Grading Each Michigan Offensive Position Group Through Five Games

How has each offensive position group fared through the first five games of the season?

Michigan wide receiver JJ Buchanan runs into the end zone for a touchdown against Iowa during the second half | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Michigan is now over 1/3 of the way through the regular season and sits at 3-2. They struggled mightily against Western Michigan in the season opener and needed a hail mary to even win that game. Then they bounced back and beat an Oklahoma team that has looked pretty bad all season. In week three, they were only up 3 at halftime against UTEP, but did go on to win 52-17.

Then there was the heartbreaking loss against the Iowa Hawkeyes, before they dropped another one on the road at Minnesota. Sitting at 3-2 as they head into their bye week, Michigan has a lot of soul searching to do if they want to turn this season around. Let's dive into grading each position group through these first five games below.

Quarterback: C-

Michigan Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood steps back to pass against the Minnesota Golden Gophers | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Some might even be surprised it's a C- and not worse. Bryce Underwood has not had a good first few games of 2026, but he has shown flashes of turning a corner. Against both Western Michigan and Minnesota, he was quite bad. But against Oklahoma and UTEP I thought he played alright, and against Iowa he was legitimately good.

All in all his stats are not good, sitting at a 59.3% completion percentage with 881 passing yards, 5 TDs and 4 INTs. He's also carried the ball for 212 yards and another 2 TDs. He's been so inconsistent in even just these first five games, but really his whole college career at this point.

At some point his experience should be helping him to grow as a player, and for whatever reason it just does not seem to be happening. I don't think the whole offense's struggles are Underwood's fault, but I also believe he is contributing to them in a fairly substantial way.

There are way too many times where it's pretty clear that he's pre-determining where to go with the football, and you just can't do that and be a good college quarterback. I'm not sure where Michigan's offense goes from here at the quarterback position, but it's at least time to start thinking about giving Tommy Carr a chance.

Running Backs: B-

Michigan running back Savion Hiter celebrates a first down against Iowa during the second half | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Michigan run game hasn't gotten going yet this season, and I blame at least some of that on the running backs. There have been holes and cut back lanes that have just gotten missed by them, and this offense is just not good enough right now to survive those missed holes in the run game.

Jordan Marshall hasn't looked 100% for most of the season now, carrying the ball 55 times so far for 244 rushing yards and 3 TDs. He's averaging just 4.4 yards per carry after averaging 6.2 last season. As a captain and leader of this offense he has not lived up to pre-season expectations, and maybe the injury is partially to blame for that, but he still hasn't lived up to expectations when he's been out there.

Savion Hiter is just a freshman so there's expected to be a learning curve here, but he too has fallen short of pre-season expectations. He's carried the ball 46 times for 145 yards and 2 TDs, averaging only 3.2 yards per carry himself. He's far too explosive of a ball carrier to be averaging 3.2 yards per carry, and there's been multiple times when he's taken the ball from Bryce Underwood on a zone read when Underwood meant to keep it as well. It is just his first five games of his college career though, so I don't grade him too harshly as an individual.

I don't fully blame the running backs for the lack of an effective run game, but it's pretty clear they also aren't performing as well as their talent indicates they should be. They need to force more broken and missed tackles because they haven't been doing that nearly enough. They also need to have better vision to be able to maximize the carries they do get. The offensive line hasn't been very good, but the running backs certainly aren't helping themselves out enough either and that's why they got a B-.

Wide Receiver's: B+

Minnesota Golden Gophers defensive back Kerry Brown and defensive back Aydan West break up a pass meant for Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Andrew Marsh | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This is Michigan's highest offensive grade, and it's really because both JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh are stars out at wide receiver. So far this year JJ Buchanan has emerged as the #1 target for Underwood, catching 24 passes for 446 yards and 4 TDs. He's been really good this season, and is currently on pace for over 1,000 yards on the season.

Andrew Marsh has been more up and down, but he only has one drop on offense and has caught 25 passes for 268 yards and 1 TD. Buchanan has surpassed him as the #1 target in this offense but he's a more than capable #2 for a passing offense. Both of these guys have made excellent catches already this season and it'll be fun to watch these two continue to go out there and play for Michigan.

Outside of those two, Michigan's wide receivers have done almost nothing, and that's been a problem. The rest of the wide receivers have caught just 3 passes, and it's been two true freshman in Salesi Moa and Travis Johnson. Channing Goodwin hasn't been good enough, and Jaime Ffrench hasn't even been able to get on the field hardly at all.

Michigan badly needs one of these four players to step up and be a reliable target in this offense. I also think Michigan needs to do a better job of getting these guys snaps and opportunities to see what they can do. Michigan's passing offense needs more than just the top two targets if they want to be better in this area and a big part of that could be getting these guys more playing time and chances to make plays with the ball in their hands.

Tight Ends/Fullbacks: C-

Michigan Wolverines quarterback Tommy Carr runs with the ball as tight end Hogan Hansen blocks for him | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The tight ends/fullbacks have been mostly irrelevant in this offense so far this season. Hogan Hansen was hurt for the first two games so I think that's part of it, but they have not really been a factor in the passing game. This position group has 9 total receptions through five games, and 5 of them have been Hogan Hansen in the three games he's been healthy for.

In the run game as blockers it's arguably been even worse than in the pass game. There's been so many blown blocks by this group at the point of attack, and it need to improve if Michigan is going to get their run game going at all. Michigan simply needs more out of this group, both as pass catchers and in blocking at the point of attack.

This has been close to Tight End U in the last 10 or so years in college football and it's not an untalented room, but they need to play much better the rest of this season. Part of the issue in my opinion is what they're being asked to do, but they also need to do a much better job at executing their assignments to earn the trust from the coaching staff.

Offensive Line: C

Jake Guarnera gets ready to snap the ball against Western Michigan | Esther Tirat-Gefen/DAILY

The offensive line was supposed to be a strength of this offense coming into the season. It's a very talented room, and they almost all played in each of the last two seasons so it's an experienced group as well. There have been a lot of injuries though, and that's always tough to deal with when you're trying to have an offensive line gel together, especially when learning a new scheme.

Putting aside that excuse though, there just has not been near enough rushing production from this unit. They have 675 total rushing yards through five games, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. That's pretty pathetic for a Michigan offensive line, especially one that brought back this much talent and experience.

In my opinion, this group has spent far too much time "catching" blocks rather than delivering them, and that's partially why they haven't gotten movement on the line of scrimmage. Instead of firing off the ball and moving their defenders off the line of scrimmage, they've been standing straight up and letting the defensive line come to them.

In order to have a truly effective run game the offensive line has got to be able to get movement beyond the line of scrimmage and it just has not been happening this season. Between missed assignments and just a lack of physicality, this position group has been the biggest disappointment on the offense so far this season. Jim Harding has his work cut out for him if they're going to turn this around, that's for sure.

Offensive Coaching: D

Michigan tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck watch warmups | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Michigan's offense has had way too many issues this season for Jason Beck not to take a large portion of the blame here. The running game he inherited was a power-based scheme where the offensive line would fire off the ball and try to punish opposing defensive lines for four quarters and see who could hold up.

What he's turned this run game into is an East/West zone read type run game and the results speak for themselves. They went from being 14th nationally in 2025 in rushing offense, to 101st nationally through the first five games of this season. Clearly it's not working, and Jason Beck needs to pivot.

Nobody knows for sure, except for Kyle Whittingham, just how long Beck's leash is but he's got two weeks here with the bye week to make huge strides with this offense or the season is lost. You can argue he should've been able to see this coming and I agree, but nevertheless, things need to change in a big way or Jason Beck may not be coaching at Michigan in 2027.

Sign up for the Michigan Wolverines on SI newsletter for more free coverage