It's nearly time to start focusing more on Minnesota, the Wolverines opponent for Week 5 of the 2026 college football season.
First, we want to take one final look back at the loss against Iowa. Advanced stats show that Michigan football dominated the game. However, the Wolverines struggled in the red zone, lost the turnover battle and gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown.
That allowed Iowa to hang around and win the game on a great touchdown pass by Hank Brown. It was a dime. A great throw and catch will beat great man coverage every time.
If we didn't care about the score, Michigan fans would have a lot to feel good about after watching this game. The problem is that, as Kyle Whittingham said, the score is the only thing that really matters.
Michigan needs to get better at the little things. It has to play clean football. If it can do that, it can compete with anyone on the schedule. Looking back at the Iowa loss, here is the Michigan football stock report, starting with Bryce Underwood, who is trending up.
Stock up: Bryce Underwood
Bryce Underwood was elite against Iowa. There were two mistakes. The first was an interception that was the fault of Andrew Marsh. Underwood expected a back-shoulder fade like the game-winning touchdown for Iowa. That's not the route Marsh ran. The only other negative, outside of needing to be better in the red zone, was the fourth-and-short leap.
That's not going to be an issue again. Outside of that, as long as Marsh runs the correct route, Underwood is clean against Iowa in a game where he accounted for 312 yards.
Stock up: offensive line
The running game churned out 153 rushing yards. That doesn't sound like a lot, but if you can run the ball on Iowa, you can run on anyone. Underwood was sacked just once. Michigan football also ran for over 150 yards against Oklahoma.
Both of those defenses are really good. Underwood has been activated in the running game when needed. I would have liked a first down on the final drive, but running for a first down when Iowa knew Michigan was going to run was going to be difficult. A play-action pass would have been great.
Still, that's not the fault of the offensive line. That group wasn't perfect. There were too many penalties, but there was also consistent movement, which is promising moving forward.
Stock up: The wide receivers
Remember when Dakota Guerrant, the five-star in-state recruit in the 2027 class, said he couldn't commit to Michigan until he saw that the offense could feature wide receivers.
Against Iowa, Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan both went over 100 yards. Buchanan caught five passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Marsh caught seven passes for 103 yards.
That might not be the last time this season that we see both receivers go over 100.
Stock down: Secondary
It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about Michigan having the best trio of cornerbacks in the country. I have to admit, Iowa throwing for 236 yards wasn't on my bingo card, especially after it threw for less than 200 against Iowa State.
The Wolverines didn't get a ton of pressure, which isn't surprising against Iowa, but Hank Brown and the Iowa offense drove 90 yards in two minutes to win the game. It was the second touchdown of the fourth quarter.
Michigan's secondary is still really good. But they have something to prove after Iowa took advantage of them in the fourth quarter.
Stock down: Kerry Coombs
Against Oklahoma, there was the critical roughing the punter penalty that gave the Sooners a free first down. Against Iowa, the Wolverines allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown.
If that doesn't happen, there is zero chance Iowa wins that game.
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