Michigan football's defense was far from its biggest problem in the team's miraculous 13-12 season-saving victory over Western Michigan to open the 2026 campaign.
After all, Jay Hill's unit didn't give up a touchdown, held Western Michigan to three field goal attempts on its three trips to the red zone, and allowed just six points on three sudden-change situations deep in its own territory, when two fumbles and one interception by the offense and special teams set up the WMU offense inside the U-M 35 to start the possession.
Then again, the Wolverines have benchmarks they set out to hit preseason. Each game, the team looks to win the turnover battle by at least one. While that's hard to do when giving the ball away three times, not taking the ball away even
once was disappointing. Furthermore, U-M looks for seven combined turnovers and sacks: it had just two all night.
“The bottom line is we did not create a takeaway on defense at all, which was the biggest negative and biggest thing that we’ve got to improve upon," Whittingham told Jon Jansen on "Inside Michigan Football" on Monday, Sept. 7. "[We need to get] the ball in our offense’s hands in a short-field situation far more often because we didn’t do it at all this past week."
To be fair, Michigan nearly had one when Jyaire Hill intercepted a pass up the right sideline, but he was flagged for defensive pass interference. That was another issue top to bottom − a lack of discipline and understanding. U-M had nine penalties for 80 yards, an exorbitant amount by typical Whittingham standards.
While some mistakes happen − a hold here, an offside there − some were simply inexcusable. Like Smith Snowden hitting a player out of bounds for an additional 15 yards after a medium sized gain. Or quarterback Bryce Underwood getting flagged for a hold (extremely unusual, but likely the right call when he wrapped his arm around the neck of a defender), both of which created problems.
On defense, it simply kept the unit playing. By not forcing turnovers, the Wolverines struggled to get off the field all night, allowing Western to go 8-of-18 on third down. On offense, it put a unit that never got in rhythm behind the chains and put a struggling group in even tougher situations.
“We never got in a rhythm, other than that first drive,” Whittingham said. “Why we couldn’t get in a rhythm, again, too many penalties, first of all. We just didn’t execute. Our best execution was the last play of the game and the first drive.”
"We turned it over twice, and we had far too many penalties − that right there is is the recipe for what transpired."
There's plenty U-M will look to do different. For starters, get Andrew Marsh more involved. The second-year wideout had just two receptions for 15 yards on five targets − that simply can't happen.
After a few times watching the film, Whittingham also agreed the team could have (and perhaps should have) used the tight ends more. Instead, Michigan went with its "rhino" look with a sixth offensive lineman on more than half of its offensive snaps, which is a wrinkle offensive coordinator Jason Beck likes to frequently use.
It came at the expense of using tight ends, however. Jalen Hoffman played 38 snaps (more than the 13 combined snaps Eli Owens and Zack Marshall took) and blocked on 21 of them, per Pro Football Focus. Owens ran two routes and Marshall ran one route. Deakon Tonielli didn't play a snap, and Hogan Hansen was out.
Across the board, the three tight ends who played ran 20 total routes on the game. They were targeted three times, all of which went to Hoffman. He caught one pass for 13 yards but got lit up on a different play when Underwood threw to a corner sitting in Cover 2 for a disastrous interception to end the first half.
“It would be a benefit to us if we could do that,” Whittingham said of getting the tight ends more involved. “We didn’t have a ton of production, or they weren’t really featured much in the game on Saturday night."
Last but not least, U-M knows it must improve a run game that was borderline anemic on Saturday. To have just one carry from a running back that went for more than 7 yards was truly shocking. To have just two from the entire team that didn't end in a turnover is a recipe for disaster.
Whittingham talked about his team getting more "north and south" on the ground, something that's easier said than done against the Sooners.
Frankly, the opener was about as bad as anybody could have fathomed, other than the fact U-M won the game.
That result will be all that matters in Week 2. But as noted above, there's a lot to correct if there's any hope of a win.
“Oklahoma, top-10 team coming in, yeah, you better know you've got to work yourself out of it,” Whittingham said after the game. “There's no magic fairy that's going to wave a wand and solve your problems. We got ourselves into this, and we will get ourselves out of it. And there's no way to get out of it but hard work and getting things corrected.
"We'll do that as rapidly as we can, obviously. But we're 1-0. I think we're still 1-0.”
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: Michigan football's 'biggest negative' on defense must change vs Oklahoma
