Michigan’s season has already been full of tense moments, but the Wolverines keep making life harder on themselves with flags. Through four games, the issue has become impossible to ignore: 32 penalties for 289 yards, a number that has piled up across the final drive of the loss to Iowa, the tight win over Oklahoma and even the Hail Mary escape against Western Michigan.
“We have way too many penalties,” Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said this week. “We understand that.”
That total puts Michigan at 114th nationally in penalty yards per game and 110th in penalties per game. It’s a sharp drop from 2023, when the Wolverines were flagged 45 times for 412 yards over 15 games. For perspective, Michigan has already surrendered fewer rushing yards this season - 327 - than it has lost to penalties.
Not every flag is a disaster. Some are just part of the sport.
As Whittingham put it, “Some of the penalties are the cost of doing business,” Whittingham noted. “You're never going to be penalty-free.”
But the Wolverines’ problem has looked less like bad luck and more like lapses in control. Twelve of their penalties have come before the snap - things like illegal formation, false start, illegal motion and delay of game. Nine more have been the kind that usually point to discipline issues, including roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct, unnecessary roughness and face mask.
One of the biggest examples came late against Iowa, when Zeke Berry’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty helped the Hawkeyes stay alive after an incomplete third-down pass in the final two minutes. Iowa turned that opening into a touchdown.
That leaves only 11 penalties in the more physical, football-comes-with-it category. Even there, Michigan has had too many holding calls on interior linemen, tight ends and even skill players - the kind that erase gains and stall drives.
“Entirely too many, and we've just got to do a better job coaching it,” Whittingham said. “Do a better job of heightening the players' awareness to thoughtless penalties - the penalties that could very easily have been avoided. That's really the thing that we're focusing on.”
Players see the same thing. Offensive tackle Evan Link said some flags are unavoidable, but others come from losing composure.
“Penalties are going to happen, right?” Said offensive tackle Evan Link.
“You're going to get a hold here and there because you don't know where the ball-carrier is going, right? But I think some of them, sometimes emotion takes control, and you can't really let that happen.
You've got to play cool, calm, and collected, especially with some of these illegal formation penalties. Like, we've had a few of these throughout the season.
And I know our offense, we had a lot of interesting formations, but I think we just need to put a little bit more emphasis on the details. Of, hey, where do I line up?
Instead of thinking about what I've got to do on that play.”
Safety Rod Moore pointed to the same theme.
“I think we just play with so much, like a lot of energy. Sometimes you can't contain that. Maybe it's just letting your emotions get the best of yourself.”
Michigan’s overall profile still looks strong enough on paper - 349.8 yards per game on offense and just 236.3 allowed on defense - but the penalty problem has already cost too much. Even if flags are part of football, 289 yards in four games is too much for a team trying to stay in the College Football Playoff and Big Ten title picture.
“We just got to be on the same page,” said defensive tackle Enow Etta. “You know, we just got to all be on the same page, and we just got to keep a level head.
When bullets start flying, we all got to stay calm, you know, cool, collected. And so we just got to overemphasize that, you know, the rest of the season.
Because obviously what we haven't been doing is, you know, it's not enough. We got to continue to just play together as a team and just stay level-headed no matter what point of the game is at.”
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