Michigan is heading into the Citrus Bowl with more questions than answers - not just about who will be on the field, but about the state of the program itself.
The Wolverines are set to face Texas on New Year’s Eve in Orlando, but they’ll be doing so without several key players. Defensive lineman Derrick Moore, linebacker Jaishawn Barham, and offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi have all opted out of the bowl game to prepare for the NFL Draft - a decision that’s become increasingly common in today’s college football landscape.
Interim head coach Biff Poggi initially believed those three would be the only absences. But just days later, he acknowledged that the team could be looking at a much more depleted roster.
Speaking on a Texas-based podcast, The Stampede, Poggi pulled back the curtain on the uncertainty swirling around the program. Players were sent home for the holidays earlier in the week, but Poggi admitted he’s not sure how many will return when the team is scheduled to reconvene on December 26 and travel to Orlando.
“I think there’s a really good chance that we’re going to have many more opt-outs for the game, unfortunately, because we’re in such a state of flux,” Poggi said. “And when they get to the business side of it, they think, ‘Well, we don’t have a coach,’ or, ‘We’ve had this situation with our former coach, there’s investigations and all these things, I don’t know who’s going to coach me. Why do I want to play in that game?’”
That kind of transparency is rare - and it highlights the broader issues facing college football in 2025. With coaching changes, NCAA investigations, and the business of football front and center, players are making decisions based on long-term financial planning, not just team loyalty or tradition.
Poggi didn’t shy away from acknowledging that shift. “Most of the guys opting out need to play … they need the film, and they need to play well,” he said.
“But the team the way you and I knew it is gone now. Now it is strictly a financial and a business decision, and the head coach and the position coaches really are not players in that discussion.”
That’s a stark - and honest - assessment. In Poggi’s words, players are listening to their families and agents, not their coaches.
And in today’s college football environment, that’s not surprising. With NIL deals, draft stock, and potential injury concerns all in play, the bowl game has become more of a personal risk-reward calculation than a final team celebration.
Poggi, a former hedge fund manager, understands that logic. He said he doesn’t want to be the one who convinces a player to suit up, only for something to go wrong. “I don’t want to be the guy that talks them into [playing], and then something happens,” he said.
Still, it’s clear he’s wrestling with the emotional side of it. He’s watching a team he helped build slowly unravel - not from a lack of talent or effort, but from the realities of a sport that has changed dramatically in just a few years. The structure, the loyalty, the sense of shared purpose - it’s all being reshaped by the business side of the game.
And yet, Poggi’s comments didn’t stop there. In a moment of raw honesty - or perhaps frustration - he asked listeners for something more than just patience.
“I would ask one thing, and I’m being very serious - you need to pray for us,” Poggi said. “Because we are going through things that no young kid should have to go through … just when you hit your knees tonight, you don’t have to pray that we win, I know that ain’t gonna happen, just pray that the good Lord will give me the right wisdom to do this the way it needs to be done.”
It’s a striking quote - and one that speaks volumes about the emotional weight of the moment. Poggi isn’t just navigating a bowl game; he’s trying to hold together a program that’s been rocked by coaching changes, off-field investigations, and a roster in flux.
Whether or not that’s the kind of leadership Michigan needs moving forward is a different conversation. But in the here and now, Poggi is doing what he can to steady a ship that’s clearly in turbulent waters.
As for the Citrus Bowl itself? The Wolverines may take the field with a very different-looking roster than the one that earned them the trip to Orlando in the first place. But that’s where college football is today - a sport where the postseason often looks more like a preseason showcase for the next level.
Michigan fans will still be watching, of course. But the story on New Year’s Eve won’t just be about the scoreboard. It’ll be about who shows up - and what that says about the future of the program.