Wolverines Ups & Downs: Who Stood Out In Loss To USC?

Michigan never got its feet under itself Saturday against Southern California, and it resulted in the worst game that the Wolverines have played thus far in 2025.

From the opening drive, the Trojans asserted themselves as the physically dominant team. Michigan, a team which generally prides itself on its physicality, gave up a total of 224 rushing yards while gaining just 109 itself. 

The Wolverines didn’t play to their standards, but that doesn’t mean everything went poorly.

Here are three ‘Ups’ and three ‘Downs’ from Michigan’s loss to USC…

Continuing his upward trajectory from last week, the freshman Marsh had a true breakout performance Saturday against USC. He caught eight passes on nine targets for 138 yards and a touchdown. For a position group that has struggled to find an identity, Marsh is a true standout in the Wolverines receiver room.

The biggest highlight of his night was a 69-yard touchdown catch in which he made his defender miss around midfield before taking it the rest of the way for six. Marsh has been extremely reliable in his two games as a starter, hauling in 12 of his 13 targets between the two games. His development and connection with freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood continues to be encouraging.

The freshman signal caller made his fair share of good plays Saturday, but ultimately, it wasn’t a great night for Underwood. Most notably, in a pivotal point in the third quarter, he forced a ball into double coverage down the right sideline, resulting in an unforced interception given he had another receiver open underneath.

His flashes of brilliance — like his perfectly-placed touchdown pass to graduate wide receiver Donaven McCulley and several nice throws on the move — were, in the end, overshadowed by his overall lack of consistency. 

Marshall didn’t have a crazy night stats wise, but in the wake of the injury to junior running back Justice Haynes, Marshall put together a satisfactory outing. On 14 carries, Marshall gained 68 yards and tacked on 16 more through the air.

When Haynes went down, he was averaging 5.1 yards per carry on his 10 attempts, and Marshall finished the night at 4.9 yards per carry. Haynes certainly has more big-play potential, but Marshall overall performed well given the circumstances. 

As a side note, it doesn’t seem as though Haynes will be out long term, according to head coach Sherrone Moore.

All night, Michigan’s defenders missed open field tackles. There isn’t one specific player or instance to point to, but simply a lack of execution as a team. One missed tackle even led to a 49-yard run on a third-and-26.

While this has been a bit of a recurring issue throughout the year, it was especially visible against the Trojans. On the whole, the Wolverines defense has been solid this season, but missing tackles doesn’t bode well, especially not as they get deeper into conference play. There’s no doubt tackling will be an emphasis at this week’s practices, and perhaps this game will serve as a wake-up call.

McCulley didn’t exactly replicate the excellent performance he put up against Wisconsin, but he did play better than his stat line shows. Overall, he caught three passes on seven targets for 39 yards and a touchdown. Despite not catching four of his targets, none of them were drops.

McCulley has shown off his ability as a pass-catcher this season, but he also picked up a couple big blocks for his teammates Saturday. Notably, during the first play of the second quarter, McCulley blocked two defenders at once to open up a hole for Haynes to gain nine yards on what otherwise could have just been a small gain, if anything.

He’s been one of Underwood’s favorite targets all season, and paired alongside Marsh, the wide receiver room is slowly forming an identity.

Both in pass protection and in run-block, Michigan’s offensive line struggled. Underwood didn’t have a lot of time in the pocket, and the running backs rarely got a clean hole to squeeze through. When the Wolverines are playing at their best, they win in the trenches, and Saturday, they got beat.

The offensive line is definitely young and slightly banged up, but even with graduate captain Giovanni El-Hadi back from injury, the line didn’t play to its standard. Especially with the physical nature of the Big Ten, Michigan will need its offensive line to regroup moving forward.

Junior defensive back Jyaire Hill laid a massive hit and forced a key fumble in the red zone…Senior defensive back Zeke Berry also secured a red zone turnover, this time with an interception, his first of the year. Senior edge rusher Jaishawn Barham had a solid day, collecting a tackle for loss and, technically, a forced fumble on a backwards pass that he tipped…Senior punter Hudson Hollenbeck’s struggles continued, as three of his four punts went for 36 yards or fewer.