Bryce Underwood will drive the conversation around Michigan football in 2026, and for good reason. The quarterback’s first season produced a 9-4 record, with the usual freshman highs and lows mixed in. As Kyle Whittingham’s tenure gets rolling, Underwood’s growth is the swing factor that could separate a College Football Playoff run from another trip to the Citrus Bowl.
But he’s not the only name that could tilt the season. Michigan has three other players who can change the shape of this team: Savion Hiter, Rod Moore and JJ Buchanan.
Hiter has been one of the loudest talking points around the program since spring. Whittingham has praised the five-star running back repeatedly, and the expectation is that he’ll be woven heavily into the offense right away.
He brings more than straight-ahead power, too. Hiter can catch the ball, and Michigan plans to use that.
There are even scenarios where he and Jordan Marshall share the field. Put simply, Hiter may be the most gifted running back Michigan has ever signed.
If you strip away position and look at him as an offensive talent in the 2026 class, he might be the best of the bunch. With a loaded offensive line and a head coach who wants to run the ball, Hiter could change everything fast if he becomes the instant star some expect.
Moore is a different kind of X-factor, but just as important. He missed all of 2024 because of injury, then came back in 2025 and played only four games, though he still made his presence felt.
The Wisconsin game was the clearest example. In just 19 snaps, he delivered three big plays, including an interception.
He also knocked away a screen that looked ready to turn into a chunk gain and made a touchdown-saving tackle on a reverse. Even then, he didn’t appear fully back to himself.
The word now is that he’s 100 percent, along with John Henry Daley and Andrew Babalola. If Moore gets back to his 2023 level, when he was cleaning up everything in the middle of the field and finished "The Game" with an interception, Michigan’s defense gets a major boost.
He was once being discussed as a first-round pick, and if he looks like that player again, the Wolverines’ defense should be in great shape, especially under Jay Hill.
Then there’s Buchanan, the Utah transfer who still feels like he’s just starting to show what he can do. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound receiver had 427 yards on 35 catches as a true freshman for the Utes, but the numbers tell a bigger story when you zoom in on the back half of the season.
Over his final seven games, he averaged 50 receiving yards per game after managing just 78 total yards in his first six. Over the last three, he was even better, averaging 71 yards per game after piling up eight catches for 215 yards against Nebraska, Kansas and Kansas State.
He had at least one reception of 29 yards in each of those three games, and he also ripped off catches of 60 yards and 58 yards against Kansas and Kansas State. That’s the profile of a big-play threat.
Plenty of people already see him as the No. 2 option behind Andrew Marsh, and that’s fair. But Buchanan has star upside.
If he turns into that kind of weapon, Michigan’s passing game could look completely different in 2026.
In Other News...
Paul Finebaum Took Another Shot At Michigan And Fans Will Boil
Paul Finebaum has never been shy about poking at Michigan, and his latest swipe landed just as the program is trying to steady itself under a new coach. The ESPN analyst again took aim at the Wolverines fan base, brushing off their place in the sports conversation and reviving the kind of national chatter that tends to follow this program wherever it goes.
The timing is notable because Michigan is already turning the page after moving on from Sherrone Moore and hiring Kyle Whittingham to take over. Whittingham brings a reputation built over years at Utah for a disciplined, physical approach, the sort of identity Michigan is hoping will keep it competitive while the outside noise keeps coming. [Read more 🡒]
Sherrone Moore Just Sent Michigan Fans One Final Sign It's Over
Sherrone Moores time in Ann Arbor appears to be closing out in every practical sense. The former Michigan head football coach is selling his Ann Arbor-area home for $1.7 million, another sign that life around the program has moved well beyond the fallout from his firing in December.
Moore was dismissed after an internal investigation, and Michigan later released its report as the university shifted into a new era under different athletic department leadership. With the house now on the market, the separation from the program feels even more complete, even if the broader story around how it all unraveled still lingers in the background. [Read more 🡒]