It's gut-check time for Michigan football.
The Wolverines are 3-2. They are 0-2 in the Big Ten conference. Before there is any talk of making the playoff or saving the season, Michigan needs to win a game.
Penn State has lost three in a row. The Nittany Lions also have a first-year head coach, Matt Campbell, who is struggling to adjust to the Big Ten as much as Kyle Whittingham.
Michigan defensive coordinator Jay Hill hasn't had a hard time adjusting. Jason Beck surely has, though. He is the Wolverines biggest problem. Not Bryce Underwood.
Were any of those problems fixed during the bye week? Kyle Whittingham said, at least to the media, that Michigan needs to simply stay the course and eliminate turnovers.
Looking ahead to the Penn State game, here are three burning questions the Wolverines need to answer.
Can Michigan run the ball?
Getting Underwood to play the way he did against UTEP, Oklahoma, and Iowa is one thing. That needs to happen. Making it easier will be giving the quarterback a reliable running game. Even better is making him more part of the running game.
It's a mystery how Beck coordinated a top-10 rush offense at Utah last season, but has tanked Michigan's rushing attack. U-M averaged 210 yards on the ground in 2025. So far in 2026, Michigan, with mostly the same players, is down to 135.
The yards per rushing attempt has dropped from 5.4 to 3.8. Michigan had a poor pass offense in 2024. This is worse. This Michigan has struggled to run and throw.
Kyle Whittingham and Blake Frazier talked about running more downhill. More base plays. Letting the offensive line get after people. That's what needs to happen. Beck isn't out-scheming anyone. It's time to lean on what has worked for Michigan, because nothing this season has worked consistently on offense.
If the running game gets back to normal that wil be a great start.
Can the offense function with the Rhino?
There are a few issues with the Rhino. For one, the players in that role aren't good enough to be on the field. Avery Gach is a second-year player who didn't contend for a starting job. Neither did Manuel Beigel. If those are the only options as the sixth offensive lineman, it should be used sparsely
Those are not two of your best 11 players. They aren't even close to that. If this is Andrew Babalola, that's a different story. He's questionable and there's a chance he could play. He has never played in a game, though, and hasn't seen any game action in over two years, even high school.
Beck said the Rhino was Michigan's best package. Yet, defenders are flying up in the box to stop it. They are triggering knowing that the Rhino isn't going out for a pass.
Michigan isn't countering that by play-action faking, and taking shots down the field with JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh often in single coverage, so it's killing the running game. The play calls have just been too predictable, too.
There is nothing about the offense that is functioning well, though, which includes the Rhino, so Beck defending it for so long on Wednesday gave me a sense of foreboding.
Can Michigan get the best out of Bryce Underwood?
Jason Beck's only job is getting Bryce Underwood to play well. That was supposed to be his main thing. The run game already worked. So it felt like all he had to do was add on to that.
Instead, he tore it down. Michigan won nine games with a great running game last season. Underwood had some good moments. Mostly he was below average.
Things have been pretty good or really bad so far this season. Michigan needs to help Underwood find some consistency. Beck needs to get him comfortable, design a game plan that suits what he does well, and get this offense functioning.
The defense has been elite. Maybe the only question is, can it keep this up? The answer, as long as they aren't on the field for 40-45 minutes is yes.
If the offense can get a clue.
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