Michigan entered Norman with a chance to prove itself on a national stage, but instead walked away with more questions than answers.
In a 24-13 loss to Oklahoma, the Wolverines looked like a team caught between two completely different approaches, and FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt believes that uncertainty is at the heart of their offensive struggles.
“Michigan has a bit of an identity issue,” he said
on The Joel Klatt Show this week. “That’s a problem because Michigan, largely, has built their program on identity. Who they are, the way they play, and their philosophy has been foremost. It hasn’t been leading with talent — even though they had a really talented team win the national championship — it’s been leading with philosophy and identity. Physical, run it well, play great defense, win the line of scrimmage. That was their formula, and it fell short on Saturday night.”
Those struggles were evident against the Sooners, where Michigan managed just 288 total yards and converted only 3-of-14 third downs. Justice Haynes provided a brief spark with a 75-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half, but outside of that play, the rushing attack was nearly non-existent, producing only 71 yards on 31 carries.
“For a program that’s built its championship formula on physical, run-first football, that is alarming,” Klatt said. “If you take away the long run from Justice Haynes, they ran for 2.3 yards per carry. That’s not the identity Michigan fans have been used to, and it raises a lot of questions about the offense moving forward.”
Part of the problem, according to Klatt, is the uneasy transition to new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey’s system. Lindsey’s spread-oriented scheme emphasizes finesse and sideline-to-sideline plays, a stark contrast to the power-run approach former head coach Jim Harbaugh relied on from 2021-23.
“This marriage of Chip Lindsey’s style with Michigan’s traditional physicality really didn’t fit on Saturday night,” Klatt said. “Some plays worked, some didn’t, but the overall identity felt muddled.”
Michigan’s offensive line — long the program’s foundation — also left Klatt concerned, saying this year’s unit doesn’t measure up to the dominant lines of the past few seasons.
“I watched the coaches’ tape, and there were a lot of glaring mistakes from the offensive line,” he said. “Clearly, this is not the unit we saw in 2022 or 2023. That matters if Michigan wants to maintain its physical identity. The rest of the offense can only do so much without them.”
Despite the struggles, Klatt found reason for optimism in Bryce Underwood’s first road start. The freshman completed just 9-of-24 passes for 142 yards, but Klatt emphasized the tape told a different story than the stats.
“If you just look at his stat sheet, a lot of people are going to say he didn’t play well, but the film tells a different story,” Klatt said. “He has elite physical tools, poise and arm talent. He’s not perfect — he needs to improve in the pocket, he needs better touch on some throws — but he gave me vibes of some of the better quarterbacks I’ve watched in college football. As a true freshman, he was their best offensive player on the field.”
The broader concern to Klatt is whether Michigan can preserve the physical identity that carried it to a national championship two seasons ago. He drew a parallel to David Shaw’s Stanford teams, which gradually drifted away from Harbaugh’s smash mouth approach and lost their edge in the trenches.
“To be great on offense, you have to major in a philosophy,” Klatt said. “There’s a tug of war right now at Michigan. Which identity is going to win out? Can they retain that physicality up front, or will they drift toward a finesse-style offense that doesn’t fit the program’s history or strengths? That’s the real question.”
With Central Michigan on the clock, the Wolverines will have a chance to regroup. But as Big Ten play looms, the pressure is on Sherrone Moore and Lindsey to establish a clear offensive identity. Without it, Michigan risks drifting further from the formula that made it champions.
