Now that spring practices are in the books for Michigan football and everyone else, college football experts are starting to release their preseason top 25 rankings for the 2025 season.
Andy Staples of On3.com published his updated post-spring top 25 and has U-M 17th. The Michigan Wolverines are one of the most difficult teams to rank going into next season, simply because we don't know what kind of production to expect from Bryce Underwood.
Offense will determine ceiling for Michigan football in 2205
Underwood completed 12 of 27 passes in the Michigan football spring game. However, his performance was better than the stats show. Spring games also aren't great for evaluation, especially since he played much of the game with backups.
In his ranking, Staples says that if the offense is even "above average," the ranking is too low.
"If Michigan’s offense can be even slightly above-average, then I have the Wolverines ranked too low. It appears freshman QB Bryce Underwood may have to be the day-one starter, which wasn’t the original plan. If he needs some time to develop, then it could look like last year for a little while. If he immediately lives up to his recruiting hype, then Michigan becomes a title contender again."
Underwood doesn't need to be first-team All-Big Ten as a freshman for the Wolverines to be successful. If the running game is productive this season, Underwood shouldn't have any trouble making the offense much better than it was a season ago.
He'll need help. But if the Wolverines can lean on the run game, there's enough talent at tight end in Marlin Klein and Hogan Hansen, as well as wide receiver with Donaven McCulley, Fred Moore, Andrew Marsh, Channing Goodwin, and others that the Wolverines can be a playoff team.
We know the defense will be one of the best in college football. However, the ceiling of Michigan football in 2025 will be determined by Underwood and the offense.