-M ran six times between the tackles and amassed just 28 yards (4.7 yards per carry, actually slightly better than the team's average rush, though not particularly successful). Whittingham said he went to bed at 5 a.m. Sunday and by Monday had already watched the entire game three times.
He said the offensive line wasn't as bad as he felt initially, but said it clearly wasn't "a great game."
"The offensive line wasn’t poor, but we need to be more violent overall,” he said. “The running backs, starts there, but more finishing blocks. We got to finish blocks better. We will be ramping up the intensity in certain drills in practice.”
With little run game to keep the Western Michigan defense honest, Underwood couldn't find any rhythm in the pass game. After going 5-for-5 on the opening drive (for 61 yards), he went 6-for-16 before the Hail Marys to end the game.
He was just 1-for-5 under pressure and just 2-for-7 on deep shots, with both completions to JJ Buchanan in the final 30 seconds.
All of it came together for an unacceptable offensive performance against a MAC team that lost its entire front seven over the offseason.
Michigan will have a notably tougher test when it welcomes Oklahoma – which entered Week 1 at No. 9 in the coaches poll – to Michigan Stadium on Saturday (noon, Fox).
"They're very talented, defensive line is outstanding," Whittingham said of the Sooners. "This is big-time ball."
Oklahoma shut out its Week 1 foe, UTEP (which comes to Ann Arbor on Sept. 19), while allowing just an average of 2.9 yards on the Miners' 38 carries.
It's unclear if Michigan is ready for such "big-time ball," given its 2026 debut, but one thing is for certain: If it doesn't run the ball better than it did vs. WMU, any chance to regain control of the season will dwindle dangerously close to zero.
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.
Next up: Sooners
Matchup: No. 16 Michigan (1-0) vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (1-0).
Kickoff: Noon Saturday, Sept. 12; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: Fox; WCSX-FM (94.7).
Line: Sooners by 5½.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Run game takes blame for Michigan football struggles on offense
