Michigan football might not have had a spring game that got everyone on board, but the Wolverines are still building a foundation under new head coach Kyle Whittingham. And that should help the maize and blue in spades this upcoming season.
Yes, the Wolverines have an insanely difficult 2026 schedule, but at the time in 2021, that was also the thought that season, with a home game against Washington, a road contest at Penn State, and the regular-season finale against Ohio State. Michigan won all three, but lost in East Lansing, and was able to make the College Football Playoff and win the Big Ten. And how did it do that? With a strong defensive line and run game behind the Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line.
Michigan didn't enter that season with those expectations. It was 2-4 and floundering the year before. But, as CBS Sports put together its post-spring overreactions, the elements are there for the Wolverines to potentially return to the postseason invitational.
We're automatically a CFP contender because Kyle Whittingham is in charge: The spring game raised some eyebrows as Bryce Underwood was 3-for-9 for 22 yards with two sacks, but Whittingham made clear that means nothing, and Underwood is his guy. The bigger case for optimism is on the other side of the ball. Whittingham has repeatedly said this spring that the defensive line will be the strength of this team, and he spent 22 years at Utah turning defensive units into program identities. If he can do the same in Ann Arbor, the CFP conversation isn't crazy.
That 2021 team was strongest up front on both sides, and while the offensive line needs some work in pass protection this year, it's solid in run blocking. And if the defensive line is as good as advertised, Michigan absolutely could be in every game this year.
After all, Kyle Whittingham and his staff have frequently done more with less, and this is the most talented roster he's ever worked with. But this will also most likely be the most challenging schedule he's endured. Even so, in 2021 and 2022, it was his Utah team that won the Pac-12, even against solid Oregon and USC teams (USC would have made the CFP if it could have won the Pac-12 Championship, but Whittingham's Utes eliminated it from contention). So he's not immune to exceeding expectations, led by strong line play. There's no reason why the Wolverines cannot replicate his formula and success, especially considering that it was the formula from 2021-23 that helped the maize and blue make three straight CFP appearances when it was a four-team invitational.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football can return to the College Football Playoff in 2026
