Fox's Joel Klatt has one major takeaway following Michigan's brutal loss against Oklahoma

Michigan got hit in the chin on Saturday night in Norman after the Oklahoma Sooners took down the Wolverines, 24-13. The Wolverines' defense had few answers for QB John Mateer, and Michigan's offensive line struggled mightily to open up holes and give freshman Bryce Underwood time to diagnose the defense.

On Monday, Fox's Joel Klatt had one big takeaway from watching Michigan: There is an identity issue.

“The number one thing that I think is a concern for me about Michigan after watching that game against Oklahoma is that I sense that they have a bit of an identity issue," Klatt said. "And that's a problem because Michigan largely has built their program since COVID, obviously, but built their program on identity and who they are and the way that they play in their philosophy has been foremost.

"It hasn't been leading with talent, even though they had a really talented team win the national championship, it has been leading with philosophy and leading with identity, namely, this physical, run it well, play great defense, win the line of scrimmage identity. And that was an identity that quite frankly fell short on Saturday night on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners.”

One of Klatt's major concerns is regarding Michigan's offensive line. As of now, it's clear the Wolverines' O-line isn't anywhere close to being what it was in 2022 or 2023. Klatt thinks even last year's line was better than it is this year -- so far. Three Michigan offensive linemen were ranked in the bottom five of any Wolverine offensive player in Saturday night's contest, per PFF.

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“But first for Michigan, the identity issues leaving this game, I think, leave a lot of question marks surrounding the program. And like, where do you go from here," Klatt asked. "And specifically on the offensive side.

"Let's just throw out a couple of things that maybe we know now. Maybe they don't have the offensive line that we think that they have. I did not think that the offensive line played well.

"Now, just so that you know, I did watch the actual coaches tape of the Michigan offense against Oklahoma on Sunday. And there were a lot of glaring mistakes from the offensive line. And that's clearly not the offensive line that they had in 22 and 23, and certainly not even last year in 24.

"So you go into this year now and they're trying to retain the same identity, but they don't have it on the field. And I think that that can be a problem.”

But it goes past Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines' offensive line. Michigan brought in North Carolina's offensive coordinator, Chip Lindsey, to revamp the Wolverines' dreadful offense from last season. Klatt, however, wonders what they marriage is going to really look like moving forward.

“I didn't love the game plan from Chip Lindsay, the new offensive coordinator," Klatt said.

"This marriage of Chip Lindsay, who is, and I'm going to try to choose my words carefully here, spread-oriented and has been maybe a bit more of, let's just call it more finesse than Michigan has been in the past, this marriage of something like that to what Michigan wants to retain from their great run since COVID, which is this physicality up front. I found that that marriage on Saturday night really didn't fit. Okay, so some of the things that they did well was what they have done well for the last four years.

"Some of the things that they really struggled with were clearly new and namely the side-to-side offense, the screen offense that you saw that has been brought from Chip Lindsay. I did not think that that marriage fit well and they're gonna have to find their way of who are they going to be, which road are they going to go down and which philosophy are they going to major in? Because to be great on offense, you've got to major in a philosophy.”

Michigan fans will get a chance to see the Wolverines back in action on Saturday at Noon ET against Central Michigan.

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