We’re just over a week into transfer portal season and teams across the country are hard at work to shape their rosters for the 2026 season. That includes Michigan, which has gotten on the board the last few days with some notable additions like All-American edge rusher John Henry Daley, tight end J.J. Buchanan and wide receiver Jaime Ffrench.
Despite making some bigger additions the last few days, it took Michigan a little while to get going while other schools like Indiana, Texas Tech and LSU landed
some big names as soon as the portal opened. By being slow to get going, Michigan put itself behind the eight ball in terms of putting a roster together for 2026, allowing other schools to nab the best available players.
Or…did just the opposite happen?
By the middle of the 2025 season, fans and observers had already been doing some shopping for the 2026 roster and pointed out flaws on the team that would need to be addressed this offseason. And while there were some serious flaws in last year’s team, it’d be unfair to pin it all on the talent of the players on the roster, many of which were underclassmen with little experience or were under the watch of a coaching staff that seemed to be doing more harm than good.
Just by bringing in Kyle Whittingham and his all-star staff, Michigan instantly boosted its credibility in the player development department. Whittingham and his assistants have been able to get the best out of their players for years, some less talented than the ones already on Michigan’s roster. Furthermore, several of the big contributors from Michigan’s roster are a year older with some college experience now under their belts. That combination of coaching and experience ensures the floor of what the roster can accomplish can be raised; maybe not to the point where Michigan could sit back and watch these days on the calendar fly by, but certainly to a point where it doesn’t have to simply throw darts at the highest-ranked players.
To the same effect, Michigan has been quite busy when it comes to retention efforts, something equally as important as making additions in the portal. Just last week we saw the team roll out its “LFG147” campaign of returning players, including quarterback Bryce Underwood, running back Jordan Marshall and several offensive linemen, among others.
Whittingham and company were smart to use this strategy of focusing their efforts on roster retention during the first week of the portal window. By being largely successful in fending off other schools who were trying to take their players away, they’ve at least guaranteed they’ll have much of the same roster as a starting point instead of losing several big contributors (in addition to those going to the NFL) and having to completely start from scratch. Furthermore, by focusing efforts on retention and being selective in which players to keep, they ensure they have homegrown players they know fit their schemes and work well in the locker room rather than just plugging holes with big names that might not fit as well.
By the end of last week, we saw Michigan start to flip its focus towards external players that could fill the holes that still remained. For example, Michigan’s special teams were abysmal to say the least in 2025, but Kerry Coombs and staff got to work adding an all-conference kicker in Trey Butkowski, as well as a punter and long snapper. After that, Michigan turned its focus to the defense and landed guys like Daley and his Utah defensive lineman teammate Jonah Lea’ea. Now they’ve added a bit to the offense as well, adding Ffrench, Buchanan, a backup quarterback in Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, and running back Taylor Tatum.
Even though it might not seem like much on the surface, Michigan has done an excellent job assembling its roster for next season. By ensuring it was able to keep a wealth of talented players home during week one of the portal window, the program gave itself a solid foundation to build on. Some more additions have been made to further raise the ceiling of the group, while others can still come in over the next week or so to complete the puzzle.
Folks should be careful to underestimate the value of the coaching staff and experience the returning players will have as well. After all, this group went 9-4 in 2025 with so many distractions and incompetencies bubbling beneath the surface. There should be no question this group can improve upon last year’s performance based on what’s now in place and what more can still come — even if it’s not the splashy household names we might have envisioned prior to the portal opening.
