Two years ago, Michigan's defense pitched a pair of shutouts en route to a national championship campaign. In 2024, the Wolverines didn't account for one, but only surrendered six points in the second half of the final four contests of the season.
Whether you want to believe it or not, that sort of counts as a reason to celebrate because of how and who the defense demeaned. This time around, there are multiple opponents on the schedule that this year's unit can dish out the doughnut to on the scoreboard.
Breaking down teams Michigan could shut out in 2025
Factually speaking, the only foe that Michigan faces in 2025 that went scoreless in a loss last year was Purdue. They were held to a nothing burger three times in 2024. New coach Barry Odom only has one loss on his resume, where his team didn't score anything in his career as a head ball coach. The Boilermakers also boast the best running back of the group with Devin Mockobee and a receiver with a catchy name, Nitro Tuggle. Because of them, Purdue's offense won't be a joke anymore.
The other prime candidate would have to be Central Michigan. The last time that the Chippewas were held to zero was in 2019 when they lost 61-0 to another ranked Big Ten school, in Wisconsin.
New Mexico will be grooming an FCS quarterback to replace Devon Dampier. Dampier is the type of guy who would have given Michigan's defense fits. Jack Layne is the esteemed signal caller from Idaho who draws lucky number one against Michigan's mighty defense. He was held under 50% completion percentage in the loss at Oregon in last season's opener. No other quarterback on New Mexico's roster has taken a serious snap in a FBS game before.
Maryland will be inserting a freshman quarterback into the lineup, while Northwestern scored the fewest amount of points on Wink Martindale's troops with six. At some point this season, Michigan's defense will have to win a game by itself because of an injury or the fact that the offense just hits a wall. That's where the momentum factor from last year becomes tectonic.