Kyle Whittingham isn’t pointing fingers at his offensive staff, even after Michigan’s latest stumble on Saturday.
The Wolverines took a damaging 13-6 overtime loss to Indiana and once again came up empty when it mattered most, with the offense never finding a rhythm and failing to reach the end zone. The run game was especially rough, as Michigan finished with just 57 yards on the ground and a 1.4 yards-per-carry average.
Whittingham made it clear the ground game has to improve before anything else can start working the way Michigan wants.
“If you can’t run the football, everything else is going to be really hard, and we could not run the football today. We were not getting any knock back.
We weren’t hitting the movement well at all. And they were not heavy boxes.
They were just their normal boxes and a lot of split safety looks. And we still just couldn’t make any hay in the run game.
And that really is why the offensive success is predicated on being able to run the ball. And we could not do it consistently.”
Still, the first-year head coach said the answer isn’t panic.
"Right now, it's not time to panic. We're a play away from being 6-1 or 7-0," Whittington said on Monday.
That point is backed up by the record: every Michigan loss this season has come by one possession. Even so, the offense has been a problem all year.
Under offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the Wolverines are averaging 20.2 points per game and sitting in the bottom ten nationally in total offense. Whittingham brought Beck with him from Utah.
He also took responsibility for the state of the unit and said Beck wants one call back from the Indiana game - a bootleg that ended in a sack and helped lead to a missed field goal.
“Well, last year, Jason was exceptional,” Whittingham said. “And we had exceptional results, so I’m not going to say that he’s struggling.
We’re trying. There’s no lack of work ethic or spending time on it or in the building around the clock."
The loss dropped Michigan to 4-3 and gave the Wolverines their third Big Ten defeat. With the offense lagging far behind the defense, conference title hopes and College Football Playoff dreams are now gone.
Michigan heads to Rutgers on Saturday, October 31, with kickoff set for 12:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.
In Other News...
Josh Hoover Is Already Earning Indianas Locker Room Respect
Josh Hoover has already started to win over the Indiana locker room the hard way. Through a season that has asked plenty of him, the quarterback has kept playing through injuries in multiple games, including against Ohio State and Michigan, and that willingness to stay on the field has not gone unnoticed by teammates. Center Bray Lynch and others have made clear that Hoovers toughness and steady presence have helped set the tone around the offense.
For a team trying to build trust and consistency in a demanding stretch, that kind of buy-in matters almost as much as the throws and reads themselves. Hoovers value has been about more than production, with his teammates seeing a player who keeps competing under pressure and refusing to back away when things get difficult. The next question is how far that edge can carry Indiana as the season keeps tightening around it. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Win Exposed One Hoosiers Question Fans Can't Ignore
Indianas overtime win over Michigan gave the Hoosiers plenty to celebrate, but it also did what close games often do: it sharpened the questions. There was enough individual production to go around, from defensive end Tobi Osunsanmis disruptive night with two sacks and two tackles for loss to quarterback Josh Hoover doing just enough to help Indiana escape with the win, even if the passing game never really found a steady rhythm.
Brock Schott and Jacob Savage both had moments that suggested real value going forward, while Davion Chandlers usage seems to be sliding in the other direction. For a team trying to sort out its identity, that mix is what makes the film worth watching after a victory, because the headline result was clear even if the rotation questions underneath it were not. [Read more 🡒]
Indianas New-Look Roster Is Already Fueling A Huge March Debate
Indianas reshaped roster is already drawing real attention from the national basketball conversation, with multiple media outlets, polls and computer models placing the Hoosiers anywhere from the mid-20s to the upper 40s heading into 2026-27. That range says plenty about the intrigue around what Indiana has put together: enough portal additions and returning scoring to make people believe the Hoosiers should be in the NCAA Tournament mix, even if most projections stop well short of calling them a true heavyweight.
For Indiana, that makes the next step more interesting than the ranking itself. The Hoosiers are sitting in that familiar space where optimism and skepticism can coexist, with some polls keeping them just outside the top 25 while still treating them as a team on the tournament bubble rather than on the outside looking in. The debate now is less about whether Indiana is relevant again and more about how quickly this group can turn projection into something sturdier once the games start. [Read more 🡒]