Michigan’s offense is changing again, but the run game still looks like the engine.
With Kyle Whittingham taking over as head coach and Jason Beck stepping in as offensive coordinator, the Wolverines are headed into their fourth straight season with a different play-caller. The shape of the offense may shift more toward a spread look in 2026, but the core idea sounds familiar: lean on the ground game, let the offensive line set the tone and use the run to keep everything else moving.
That approach could make this Michigan team more dangerous than it was a year ago. The reason is simple enough.
The Wolverines have three players who can stress defenses in different ways: Jordan Marshall, five-star freshman Savion Hiter and quarterback Bryce Underwood. Underwood, in particular, wasn’t given enough freedom to create with his legs last season.
That matters because the best version of this offense may not be a pure pocket-passing operation at all. It may be a system that uses Underwood as a real part of the run game, takes pressure off him and still leaves room for Andrew Marsh and the rest of the pass-catchers to get their chances. Michigan’s offensive line was stronger in the run game than in pass protection a season ago, so the fit is obvious.
The idea also lines up with what Beck has done before. Earlier this offseason, the comparison was made to Ohio State under Urban Meyer in the 2010s - offenses that were built on spread looks and punishing rushing production.
J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller piled up yards on the ground, while backs such as Ezekiel Elliot, Mike Weber and J.K.
Dobbins thrived behind them. The receivers, including Michael Thomas, K.J.
Hill, Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel, had space to work because defenses had to respect the run.
The numbers Michigan posted with its top three rushers last season - Underwood, Marshall and Justice Haynes - didn’t match those kinds of teams. But that gap is tied to how the offense functioned.
Michigan didn’t stretch the field much, and opposing defenses could crowd the run without much fear of getting punished over the top. That should change in 2026 with a more complete group of pass-catchers.
Beck’s recent offenses also offer a useful template. The comparison was made to Utah in 2025, New Mexico in 2024 and Ohio State in 2017.
Those teams featured different combinations of quarterback and backfield talent, but the common thread was a spread system that let the run game breathe. Neither Devon Dampier nor J.T.
Barrett was described as an elite passer, but both benefited from the space created by the offense around them.
For Michigan, that means Underwood doesn’t need to become a high-volume gunslinger. He just needs to be a little more efficient throwing the ball so defenses can’t ignore it. With better pass-catchers in place, that looks like a reasonable expectation.
As for the rushing totals themselves, the 2024 New Mexico numbers were presented as a realistic target, with 2017 Ohio State as the higher-end benchmark. If Marshall, Hiter and Underwood combined for 376 attempts over 13 games, Marshall would be in line for about 14 carries per game, or 182 for the season. At his 2025 rate of 6.2 yards per carry, that would put him near 1,200 yards.
That would leave 194 attempts for Hiter and Underwood, and the two would need to combine for about 1,400 yards to match New Mexico’s 2024 total. The idea is that each could land around 100 carries and average somewhere in the 5-to-6-yard range, which would fit the strength of Michigan’s run blocking.
A rough estimate from that math puts Hiter around 800 yards and Underwood around 600, though that depends on Beck being more willing to feature quarterback runs than Michigan was a year ago. His history with running quarterbacks like Dampier, Taysom Hill and Bryce Perkins suggests that’s the direction he prefers.
None of it will play out in a neat straight line, of course. Some games will tilt toward Marshall, some toward Hiter and some toward Underwood. An injury could also open the door for someone like Bryson Kuzdzal to get work.
Still, the bigger picture is clear: Michigan has the personnel to be much more productive on the ground in 2026 if it commits to that identity. Last season’s dip wasn’t really about the players. It was about an offense that made life too easy for defenses trying to stop the run.
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