5 Takeaways From Michigan’s 2025 Season

Michigan’s 2025 season has officially come to a close.

It didn’t end quite how the Wolverines wanted it to, both on the field and off, but all eyes now turn toward a chance at redemption in 2026. 

It’s not that a nine-win season is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but with an extremely young team and new head coach coming in, this year was somewhat of a bridge year. The Wolverines showed plenty of promise, but they also have a lot of things to work on, and with Kyle Whittingham now at the helm, people are certainly looking toward the future more than reminiscing on the past.

Here are five key takeaways from Michigan’s 2025 season…

With former head coach Sherrone Moore’s firing in early December, Michigan ushered out a successful, yet controversial era of Wolverines football. 

In 2021 — after a little meaningful success to that point, at least in the eyes of die-hard Michigan fans — then-head coach Jim Harbaugh formed an identity of ground-and-pound, smash-mouth football. And it worked.

The Wolverines won three straight Big Ten titles and appeared in three straight College Football Playoffs, eventually culminating in winning the 2023 national championship. Still, it was an era mired in scandal. From the sign-stealing allegations and recruiting violations, to an FBI raid of former-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss’ house, Michigan was in the news for more than just football.

Harbaugh left after the 2023 season, and Michigan, looking to keep the identity intact after a national championship, hired Moore from within and kept the Harbaugh lineage alive in the program.

Moore’s tenure, too, ended in scandal. This time, the Wolverines hired from outside their organization. Whittingham will bring a largely new staff and likely a new culture, starting a new era of Michigan football.

Consistently hailed as the youngest team in the Big Ten, Michigan lacks experience at a lot of key positions.

Starting quarterback Bryce Underwood and his top receiver Andrew Marsh are both true freshmen. Underwood’s offensive line, too, was made up of majority underclassmen after injuries took out many of the experienced guys. Michigan also had a plethora of underclassmen in its secondary.

The point being, the Wolverines were an inexperienced squad in a league where experienced teams are king. If these players stick around, they’ll be in good shape to be major contributors for the next few years, but this year, the youth was evident.

Perhaps it’s some consolation that all four of Michigan’s losses were to very good teams. No. 2 Ohio State and No. 8 Oklahoma both made the College Football Playoff, and No. 13 Texas and No. 16 USC were on the fringe of appearances.

The flip side of this is that Michigan didn’t beat any top teams. Its best win of the year was at home against Washington, but the Huskies ended up falling out of top 25 consideration. 

At the end of the day, the Wolverines beat the teams that it should beat, and lost to the teams that it should lose to. That’s a solid foundation, but to make it back to the top, they’ll have to win big games.

The Wolverines had injury troubles all year. Whether it was injuries to veteran offensive linemen and defensive backs that forced young guys into big roles, or it was injuries to star running backs Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall, it seemed like Michigan was never at full strength.

There’s not much the Wolverines could do about it, and the only thing they can do now is spend the offseason getting healthy. Every team has injuries, but they hurt Michigan a lot this season.

Whittingham will be Michigan’s third head coach in the last four years, and the program and its players have been through a rollercoaster as of late. The biggest thing that the Wolverines need now is stability.

It’s clear that they have a lot of talent on the roster, but they need consistency and solidity to rebuild the program to the heights it reached in 2023, and Michigan certainly hopes it has a long-term guy in Whittingham.