As the Michigan Wolverines are prepping to face the Texas Longhorns on New Year’s Eve in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, their interim head coach, Biff Poggi, delivered a concerning update about the team’s availability for the Citrus Bowl that goes well beyond the three publicly confirmed opt-outs. 

When asked about having just three opt-outs, senior edge rushers Derrick Moore and Jaishawn Barham, plus offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi, Biff Poggi clarified that Michigan has had several other players who have decided not to play this week based on injuries. “Our number is probably more like 12 to 15 in actuality,” Poggi explained, acknowledging the severity of the roster depletion the Wolverines are facing. 

While speaking on The Stampede podcast with Texas legends Mack Brown and Vince Young earlier in the week, Biff Poggi had warned that as many as 25 players might not return after the Christmas break. He said, “I have to tell you with what’s going on with us here now: We sent them home for Christmas yesterday, and I think there’s a really good chance that we’re going to have many more opt outs for the game, unfortunately, because we’re in such a state of flux,” Poggi said on the show. Though that worst-case scenario hasn’t fully materialized, the reality of 12-15 players being unavailable still represents a massive blow to a program already reeling from off-field chaos.​

The three confirmed opt-outs are all understandable decisions from seniors who’ve exhausted their eligibility and are protecting their NFL futures. Derrick Moore has already declared for the NFL Draft and ranks 88th in the NFL Mock Draft Database. Barham sits at 110th. El-Hadi, one of Michigan’s six team captains this season, is viewed as a fringe draft prospect but decided to sit out nonetheless. 

All three players gave everything they had to Michigan over their careers. And Poggi fully supported their decisions, noting that “your bodies have so many reps” after years of college football. “If you were going to opt out, you wouldn’t go through what we just went through the last 10 days,” Poggi said when asked if he expected additional opt-outs beyond the three. “We put them through their paces. At least I wouldn’t do it.” That confidence was reassuring.

Among the injured players expected to miss the Citrus Bowl are some key contributors from Michigan’s season. Safety and team captain Rod Moore, a fifth-year senior who has been a defensive leader, is out for the year with an injury. Fullback/tight end Max Bredeson, another fifth-year captain, suffered an injury against Maryland and is still in the boot.

Linebacker Ernest Hausmann, who leads the Wolverines with 68 tackles in 10 games this season, has been dealing with a personal issue that caused him to miss the last two games of the regular season and is not expected to return to the team. The cumulative effect of these absences, combined with other injured players, is what pushes Michigan’s unavailable player count into that 12-15 range that Biff Poggi cited. It’s a devastating roster situation for a team that was already thin in certain positions after a challenging season.​

The real victory beyond the scoreboard

Despite having 12 to 15 players unavailable due to injuries and opt-outs, Poggi made it clear at the final Citrus Bowl press conference that winning on Wednesday would just be the cherry on top of what’s already been accomplished. 

When asked what a victory against Texas would mean for Michigan, Poggi’s response was remarkably measured, given the circumstances. “A win would be icing on the cake,” he said. “But the real win for us has been the way these kids have handled adversity and the way they’ve come to practice every day, the way they’ve just had to isolate themselves from an onslaught of outside noise. We’re coming to win, but we feel like we’ve got a lot of good things have happened these last three weeks at the University of Michigan, and it’s because of the players. A win would be great.”

The players who have stuck around and committed to playing despite having every reason to check out mentally have already delivered a victory in resilience and character. The fact that they’re even taking the field on New Year’s Eve with their best effort is the real win. Everything else is just icing on the cake.​

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