Ever since Jim Harbaugh’s departure, the Michigan Wolverines have struggled in a fair amount of areas, but the offense has especially been lacking. Thanks to some extremely talented players like Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Jordan Marshall and more, Michigan was better on that side of the ball last year, but still too conservative, and explosiveness was lacking. The Wolverines need to get their wide receivers more involved this year, and one upperclassman to watch is Channing Goodwin.
The story so far
Goodwin came
to Michigan ahead of the 2024 season after committing in May 2023. He was a four-star recruit in the 2024 class and was high school teammates with former Michigan quarterback Jadyn Davis at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His freshman year was a quiet one, which is the case for most first-year players. He appeared in four games, making his debut on special teams against Michigan State. He played his first game at wide receiver a few weeks later against Northwestern.
Last season was a bit busier for Goodwin. He appeared in all 13 games for the Wolverines and started six of them. He finished the year with 12 receptions for 148 yards, but he is still looking for his first collegiate touchdown.
Outlook for 2026
It’s going to be interesting to see what Goodwin’s role is going to look like this season. He is someone who a lot of coaches and fans have been excited about in the past, but we haven’t really seen him take off yet. We have seen some flashes, but nothing consistent from him over the first couple years of his college career.
In theory, Goodwin should get more opportunities in 2026, but there are some guys already ahead of him on the depth chart. Marsh and Utah transfer JJ Buchanan are expected to be the two main contributors at the wide receiver position this year, with Texas transfer Jaime Ffrench ad true freshman Salesi Moa also expected to play significant minutes. Goodwin will have to ball out in fall camp to have a shot at cracking the starting lineup with all the quality players now in the wide receiver room.
At this point, it’s difficult to gauge how any player on Michigan’s offense will do this fall, and that’s especially the case with the wide receivers. We’ve had a lot of coach talk the past couple offseasons that led us to believe the offense was changing, but it never happened. There is definitely reason for optimism for guys like Goodwin, but we also don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves before we’ve even seen one game with the new staff.
