Refs, Bryce Underwood big losers in Michigan's miracle win vs WMU

Free Press sports writer Andrew Birkle picks the winners and losers from Michigan football's shocking Week 1 13-12 win over Western Michigan on a Hail Mary in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Sept. 5, in Kyle Whittingham's first game as Michigan's coach.

Winners

Michigan WR JJ Buchanan

How about a memory-making miracle in your first game in maize and blue?

Just absurd stuff from Buchanan, a Utah transfer touted as a big-time playmaker by Michigan's new staff, and showed what he has in his bag by hauling in Michigan's second Hail Mary attempt, after a controversial decision by the refs to save Michigan.

He finished with just six catches but gained 126 yards, boosted by his 47-yard touchdown catch with no time on the clock.

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JJ Buchanan with a beautiful one-handed snag 👏 @UMichFootball

📺: NBC pic.twitter.com/YNyKCElan4

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 5, 2026

Dom Nichols

Michigan's defensive end factory continues to produce winners.

Nichols looks like the next productive edge rusher for the Wolverines after Derrick Moore and Jaishawn Barham departed for the NFL draft.

On Western's second drive, Nichols made a nice tackle to stuff a Broncos run, then sacked quarterback Broc Lowry to force a punt.

SHAWN WINDSOR: Michigan football had every reason to lose to WMU. But history had other ideas

That was just one sequence in a dominant first half that included five total tackles, 1½ sacks and 2½ tackles for loss.

He finished the day with nine total tackles and it looks like Michigan's got another dude on the defensive line to pair with 2025 All-American John Henry Daley when he gets more healthy.

Losers

The refs

This one will be discussed for years to come, and rightfully so.

There were literally zeroes on the clock. Michigan was the loser, Western Michigan the winner in Ann Arbor.

When the refs announced a review, it seemed like a formality. However, after a lengthy holdup, referee Jim Wharrie's crew announced – without much explanation – that there was 1 second on the clock, seemingly because the WMU defender touched the ball while out of bounds.

TV TIME: Michigan football Hail Mary winner questioned as time appeared to run out

However, NBC rules analyst Terry McAauley vehemently disagreed with the crew's decision:

"Our in-set clock is in-synch, is the actual stadium clock, the ball isn't even close to touching a player when it goes to zero," McAauley said on the NBC broadcast. "Now their system, their Hawk-eye system, apparently either had a different synch or whatever and they came up with 1 second when it touched the players. I don't see how that happened, assuming our clock is correct.

"It is clearly not touching a player, the ball is clearly still in the air when the clock goes to zero, on our screens. The Big Ten is going to have to tell a lot of us how did they get to one second on this play."

McAauley's reaction lines up with the eye test. Assuming there's not another angle, this could be an all-time blunder and one that potentially stole history from Western Michigan.

Bryce Underwood

By the end of Underwood's freshman season, everyone was on the same page: This was going to be a big offseason for the former No. 1 overall recruit.

There were plenty of excuses to be made for Underwood after his first season in Ann Arbor: no designated quarterback coach, getting flung into a messy coaching situation, unrealistic expectations – and the Wolverines still went 9-4. The hope was that an offseason working under new offensive coordinator Jason Beck would correct many of the mechanical and processing issues Underwood showed as a freshman.

Outside of an impressive first drive in which he went 5-for-5 for 61 yards, another 11 yards rushing and a TD on the ground, things went about as bad as possible for Underwood.

After leading an 11-play, 75-yard drive that was capped off with a QB sneak from Underwood, Michigan went punt, punt, punt, punt, interception. And that included some lucky breaks. On Michigan's second drive, Underwood tried to play hero and squeeze in a pass down the sideline on third and long and was intercepted before it was ruled Western's defender tipped the ball while a few inches out of bounds, negating the pick. On the last drive before the half, Underwood recklessly threw a pass in the boundary that was well-read and intercepted by linebacker Dillon Moore; it easily could've been a pick-six if Moore's momentum hadn't landed him on the sideline at the 26.

As if things could get worse, Underwood barely got the ball in the second half with Western's dominant ball control, and when he did have it, things went terribly.

Michigan opened the half with two punts and then Underwood had a crushing fumble to give WMU the ball back deep in Michigan territory.

A Hail Mary connection will certainly buy him some good will, but before that, he was just 10-for-15 passing for just 95 yards with nine carries for 47 yards rushing.

There's still a lot of work to be done.

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Kyle Whittingham/Jason Beck

If I had to sum up this insane game for Michigan … well, I can't really use the words in a family publication that come to mind for the plays between the first and final drives.

Michigan's first drive of the game couldn't have gone better, ending in a touchdown after 11 plays. Michigan didn't score again until the last play of the game.

In between:

• Michigan committed nine penalties for 80 yards.
• Michigan's offensive line was pushed around all game, forcing Underwood to play under pressure and creating no gaps for a run game that picked up just 106 yards on the ground.
• Underwood reverted back to so many of the old bad habits that Michigan fans were hoping that Beck and Co. spent the offseason fixing.
• Michigan's defense, which was far from the biggest problem, allowed a 20-play drive that milked nearly 14 minutes off the clock and tilted the game heavily in Western's favor.

In Nick Saban's first year at Alabama, the Crimson Tide lost to University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Whittingham and Beck were saved from a loss on that level of ignominy with a miracle catch by Buchanan, but this was far from the ideal start for Michigan, which has a lot to fix before Oklahoma comes to town next week.

Andrew Marsh

One of the most frequent topics this summer on "Hail Yes!", the Free Press' Michigan football and basketball podcast, was if Marsh could be the person to break Michigan's 1,000-yard receiver drought.

The wideout was unbelievable in the second half of the season last year, finishing with 651 yards and five total touchdowns after having just one catch in the first four games.

This did not look like the start to a breakout year.

Marsh muffed a punt in the first quarter that led to a WMU field goal and finished with just two catches for 17 yards before garbage time. This game won't be remembered for Marsh's poor performance, but he left a lot to be desired.

Andrew Birkle is an assistant sports editor for the Free Press. Contact him via email at abirkle@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Refs, Bryce Underwood big losers in Michigan's miracle win vs WMU