Michigan heads into Saturday’s Little Brown Jug matchup with Minnesota carrying a few clear flaws, and the most obvious ones have been easy to spot early: penalties and wasted chances.
That’s the read from Aaron McMann, the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, who pointed to a team that has been sloppy at times and inefficient when it gets close to the goal line.
Through four games, Michigan has been flagged 32 times for 289 yards, and the problems were especially costly in the 20-19 loss to Iowa in Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines were hit with eight penalties for 75 yards in that one, including a late hit on cornerback Zeke Berry on the final drive that helped set up Iowa’s last-second touchdown.
The other major issue has been finishing drives. Michigan had trouble even getting into the red zone in its first couple of games, and while the offense has moved the ball better since then, it still hasn’t consistently turned possessions into points. Against Iowa, the Wolverines reached the red zone four times and scored on only two of them, with one drive ending on a failed fourth-and-1 and another on an interception.
Quarterback Bryce Underwood remains a central part of the conversation, but McMann sees a player who is still developing rather than one who has already hit his ceiling. Underwood entered with massive expectations as the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class, and McMann said he was put in a tough spot early as a 17-year-old asked to start 13 games as a true freshman without enough help around him.
The raw talent is there, though. McMann pointed to Underwood’s ability to uncork the kind of throw that produced a 60-something-yard Hail Mary touchdown against Western Michigan.
The bigger issue, he said, is what happens when Underwood has to sit in the pocket and work through his reads. That remains the part of his game that needs the most polish.
Michigan’s staff, meanwhile, has leaned into the areas where Underwood looks most comfortable. McMann said the Wolverines have found he’s at his best when he rolls out and throws on the move, where he’s more accurate and less prone to mistakes if he only has an “A” or “B” option.
They’ve also let him use his legs more, something the previous staff was reluctant to do a year ago. Underwood has 18 carries for 87 yards, and that dimension helped Michigan beat Oklahoma in Week 2.
On the other side of the ball, the Wolverines’ defense has been the team’s most reliable unit so far. New defensive coordinator Jay Hill has brought back a scheme that mixes man and zone, shifts between odd and even fronts, and uses disguised blitzes to keep offenses guessing. The personnel has fit, too, with run-stuffing tackles Trey Pierce and Enow Etta up front, a deep pass-rush group led by former All-American John Henry Daley, and a veteran secondary featuring three senior cornerbacks and sixth-year safety Rod Moore.
If there’s one area holding that group back, it’s takeaways. Michigan has only three turnovers through four games, which McMann said stands out because Hill has been strong in that area before at BYU. The message has been clear: the defense needs to create more of them, but they haven’t come in bunches yet.
Asked for the keys to the game, McMann kept coming back to the basics. Michigan needs to cut down on penalties, win the turnover battle and finish its drives. Receivers JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh have recently started to make a bigger impact, helping the offense move the ball more efficiently, but McMann said the next step is turning that into touchdowns.
He doesn’t think all of Michigan’s issues can be solved in a single week, but he also sees enough signs to think the offense could break through. His prediction: Michigan in a closely contested back-and-forth game.
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For Minnesota, this is exactly the kind of test that can tell a season a lot about itself. The Gophers are still chasing their first home win over Michigan since 1977, and a defense-first opponent with some offensive uncertainty gives them a real opening to make the night uncomfortable. Michigans back end has been sturdy, but there are still areas Minnesota can try to probe if it wants to turn a long drought into something a little more memorable. [Read more 🡒]
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For Minnesota, that matters because the Gophers are about to face a team that has already identified the problems it wants to fix. Michigans issues have shown up in places that can change a game quickly, including its penalty yards and red zone efficiency, and a road win in the Big Ten often comes down to whether a team can clean up those mistakes before they snowball. The Wolverines are clearly treating this as more than a routine conference stop, which is exactly why Minnesota has reason to pay close attention. [Read more 🡒]