Michigan Returns to ESPN’s Bottom 10 After Michigan State Loss

ESPN writer Ryan McGee built his Bottom 10 for college football’s worst teams, and this week a 5-4 Michigan sits at No. 5. The Wolverines earned the spot with a 15-6 home loss to Michigan State, and they share the list with 0-9 Northern Illinois and eight teams that own one or two wins apiece.

McGee writes the column for laughs, yet Michigan’s ranking arrives with a receipt attached. The offense under first-year coach Kyle Whittingham has put up numbers that fit the list for most of the season. With Oregon, UCLA and Ohio State left on the schedule, the Wolverines still need one more win to become bowl eligible.

Michigan State exposed Michigan’s offense in Ann Arbor

Michigan entered the rivalry game as a two-touchdown favorite, and Michigan State turned it into a field-goal contest. Kicker Liam Boyd made all five of his attempts, while a defense that brought five takeaways into the week forced four turnovers and recorded five sacks.

Freshman quarterback Tommy Carr finished 14 of 26 for 138 yards with two interceptions, and Michigan ran for 54 yards on 26 carries. The Wolverines avoided a shutout only when running back Savion Hiter scored from a yard out with 1:35 left, and Carr was sacked on the two-point try that followed.

If anything, the result carried even more weight in East Lansing. Michigan State snapped a six-game losing streak, and coach Pat Fitzgerald ended a personal 13-game Big Ten skid that stretched back to his final season at Northwestern in 2022. The Spartans pulled it off with 14 players listed as out and held the ball for 38:07. One third-quarter drive alone went 17 plays and 79 yards, ate 10:41 of clock and ended with another Boyd field goal.

How Michigan’s offense earned a bottom 10 spot

The warning signs showed up in Whittingham’s debut, when Michigan needed a replay ruling to beat Western Michigan 13-12. Three seasons after winning a national championship, the Wolverines rank 132nd among 138 FBS teams in total offense and 126th in scoring. They have topped 21 points twice, and one of those games came against UTEP, the No. 2 team in this week’s Bottom 10.

The quarterback position has not offered a fix either. Bryce Underwood opened the season as the starter before Carr replaced him during the comeback win over Penn State, and both have struggled since. Michigan has also been held scoreless in three first halves this season, something the program had not done since 1979.

Whittingham fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck a day after the rivalry loss. Beck came with him from Utah, where his offense leaned on pre-snap motion and quarterback runs, and Whittingham said at his Monday news conference that a second look at the film settled it.

“There was just too much regression in the offense in that particular game, and that was what led to the decision,” Whittingham said.

Jim Harding, who was Utah’s co-offensive coordinator under Whittingham in 2015 and 2016, takes over as interim coordinator for the final three games. Whittingham also acknowledged that his staff lacks coaches with play-calling experience.

Three ranked opponents stand between Michigan and a bowl

Truth be told, a 5-4 team with wins over Oklahoma and Penn State is a long way from McGee’s No. 1. Northern Illinois is 0-9 in its first Mountain West season after leaving the MAC, and it lost coach Thomas Hammock to an assistant job with the Seattle Seahawks in February. The Huskies outgained San José State 400-316 last weekend and still lost 30-19, partly because they went 0-for-4 on fourth down.

Michigan’s trouble is the road off the Bottom 10. The Wolverines visit No. 18 Oregon, which won 41-28 in Columbus earlier this season, host a UCLA team that is 9-0 for the first time since 1998 and sits No. 4 in the AP poll, then close at No. 21 Ohio State. One win in those three games gets Michigan to six and bowl eligibility. A team that has scored six points in two of its last three games will have to find that win with an interim coordinator in charge.

Coordinator changes this late in a season tend to bring a fresh voice to the meeting room more than a new playbook, and Whittingham sounded like a coach who knows it. “You can’t do major changes at this juncture,” Whittingham said. “There will be a few new wrinkles, but to say it’s a complete overhaul, that’s not how it is.”