Last week, Michigan football fans had dreams of the College Football Playoff dancing in their heads. However, that dream came crashing down on Saturday.
A battered, bruised, and inexperienced, at least on offense, Michigan football team couldn't hang with the Buckeyes in a 27-9 loss. Michigan did build the biggest lead of any team on Ohio State this season, 6-0, which says something on its own about OSU.
The Wolverines missed chances. Bryce Underwood and the offense could have made the game competitive but the Ohio State offense dominated and the Wolverines couldn't do anything about it.
Now, Michigan has a year to try and close the gap. Here are four changes Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore must make to get there.
Fire Wink
You want every hire to work out. But Wink has gotten far too much credit for what happened last season against Ohio State.
That was Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, and others on the defensive line kicking ass up front, so Wink could drop a bunch back in coverage. Ohio State threw it plenty in 2024. The Buckeyes didn't have success because Graham was in the lap of Will Howard all day.
On Saturday, Julian Sayin could have made a sandwich before getting rid of the ball. The defensive line didn't perform well and none of Wink's fancy calls ever work. Steve Clinkscale should have been hired at the time.
It might be too late for that, but Sherrone Moore needs to correct the mistake. The defense was decent this season but it felt like a Don-Brown defense -- one that dominates against lesser competition but allows points to every good team.
USC, Nebraska (with Raiola), Oklahoma, and Ohio State all scored 24 points or more. Washington was held to seven, but that was the lone impressive performance of the season by the defense. Even Michigan State and Northwestern got 20. Maryland did too, and could have scored 30 if the receivers could have caught the ball.
Jake Butt even said Wink doesn't care which players are on the field. Or maybe he doesn't know. Either way, Michigan needs wholesale changes on defense.
J.B. Brown has to go, too
It sucks to say fire people. But this isn't show friends. It's show business. J.B. Brown has not contributed much to the special teams which have gotten markedly worse since he took over.
Sherrone needs to go out and get a proven coach, who can help Michigan football have an edge in the kicking game like it used to under Jim Harbaugh.
Quit playing scared with Bryce
In the biggest games of the season, Michigan football protected its freshman quarterback too much. Frankly, it did that all season.
Finally, after calling for it for most of the season, Michigan decided to activate Underwood in the running game with some zone reads and QB power. The problem is that Underwood is so inexperienced at those plays, he made the wrong read.
If he just waits for the one of the early QB powers in the red zone, it might have been a touchdown instead of a two-yard gain. However, when you only run the play a few times, it's understandable why you wouldn't be able to execute it in the biggest game of the season.
Michigan can't afford to get Bryce hurt but what other programs coach like that? He's a weapon and he needs to be used to his full potential. If that had been done this season, the results on Satuday would have been better. Probably not good enough to win, but more points would have been on the board.
The kid threw five passes in the first half. It was way too similar to Oklahoma and USC. Michigan didn't have the defense for it, and once Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall were out, it didn't have the run game either.
This offense needs to be all gas, no breaks, at least from the mindset perspective.
Figure out how to keep people healthy
One thing Moore must do is evaluate the injuries. Michigan had to play last season against Ohio State without Will Johnson, Colston Loveland, and Donovan Edwards, just to name a few.
This year, both backs, who each could have led the Big Ten in rushing yards if they were the full-time starters, were out. Marshall had four carries for 61 yards. It felt like 1995 all over again, except he checked out of the game on the second possession.
Blake Corum didn't make it past game 11 in 2022. He was also hurt in 2021. Kalel Mullings was injured in 2024. There's a pattern. It goes beyond running back though. Guys were getting hurt too much during the week, and things have to change.
Moore has to evaluate practices and everything else, because if your best players are always missing the most important games, what's the point?
And in this instance, it feels like more than the normal rash of injuries.