The Michigan Wolverines’ national standing took another hit after Saturday’s 13-6 loss to Indiana, and the numbers across the major polls tell the same story: respect for the defense, little faith in the offense, and no real movement that suggests voters are ready to buy back in.
Michigan nearly stole the game behind a relentless defensive effort. The Wolverines held Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover to 81 passing yards and picked him off once, yet it still wasn’t enough. Tommy Carr’s first start at quarterback came with plenty of growing pains, and Michigan kept sputtering in key moments, never finding the end zone and then coming up short again in overtime.
That performance left the Wolverines stuck in the same place with the AP poll. They still haven’t been ranked since Week 4, and they haven’t received any votes since Week 5. For a team that took the defending champs to overtime, the offensive issues have been too glaring to win over the pollsters.
The advanced metrics were just as unforgiving. Michigan dropped four spots in ESPN SP+ after the loss, even though the defense remains highly regarded at No. 3 overall. The bigger problem is that neither side of the ball is inside the top 80 nationally.
ESPN’s Football Power Index was slightly kinder, though only barely. The Wolverines slid two spots to No. 34 overall, and because Iowa lost in the Twin Cities this weekend, Michigan moved ahead of the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten FPI rankings. That edge says more about Iowa’s stumble than any surge from Michigan.
The Athletic also knocked Michigan down after briefly nudging the Wolverines up two places a week earlier. This time, they fell back to No. 35 overall.
CBS Sports had a similar reaction. Michigan dropped by the same number of spots it had climbed last week, landing at No. 45 and sitting just behind Oregon, one of its upcoming opponents.
There is at least one game ahead that looks much more manageable. Michigan heads to Piscataway next weekend to face a Rutgers team that has won only twice in 2026, beating FCS Howard in September and then taking down a Maryland program that fired its head coach after the game. Even so, if Michigan wins on Saturday, it likely won’t do much to change the Wolverines’ place in the national polls.
In Other News...
Michigans Next AD Could Decide More Than Wolverines Fans Realize
Warde Manuels decision to step down at the end of December has put Michigan into the kind of search that tends to ripple well beyond the athletic department. The Wolverines are looking for a new athletic director at a time when the football program is already under pressure, and that means the hire will not just be about administration or fundraising. It could shape how the school approaches one of its biggest public-facing decisions in the months ahead.
Among the names circulating are Candice Story Lee of Vanderbilt, Katie Fraumann, who has ties to Michigan, and David Benedict of UConn. Each brings a different background, but the common thread is the same: this is a hire that may define the direction of the department as much as any move on the field. For Michigan fans, the real intrigue is not only who gets the job, but how quickly that person decides the Wolverines need a different path in football. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Still Has One Problem It Must Solve Before Rutgers
Michigan still has one major decision hanging over it before Rutgers, and it is the sort that can shape everything else on the field. Kyle Whittingham has not settled on a starting quarterback, with freshman Tommy Carr and sophomore Bryce Underwood both in the mix after uneven recent showings. Carr flashed some promise even while dealing with turnovers and sacks, while Underwood has struggled in his last two starts but still carries a leadership presence inside the program.
The next few days of practice will go a long way toward sorting it out, with the staff planning to use those reps to narrow the competition and make the call closer to game time. For Michigan, it is more than just a roster question. The Wolverines are trying to find the steadier option before a conference game that can help set the tone for the stretch ahead, and the answer at quarterback remains the biggest unresolved piece. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Run Game Faces Its Biggest Test Yet At Rutgers
Michigan is heading into a game at Rutgers needing its ground attack to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The Wolverines have leaned on the run game as the most reliable part of an offense that has struggled in several areas this season, and the matchup looks favorable on paper, with Rutgers sitting near the bottom of the Big Ten in run defense. Even with Michigan favored by 14.5 points, this has the feel of a game where the Wolverines need their identity to show up early rather than rely on another tight finish.
The broader concern is that Michigan has already spent much of the season playing closer games than expected and surviving on the margins more often than it would like. Against Rutgers, the path is fairly clear: establish the run, control the pace and avoid giving an underdog enough chances to hang around. If the Wolverines cannot do that against the conferences weakest run defense, it would say plenty about where this offense really stands heading into the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]