Kyle Whittingham opened his Michigan tenure Saturday night as a 27.5-point favorite against Western Michigan. A loss would have marked only the Wolverines’ second ever loss to a Mid-American Conference team. The Wolverines instead won 13-12 on a last-second Hail Mary, but the new coach left the field far from happy.

Michigan escaped Western Michigan with a 1-point win on Whittingham’s debut, yet he did not let Bryce Underwood and the rest of the team treat it like a normal win. The locker room stayed quiet. 

“But I’m going to tell you right now, there was not a lot of hooting and hollering in that locker room. In fact, there was none, because we understand that we’ve got a lot of work to do, and that we’ve got to be much, much better than we were tonight,” Whittingham made that clear in his postgame press conference. “My reaction was just, thank goodness. But I didn’t move. I was mad. I’m still pissed,” the head coach added. 

Whittingham’s take made sense when looking at how they lost the turnover battle 3-0. The Wolverines struggled to run the ball and did not stop the run well enough. They committed nine penalties. Michigan scored on its first possession and then did not score again until the final play. 

Those mistakes raised the stakes against a MAC opponent Michigan was favored to beat. A loss would have been just the program’s second ever to a conference like Western Michigan’s. Michigan has a 38-1 record against MAC teams, but the Wolverines came closer to changing that history than anyone expected.

Western Michigan led 12-7 late after kicker Dieter Kelly made a 33-yard field goal with 35 seconds left. Michigan then drove, and Underwood hit a 28-yard completion to JJ Buchanan on third-and-10 that reached the Western Michigan 47. Buchanan, a Utah transfer who followed Whittingham to Ann Arbor, set up the controversial finish.

Underwood’s first Hail Mary from around midfield sailed out the back of the end zone. The NBC clock appeared to hit 0:00 while the ball was still in the air. Western Michigan players ran onto the field thinking they had pulled off a historic upset, but officials stopped play for a review. 

They ruled that Broncos defender Micah Davis, No. 18, jumped from an out-of-bounds spot and touched the ball with one second still showing on the stadium clock. That contact stopped the clock, and one second went back on. The ball was “clearly still in the air when the clock goes to zero,” rules analyst Terry McAulay said on the broadcast. 

With that second restored, Michigan got another chance. The ball was snapped with one second left. Underwood threw another 47-yard Hail Mary, this time toward the front of the end zone instead of the back. Buchanan leaped and caught it in traffic as time expired. Michigan won 13-12. 

“When I see zeroes on the clock, I feel like we lost the game. That’s what it was. Then we had one second. The thought was, ‘Give my guys an opportunity,’ and that’s what I did.” Underwood explained. “Definitely thought the game was over because there were zeroes on the clock,” he added. 

Western Michigan saw the ending with a different perspective.

“I know when I looked up at the clock, it was past zeros before we touched it. I knew that they would review it. It was the last play of the game, and because we defended it so well, wasn’t worried or concerned about our guys going out and defending it the second time,” head coach Lance Taylor said after the game. “Unfortunately, we did not defend it as well the second time.” 

This was Whittingham’s first win as Michigan head coach after 21 seasons at Utah. It was Underwood’s first walk-off touchdown pass as a starter and Buchanan’s first game in maize and blue. Next week, No. 10 Oklahoma visits Ann Arbor. Michigan is 1-0, but Whittingham left no doubt that the record will not matter if the Wolverines play like this again.