Michigan’s loss to Iowa was supposed to be the wake-up call Kyle Whittingham and his staff needed. Apparently, it wasn’t. One week later, the Wolverines stumbled again, this time against Minnesota, and the problems that looked fixable suddenly seem much bigger.
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While reacting to a video of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck celebrating after the win over Michigan, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum closed the book on the Wolverines, delivering a brutal verdict on their season.
“I don’t know what he is taking, Greeny, but it’s infectious, and the bigger story wasn’t that he won. It’s that Michigan is now done for the year. We don’t have to debate whether they really beat Western or not five weeks ago,” said Finebaum on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday.
The opening-week clash against Western Michigan should have been a warning for Whittingham that this team needed a serious overhaul. But wins over Oklahoma and UTEP gave the Wolverines a motivational jolt, allowing everyone in college football to forget the Week 1 controversy.
Then Iowa arrived, giving Michigan a taste of its own medicine. And now, Minnesota has completely exposed just how badly this offense is falling apart.
“That wasn’t pretty,” Kyle Whittingham said after the game.
Michigan’s 20-14 loss to Minnesota exposed yet another ugly chapter in a season spiraling away from expectations. Now 0-2 in Big Ten play, Whittingham was left searching for answers as his Wolverines again looked sloppy, disjointed, and undone by the same self-inflicted mistakes that keep holding them back.
To put into perspective just how bad this Minnesota loss was, the two teams are rivals, but the Golden Gophers hadn’t beaten Michigan since 2014. Even more telling, the Wolverines had won 35 of their previous 38 meetings. Coming into Saturday’s clash, Michigan was the clear favorite.
In fact, Michigan led 14-7 at halftime, but everything collapsed in the third quarter. Andrew Marsh’s muffed punt and two Bryce Underwood interceptions handed Minnesota crucial opportunities, resulting in 13 points in the second half.
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” Whittingham said of his team. “I’ve been in this profession 40-plus years, and this is maybe the biggest challenge I’ve had.
“We will get it figured out. I promise you that. I’m not sure what the timeline is, but I promise you we’ll get it figured out at some juncture. Right now, we have a lot of answers that we’ve got to come up with because we’ve got so many deficiencies.”
A year after posting a respectable 9-4 record, Michigan’s offense has taken a noticeable step back, ranking 104th nationally at 23 points per game. The Wolverines have also benefited from short-field opportunities, including one against Minnesota that resulted in a touchdown.
Under Kyle Whittingham, Michigan’s passing game has struggled, averaging just 180.8 yards per game, tied for 111th nationally among FBS teams. Meanwhile, Bryce Underwood has taken a step back from last season, completing 59% of his passes for 881 yards and five touchdowns while throwing four interceptions through five games.
These struggles should be a wake-up call for Jason Beck and the $41 million head coach, showing that they haven’t fully adjusted to the Big Ten. They’re no longer in Utah, and their run-heavy approach reflects that disconnect.
Making matters worse, the remaining schedule is brutal. Four of Michigan’s seven games are against ranked teams: Indiana and UCLA at home, plus Oregon and Ohio State on the road. If they don’t make the necessary changes, then they should say goodbye to a good season.