As Kyle Whittingham sat down to meet with the media following Michigan football’s 13-6 overtime loss to No. 6 Indiana, he sighed and delivered an unsolicited comment.
“Well,” the 66-year-old coach said, “that was disappointing to say the least.”
Some who witnessed the Wolverines' latest loss Saturday, Oct. 24, may have even described it as infuriating, excruciating and maddening. U-M, after all, spent most of the afternoon repelling the reigning College Football Playoff champions, sealing the Hoosiers off from the end zone. For the first 60 minutes, Indiana failed to breach the goal line. All the Hoosiers managed to conjure was two measly field goals on their first 11 drives. On most days, it wouldn’t have been enough to avoid a bitter outcome.
But not against Michigan and its bankrupt offense.
As Indiana spun its wheels, the Wolverines were drowning in their own ineptitude. They remarkably didn’t match Indiana’s meager output until the final snap of regulation, when Trey Butkowski sent a 26-yard kick through the uprights to tie the score at 6. Just like that, Michigan was given another lifeline. In reality, though, it seemed the Wolverines were on borrowed time. That became even more clear when Indiana’s breakthrough finally came at the outset of the extra period. Josh Hoover connected with Brock Schott on a 21-yard strike down the seam, then scored on a 4-yard keeper on the next snap. The Hoosiers’ first touchdown felt like a death sentence for Michigan.
The Wolverines had yet to reach the goal line all day, even when they came within 3 feet of it during the third quarter. Now they had to go 25 yards to reach the end zone. The distance – for this team, on this day, in this season – seemed too great. It was. Michigan couldn’t even cover half of it before Tommy Carr’s last-ditch throw to Salesi Moa fell incomplete on fourth down, causing the Wolverines to flatline once and for all.
“We just weren’t able to execute,” said Carr, who threw for 167 yards but committed both of Michigan’s turnovers.
That has been the story of this frustrating fall.
After benching Bryce Underwood at halftime of Michigan’s win over Penn State last weekend, Whittingham gave Carr his first college start, hoping the true freshman could infuse this punchless operation with more juice. Michigan scored 21 points or less in five of its first six games and looked dysfunctional at times. The passing game was particularly weak. The Wolverines, in fact, averaged fewer yards per game through the air – 165.7 – than all their Power Four peers. But this was nothing new in these parts. Two years ago, under coach Sherrone Moore, U-M was saddled with the same dubious distinction. Around that time, Michigan started to be seen as a wasteland for quarterbacks and receivers. Until the end of Moore’s star-crossed tenure, his program carried that stigma. But at least it could still get results on the ground. In the stunning 2024 upset of Ohio State, the Wolverines ran for 172 yards. Last season, they ranked in the top 15 in rushing.
When Whittingham was hired, there was hope that he would bring some equilibrium to the offense by developing a productive passing attack that could produce at a similar level as Michigan’s vibrant ground game. The coordinator he brought with him, Jason Beck, had just turned Utah into a scoring machine that averaged the fourth-most points per game among FBS-level teams in 2025.
“Last year, Jason was exceptional,” Whittingham said. “We had exceptional results.”
But this season, they have been abysmal and Beck has come up short. The Wolverines not only can’t pass the ball well; they now struggle to run it, too. On Saturday, Michigan gained just 57 rushing yards on 42 attempts. As they have for much of the season, Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter gained little traction. Their combined average Saturday was 1.8 yards per carry. The inefficiency, as alarming as it may have been, had been an ongoing issue. Just three weeks ago, in a harrowing defeat to Minnesota, the Wolverines netted just 79 yards on 28 attempts.
“If you can’t run the football,” Whittingham said, “everything else is going to be hard.”
On Saturday, simply reaching the end zone became an impossible task.
Even after Michigan cornerback Zeke Berry intercepted a pass and returned the ball 37 yards to Indiana’s 13, they still couldn’t get there. They didn’t even come near it before settling for a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter. It was a regrettable outcome. But it captured Michigan’s red-zone impotence. On their four trips inside the 20-yard line, the Wolverines manufactured just six points. Twice, they came away empty. One of the opportunities was squandered after they made it as far as the 1-yard line early in the second half. On third down, Beck dialed up a play-action pass. Tobi Osunsanmi wasn’t fooled and dragged Carr down 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The sack was one of 11 Michigan plays that resulted in a loss.
“That was not a good call at that point in time,” Whittingham said.
The consequences were devastating. On the next snap, Butkowski kicked the ball wide of the left upright and Whittingham was left to stew in the futility of it all.
As he took stock of the offense, he said, “There is really nowhere you can say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this pretty good.’ We’re not really running the ball effectively as we want to…We’re not completing the ball at a high enough percentage. We’re not protecting the ball well enough. We’re not good enough in the red zone.”
The problems are manifold.
The solutions, though, remain elusive.
That is why the Wolverines, even with a defense that Whittingham describes as “elite,” are 4-3 and virtually out of CFP contention.
“If we were a little bit better [on offense], we would be undefeated right now, honestly,” Carr said.
Instead, the Wolverines were left to rue another loss that materialized because they couldn’t score enough. It’s disappointing. But it’s also infuriating, excruciating and maddening.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin on X.
Michigan football's season has become maddening because of its offense
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football turns maddening because of offense's futility
