The 5 biggest surprises from Michigan Football in 2025

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Michigan finished its 2025 regular season at 9-3, which is pretty much in line with what most fans and experts were expecting for the Wolverines. Coming into the year, there were reasons for optimism like the arrival of Bryce Underwood and the return of big contributors from the 2024 defense, but there was also some pause due to the shortcomings we’d seen from the year prior.

While much of what we saw on the field — at least in terms of the results — fell in line with what we expected, there were still plenty of things that differed from what what we expected coming into the year. That’s why today we’ll be recapping the five biggest surprises for the Michigan football team during the regular season.

Disclaimer: None of this list will have to do with the recent off-field incident.

Being conservative with Bryce Underwood

Underwood was the biggest reason for excitement for Michigan entering the season. After a dismal 2024 with Davis Warren, Alex Orji, and Jack Tuttle, Michigan was going in the complete opposite direction by bringing in the five-star from Belleville to supercharge the offense. Pairing him with an experienced offensive coordinator in Chip Lindsey only boosted the optimism.

As with any freshman quarterback, you’d expect to see the coaching staff ease them into the action before giving them more freedom late in the year. But in Underwood’s case, it was the opposite. In his first start, he threw the ball 31 times, which ended up being his second-highest attempt total of the season. In the biggest and final game of the year against Ohio State, he threw the ball just 18 times, his second-lowest total of the year.

Now certainly there’s more that goes into the equation than simply the number of passing attempts in a game, but it was clear Michigan opted to go to rudimentary game plans at the first signs of trouble in bigger games like against Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC. It was even more puzzling after Biff Poggi remarked earlier in the year that Michigan would no longer be “taking the air out of the ball” with Underwood. Perhaps things will be different in 2026 with a new staff, but Michigan has to make sure it can retain its quarterback first.

Andrew Marsh’s breakout

Switching to a more positive surprise, Michigan got much more production out of its pass-catchers in 2025 than it did in 2024 despite one of them being a true freshman. Andrew Marsh didn’t play much of a role in the offense in the first half of the year, but started to emerge as a young star late in the season.

Marsh finished the year leading Michigan in both receptions (42) and receiving yards (641) and looked like one of the best freshmen at any position in the country. His chemistry with Underwood was something that clearly developed throughout the year, particularly in the matchup against Northwestern at Wrigley Field where he went for 189 yards on 12 receptions.

Marsh will be another player Michigan will have to fight to retain, as plenty of coaches around the country would like to add a young talent like him. Otherwise, he’ll enter 2026 as Michigan’s WR1.

Offensive line development

Sticking with the positive surprises, Michigan’s offensive line took a step in the right direction in 2025. The unit was a major hole in 2024, and its struggles set the table for the entire offense to not be very good. But that was not the case this season.

Expectations for the offensive line weren’t exactly sky high entering the season, but the Wolverines were able to get some stability despite starting three redshirt freshmen in Andrew Sprague, Blake Frazier and Jake Guarnera for much of the year. More could have been done from a pass protection standpoint, but the run game is where the group excelled. Running backs Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall both went for more than 800 yards, while Bryson Kuzdzal ran for 100 yards in his career start at Maryland.

The offensive line is on the rise thanks to its performance in 2025, and the group will look to be even better in 2026.

Lack of pass rush

If you’ve followed Michigan over the last decade or so, you’d know that having a dominant defense is a program staple. Even during the down years like 2024, Michigan was still been able to push people around on the defensive line and get after the passer on a regular basis.

But that wasn’t necessarily the case in 2025. This was perhaps the most frustrating and biggest surprise this year. With Derrick Moore, T.J. Guy and Jaishawn Barham all factoring into the edge rotation, the potential was there for Michigan to have one of the better pass rushes in the nation. Moore had a great year with 9.5 sacks, but Guy and Barham lagged behind significantly.

Michigan’s pass rush woes were most apparent during the matchup with Ohio State. The Wolverines didn’t get to quarterback Julian Sayin all game long, providing him with plenty of time to pick apart Michigan’s defense. With Moore, Barham and Guy out of eligibility, it’ll be interesting to see how the group is addressed this offseason.

Dominic Zvada and special teams struggles

It kind of flew under the radar thanks to the offense’s struggles, but kicker Dominic Zvada took a big step back. In 2024, he converted 21-of-22 field goal attempts and likely would have landed on an NFL roster had he chosen to go pro. Instead, he came back to Ann Arbor and only managed to convert 15-of-22 attempts, with four misses being from inside 40 yards.

Zvada’s struggles didn’t cost Michigan any games, but it was certainly frustrating to see so many promising drives and trips to the red zone result in zero points. To give him credit, though, he is responsible for arguably the best moment of Michigan’s season — his walk-off game-winner against Northwestern.

Furthermore, Michigan’s special teams units as a whole were bad (that’s putting it nicely) for a second consecutive year. Punts and punt coverage were subpar, while muffed kicks were frequent and questionable decisions to fair catch or let the ball go left fans pulling their hair out on a weekly basis. The special teams were so bad that coordinator J.B. Brown was let go at the end of the year. Lots of things will look different for Michigan in 2026; hopefully special teams is near the top of the list.

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