What Michigan’s Season will be Defined By

Those games are touchstones for Michigan fans. How the Wolverines fare in each will offer an easy tracker, a check-in, on the team’s performance level, how the Whittingham experiment is going, and what the level of play has rebounded to. More people care about the results in those games than they do of that in the sleepy Week 9 matchup at Rutgers. That’s natural, that’s obvious, but it isn’t necessarily the best barometer of success for the overall health of the Michigan football program headed into 2026 and beyond. 

What's not worked before

In 2024, Michigan beat Ohio State and Alabama to end the season. Stole two games against an archrival and a behemoth of the sport in thrilling fashion, salvaging their year. But those two wins, despite the uplifting effect they had on the fanbase, were not, in fact, indicative of an improving trajectory of Michigan football. 

Far more telling in terms of the long run state of the program were the 2024 losses to Washington and Illinois. Two contests which by no means were gimmes, but two that a fortified Michigan program nonetheless walks away from with a win. Looking at the disjointed, mistake-laden performances in those two games would have been a far better indicator for Michigan’s 2025 season than the two fun outlier wins. 

Michigan’s fans, and especially its decision makers, were too enamored with, too distracted by, the superficial highs of November and December anomalies in 2024 to address pervasive weaknesses in the program. The key is to not make that mistake twice. 

Focus on the little one first

In 2026, Michigan will land in a primetime slot more often than not. Though losses in those moments might sting more and wins taste sweeter, getting caught up in an intensified, reactionary approach to Michigan’s season would be repeating a mistake. 

College football needs its die-hards and emotion is part and parcel of the experience, but when the dust settles and the work-week resumes, one must remember that conquering the big games only matters if the less-promoted ones are taken care of in kind. Judge Kyle Whittingham and the 2026 Wolverines more by their performances against the second tier of competitors – the UCLAs and Iowas of the world – than when they face a team from the uppermost echelon of the sport. 

Take the first step properly, and begin the Kyle Whittingham era with a rock-solid foundation. Then move on to becoming a world-beater.