Expect some notable Michigan football players to sit out spring game

Michigan football is roughly two-thirds of its way through spring practice – 10 down, four remaining – before the final session, the annual Maize vs. Blue spring game at Michigan Stadium on April 18 (2 p.m., Big Ten Network).

While the tradition of the game will remain the same, despite an almost entirely new staff, there will be some tweaks to the game’s system, including the way teams are selected and, perhaps more notably to fans, who will be on the field for the scrimmage.

“The main thrust is, a great chance for us to get a good in depth, concentrated look at the twos and threes,” first-year coach Jyle Whittingham said Thursday, April 9 at Schembechler Hall. “There’s going to be a lot of ones that don’t participate. We’re not going to put a guy in there that we know what he can do, and he’s where he needs to be, and he’s played hundreds of snaps here − there’s no reason for that.

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“It’s a chance to showcase the twos and threes in as close to a game environment as we can structure.”

Under then-coaches Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore, the two teams were drafted, player by player, to make up the rosters. It will be different this year under Whittingham, who says he still has not named the spring game coaches.

Instead of a player draft, each position coach will split his own unit into two relatively equal groups and the Maize and Blue coaches of maize and blue will draft units – snake draft style, so that the coach picking first also gets the fourth pick.

“They’ll pick, for example, say the Maize team picks first, so O-line will take the A group, that means the B group for the for the Blue team, and then the Blue team has first pick on the running backs,” Whittingham said. “It takes about three minutes to get through it … but the bottom line, and in the final analysis is, we want a team that’s very evenly divided.

“It’s not ones versus twos or anything.”

Whittingham didn’t go into specifics about which players would not play, but he implied expected starters, who’ve proven what they can do, would sit. That could include longer-tenured Michigan players, such as running back Jordan Marshall (a reasonable guess to sit), or a projected defensive starter who knows the system from playing for Whittingham previously, just as Smith Snowden.

Of course, the main player most will be wondering about is quarterback Bryce Underwood. He seems likely to play; quarterbacks often wear non-contact jerseys so they can’t get hit, and it would be a good opportunity for him to practice offensive coordinator Jason Beck’s system in a live environment.

Either way, Whittingham said the staff will use the remaining four practices before the game to determine how many players will sit out, but his estimate is somewhere between 12-18 top-tier players.

“If we get low on bodies, you know, right now, we’re fine, but you know [if] we have some guys that aren’t able to go at that point for whatever reason, we can always revert to an offense versus defense scrimmage,” he said. “Have a point system. That’s kind of our bailout if things go south, but if things continue as they are, then we should be able to be okay with a Maize and Blue team.”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football 2026 spring game may be missing big names