From a 3-0 start to a sudden 0-2 collapse in Big Ten play, Michigan’s season has unraveled in just a few days. While former coach Biff Poggi is publicly backing the team, head coach Kyle Whittingham is openly admitting he is out of answers for two straight heartbreaking losses.
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Biff Poggi, now an analyst at the Big Ten Network, expressed confidence in the roster and staff and believes the Wolverines will bounce back as they move on to Week 6.
“Michigan has too many good players and too many good coaches to not get this right,” Poggi wrote in an X post. “It looks bleak now, but I believe in these players and coaches. GoBlue. I chose to live in believing in this group of guys.”
Poggi knows the program from the inside. He played at Pittsburgh and Duke, spent two years at Charlotte as a head coach, and was an associate head coach at Michigan from 2021 to 2022 and again in 2025. He was part of the coaching staff in 2021-22 and filled in as interim head coach during Sherrone Moore’s suspension and after his firing. Despite the loss, he still expected the Wolverines to power through deep into the playoffs.
Minnesota’s Nathaniel Staehling returned a 79-yard pick-six, but Michigan led 14-7 at halftime. The defense carried most of the game while the offense failed to complement it. The offensive unit finished with 180 yards on 49 plays, rushed for 2.8 yards per carry, and gave up three sacks while committing several penalties.
That dismal performance leaves Michigan near the bottom of the Big Ten in total offensive output. Sitting tied for last place in the conference standings at 0-2, the Wolverines are struggling to keep pace with Big Ten rivals who are scoring almost at will every weekend.
Then came the third quarter, where Andrew Marsh muffed a punt, and Minnesota turned that into a field goal. Bryce Underwood threw an interception on Michigan’s next snap, and another field goal made it 14-13. He threw another on the first play of the fourth, and Darius Taylor caught a 3-yard touchdown pass to put Minnesota up for good. Michigan ran two offensive snaps in the third quarter and had three straight turnovers. On fourth-and-five in the final minute, Underwood threw it out of bounds.
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” Whittingham said, according to a post by the Big Ten Network. “I’ve been in this profession 40-plus years, and this is maybe the biggest challenge I’ve had. And 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. But right now, we have a lot of answers that we’ve got to come up with because we’ve got so many deficiencies.”
Whittingham also called the results “unacceptable” and said “everything’s in play,” pointing to both offensive coordinator Jason Beck and the quarterback spot being under scrutiny. Though he added that Underwood gave Michigan the best chance to win as the game went on, as a coach, Whittingham is considering every option to keep the program on the winning side.
This 0-2 start virtually wipes out Michigan’s hopes for a College Football Playoff spot and puts even basic bowl eligibility in real danger. With upcoming home games against Penn State and Indiana, the Wolverines must use this bye week to fix their mistakes immediately, or a disastrous 0-4 conference start could soon become reality.