Is Michigan Ready For The Big Ten?

Everybody is asking.

Sure, Michigan won the national title last year, but their 2024 campaign has raised some serious questions about their readiness for the all-new Big Ten.

The Wolverines (5-3 (3-2)) have found themselves at an impasse.

Will they compete for titles in this conference like their arch-rivals, Ohio? Or are they doomed to a future of middling in the middle?

I’d say that it’s the same question Washington is currently facing, but Michigan’s “NFL-caliber” defensive line got pushed around by the equally-average Huskies just a few short weeks ago.

UM has no offense to speak of, zero plan at the all-important quarterback position, and they currently aren’t slated to bring in a Top 10 recruiting class in either 2025 or 2026.

Jim Harbaugh abandoned them to go off and waste Justin Herbert’s God-given talent, and since then they seem all-too-content to draft off their historic success—completely lacking any vision for how they’ll fit into the future of college football.

And to make matters worse, they’re barely beating bottom-of-the-barrel conference opponents like Minnesota and USC.

Sure, let’s consider some of their positives:

We’ve been told that defense is Michigan’s strength this year, but that might just be because their offense is really, really extra-bad.

They have the 15th-ranked rush defense (by comparison, Ohio is ranked 6th), the 32nd-ranked red zone defense (Ohio is 10th), they’re 85th in passing yards allowed (Ohio is 8th), and 39th in total defense (Ohio is 2nd).

Eight games into the season—with very similar schedules—and Ohio State nets out to be precipitously better in every defensive category.

Hey, does anyone remember what we did to the Buckeye’s defense?

And even if we were to factor in a bit of home field advantage tomorrow—in literally the biggest stadium in North America—you’d be hard-pressed to find some way for Michigan to overcome that massive gap between themselves and a team that we’ve already gained nearly 500 yards of total offense against.

And that’s the best part of their team.

Individually, Mason Graham (#55) and Kenneth Grant (#78) are the All-Americans that anchor the teeth of their defensive line. You’ll hear a lot about them before the game.

But Dan and Will Stein did a masterful job at scheming away from UCLA’s big uglies on their d-line, and we can probably expect to see Oregon repeat that strategy by throwing a bunch of screen passes and using some Sadiq end-arounds to find the right match-ups on the outside.

The other Wolverine to search for on defense is cornerback Will Johnson (#2).

And I specifically mean we’ll have to search for him, because he’s been sidelined recently with a lower leg injury and there is a chance that Johnson—who is the second-best player on Mel Kiper’s NFL Draft big board—doesn’t even play at all tomorrow.

He would certainly be missed by the rest of Michigan’s secondary, but even if he’s out there, I already know for a fact that Evan and Tez can out-run the best corners in this conference.

Sometimes it can take a while for the run game to show up when we travel across time zones, but I’m also encouraged by the arrival of Noah Whittington and the fact that we might just have the two-headed monster at running back that we wished for.

Did I mention that their offense is Very Bad™? Well it is.

Michigan is 124th in total offense, which makes them UCLA and Northwestern-level awful, and further illustrates my point that they don’t seem interested in competing in the Big Ten.

Depending on who you ask, they’re down to their second or third quarterback.

Jack Tuttle (#13) was probably their best passer, but he just medically retired. Alex Orji (#10) was their best running quarterback, but he’s just not a very good normal quarterback. And Davis Warren (#16) will likely start tomorrow, but he has 6 interceptions through 4 games, and has only had one game where he has thrown more than 25 passes.

Michigan alum and Barstool founder, Dave Portnoy, claimed earlier this year that he’d be willing to pay up to $3 million in NIL to get an elite QB, but he has since started back-tracking and complaining that it’s all too complicated.

I mean, sheesh, even the folks on the periphery of this program have come down with a bad case of the, “doesn’t-want-its.”

Unlike Illinois, this is a Run The Damn Ball team, and have plenty of talent at running back with Donavan Edwards (#7) and Kalel Mullings (#20).

Mullings has been the real surprise this year for them, racking up back-to-back 150+ yard games against Arkansas State and USC.

Edwards is the veteran that has made some big plays in big games, but this is his first year as RB1 and he hasn’t quite lived up to their expectations.

However, Edwards did throw a halfback touchdown pass to tight end Colston Loveland (#19) last week against Michigan State—maybe he’s their real answer at quarterback?

I wrote on Monday that Oregon is currently playing with their best defense of all time. Over the last ten quarters, the Ducks have only given up 19 total points—just two touchdowns allowed as a part of that.

Even if Michigan’s talented running backs play well at home, and even if our rush defense struggles again on the road, do you seriously expect Michigan—a team that averages just 21.5 points per game—to be able to muster enough offense to scare Dillon Gabriel?

Of course, that’s not what Dan’s mindset is.

He’s going to tell you that Michigan is a really physical football team, that “The Big House” is a hostile environment to play in, and that this is a championship program.

And with that in mind, he might play a slower, more methodical, old Big Ten-style football game that looks closer on the scoreboard than you or I think it should be.

But the truth of the matter is that to this point, the rest of this conference has been utterly unprepared to match our speed, toughness, and willingness to do whatever it takes to win—and that includes Michigan.

And it leads me to believe they’re not ready for the Big Ten.

Not our Big Ten, at least.

35-13, New Money.

Go Ducks.