Michigan’s Greatest Game Against Each 2026 Opponent: Weeks 1

Michigan football plays great football games. It’s what they do. Of any team in college football history, the Wolverines have won the most, and, along the way, they’ve produced no shortage of epic contests.

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Now over 1000 wins into their illustrious body of work, any time the Wolverines take the field these days, it is more than likely that they have played some sort of meaningful football against whomever happens to be standing on the opposing sideline - more often than not, they’ve taken part in an old classic against that foe.

Given Michigan’s storied football history, let’s look through the archives and find the Wolverines' greatest game played against each of their 2026 season opponents. Starting with the first three adversaries of the year in the first edition of this series, where has the historical bar been set against Western Michigan, Oklahoma, and UTEP?

Michigan vs Western Michigan, September 5

Oct. 10, 1917: Michigan 17, Western Michigan 13

Despite being a 100-mile straight shot down I-94 apart, the in-state competitors have only recently begun playing semi-consistently. However, though since 2001, Michigan has hosted the Broncos six times, they’ve trounced their overmatched opponent each and every time in the 21st century.

So, to find a better matchup, one must travel far into the past, before Western Michigan was known as such, before the Big House was built, and to the days of Fielding Yost.

In 1917, Michigan hosted the Western State Normal Hilltoppers at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor for their second game of the year. Though the Wolverines were coached by the legendary Yost, it had been 13 years since their last national championship under him and the roster had been depleted by World War 1 call-ups headed into the season, so the program was shakier than normal.

Finding themselves down with under four minutes to play, the Wolverines orchestrated a last gasp drive and then stole the contest with a Tad Wieman touchdown, which pushed the final score to 17-13.

The 1917 season saw a Wolverine return to form, as an 8-0 start precipitated a national championship the ensuing year, with the nervy triumph over Western Michigan a crucial stepping stone in that process.

Michigan vs Oklahoma, September 12

Jan. 1, 1976: #5 Michigan 6, #3 Oklahoma 14

Two titans of the sport, Michigan and Oklahoma have, surprisingly, only squared off twice before. Though last year’s early season contest was quite informative and somewhat competitive, it is a no-contest in determining the more historically significant bout in this series’ history.

The 1970s were good to the Wolverines and great to the Sooners. Bo Schembechler coached the Wolverines to nine top-ten AP poll finishes during the decade, but he couldn’t quite piece together a perfect season or bring home a national championship. Not so in Norman, where Barry Switzer earned a ring in 1794, and looked to repeat the next year.

To do so, he had to beat Michigan in the Orange Bowl.

On New Year’s Day in the ‘75 postseason, the Sooner defense shut down Michigan’s ground game and Gordon Bell, holding the Wolverines to a meager 202 yards on the day. Though the maize and blue fought back from a two score deficit with a fourth quarter touchdown, they couldn’t muster any more momentum, and sputtered out in a deflating 14-6 loss.

Michigan will win ___ games in 2026?〽️ pic.twitter.com/77J8AALaED
— On3 (@On3) July 9, 2026

Post bowl game, the Sooners took home their second consecutive national championship while the Wolverines fell to eighth in the final rankings, impressively their lowest ranking in six years.

Michigan vs UTEP, September 19

UTEP has played 1,091 football games. Michigan has played 1,419. They have not yet shared the field for a single one of them.

For the first time ever this season, UTEP will make the trip up north to Ann Arbor to face off against the Michigan Wolverines. The journey will mark their fifth time facing a Big Ten foe, having lost the previous four contests by a combined score of 184-47.

Their lone laudable endeavour came against Wisconsin in 2012, when the Miners tallied 336 yards and 26 points of offense in Madison. Ultimately losing by eleven nonetheless, UTEP will hope to recapture some of that competitive spirit against the Wolverines this fall.

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