The biggest takeaway for Michigan out of Week 9 wasn’t just that the Wolverines finally found some rhythm on offense. It was that the rest of the Big Ten delivered the kind of chaos that can reshape the stretch run in a hurry.
Michigan’s 28-point showing against Rutgers marked the first time in 2026 it had reached that number against a Power Four opponent, and Tommy Carr was the engine behind it. In his second career start, and while dealing with the flu, Carr turned in his sharpest performance yet.
He completed 22 of 27 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown, then added 54 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground. His final stamp on the game came late in regulation, when he powered in from 3 yards out on third-and-1 to put Rutgers away.
That was the cleanest part of the weekend from Michigan’s point of view. Elsewhere, the conference spun into a mess of results that matter plenty for the Wolverines.
The most eye-catching came in Los Angeles, where USC answered a week of speculation about Lincoln Riley with a 12-point win over No. 2 Ohio State.
Reports earlier in the week had described Riley and the Trojans as “an unhealthy marriage” headed toward a breakup, but the win changed the conversation fast. Whether Riley truly salvaged his future in Los Angeles is still unclear, but he did, in every sense, deliver a statement.
For Ohio State, the loss leaves the Buckeyes in a dangerous spot with two defeats before November.
What matters for Michigan is simple: that result raises the stakes for The Game. Ohio State likely can’t absorb another loss if it wants to stay in the College Football Playoff picture, and Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham has a chance to pile up a major dose of goodwill by closing his first regular season in Ann Arbor with a win over the Buckeyes. More than usual, the storyline around that matchup is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Then there was Oregon, where Dylan Raiola kept the week-to-week uncertainty going. After a rough outing a week earlier, when he averaged just 6 yards per throw and didn’t account for a touchdown, he bounced back with 336 passing yards and three scores against one of the country’s best defenses. Northwestern actually had control for much of the first three quarters and carried a multi-possession lead for long stretches, but Oregon eventually slammed the door with Raiola’s 75-yard strike to Dakorien Moore.
That one matters to Michigan too, because the Wolverines head to Eugene in two weeks. The question now is which Raiola shows up: the quarterback who couldn’t solve an Illinois defense led by an interim coordinator, or the one who lit up Northwestern and proved he can attack every level of the field. Michigan’s defense is still among the nation’s best, even after allowing 21 points to a Rutgers offense that has struggled all year, but it hasn’t yet faced a Big Ten quarterback with Raiola’s kind of week-to-week range.
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