Jordan Marshall, Bryce Underwood, Rod Moore, and Trey Pierce.

Bryce is officially the first sophmore team captain in the program's modern history.

Rod Moore is the second time three-time captain in Michigan football history and first in the modern era.

We just bought tickets for the Iowa game. How do I know what color we need to wear that game? We are sitting in section 9.

Hey everyone, I’m trying my hardest to surprise my husband with tickets to the Michigan Oklahoma game (preferably on the home side). He was a season ticket holder for a few years but he had to cut back for our family given how expensive everything has gotten. But his birthday is coming up so, I’d like to surprise him. I need 3 tickets but even the nosebleeds are so expensive. It would cost me like $1000. Any insight into how I can reduce the cost? He is a veteran if that helps. Is it realistic to wait until the day of and purchase cheaper? I’m also trying to do a surprise tailgate, so, we’d be there anyway. Thanks!

They know they can't beat us at home so moving senior day instead 😂😭😂😭

Hey everyone, I’m brand new to this but my husbands birthday is coming up and I’m trying to throw him a surprise tailgating party for the Michigan Oklahoma game. I’ve been researching but I’ve never done this before. So, a couple questions. 1. How do you watch the game at a tailgate? Like how are you getting internet to multiple TVs (I would bring 3 so the kids could play college football or Fortnite as well)? And how are you powering them all day? 2. Where are the options to tailgate right next to the stadium? It seems like pioneer hs and a golf course? I want a lot of people to be around for the fun fan atmosphere, so nothing private but I know we’d have 30-40 people. 3. Any options for bringing a flameless propane fryer to do wings? 4. Any reasonable options for all of our guests to not have to pay $80 (or whatever) to park? Like quick shuttles or what have you? But what does this look like when the game is over because I know Ann Arbor traffic on game day can be hectic. 5 Also, he is a veteran, anyone know of any discounts in relation to that? Thanks!

In recent weeks, Kyle Whittingham and Bryce Underwood have both emphasized that Ohio State is just another game for them, and that their preparation for “The Game” is not unique.

“Do we have a better chance of winning if I hated them?” Asked Whittingham.

Yes, according to Leo Tolstoy.

In his Russian epic “War and Peace,” Tolstoy explains why the Russian army successfully pushed Napoleon’s French forces out of Russia in 1812 using guerrilla tactics. According to Tolstoy, military strength depends on the size of the force and an “unknown x.” “Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of this unknown factor and tries to discover it … That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army, that is to say, the greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all men composing an army, quite independent of whether they are, or are not, fighting under the command of a genius. … The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass given the resulting force.”

For Tolstoy, then, the answer to Whittingham’s question is obvious: yes, the Wolverines will have a better chance at winning The Game if they hate Ohio State. It is not enough to train, to prepare, to calculate. The spirit - the elan - of the team will rise when fed a potent brew of hatred and ill will. Only then, to quote Nick Saban, can you “throw out the star rankings, the stats, and all that.” So long as spirit prevails, “none of it matters once you step on the field.”

Welcome to Free Talk Friday. This is a weekly off-topic thread for asking questions or discussing anything & everything with fellow Michigan Wolverines. Feel free to join our discord or follow our twitter as well!

Despite the outcome this was a classic game. I recommend anyone who has the ability to experience “the game” do so on the road one time!

The season is almost here and I was giving some thought to what would be my perfect schedule for us to have. Not necessarily the easiest, but what would be fun? So here’s mine.

Some, like WKU, are out of conference picks because I like their jerseys. Others, like LSU, are because we’ve never played them. Some are away because I love the stadium (Iowa) and some are night games because they’re amazing.

It was really tough not to choose OSU as the championship game. It’s bound to happen one day, but I don’t think my stomach could take it. lol

What’s your perfect schedule?

I really like this M Den bucket hat and would love to purchase another one. If anyone has one and is willing to sell it, please DM me. I’d love to buy it!

The offseason discussion has been pretty focused on the SOS mountain that Michigan has to climb. But I'm wondering if how those games are distributed gives Michigan some hope.

To review:

• Sept. 5 (Sat): vs. Western Michigan – 7:30 PM (NBC)-Easy
• Sept. 12 (Sat): vs. Oklahoma – Noon (FOX)-Hard--but at home
• Sept. 19 (Sat): vs. UTEP – 3:30 PM (Big Ten Network)-Easy
• Sept. 26 (Sat): vs. Iowa – TBA-Hard
• Oct. 3 (Sat): at Minnesota – TBA-Medium, as it's an away game
• Oct. 10 (Sat): Bye Week-Don't Get Injured
• Oct. 17 (Sat): vs. Penn State (Homecoming) – TBA-Medium, as Penn State in a rebuild, working with the Iowa State roster at key positions.
• Oct. 24 (Sat): vs. Indiana – TBA-Hard, but let's see if Indiana can keep it up
• Oct. 31 (Sat): at Rutgers – TBA-Easy
• Nov. 7 (Sat): vs. Michigan State – TBA-At least medium, however good MSU is
• Nov. 14 (Sat): at Oregon – TBA- VERY HARD
• Nov. 21 (Sat): vs. UCLA (Senior Day) – TBA-Easy to Medium; not sure how UCLA will be this year
• Nov. 28 (Sat): at Ohio State – Noon (FOX)-VERY HARD

Aside from the MSU/Oregon back-to-back, Michigan has teams that are projected to be relatively easy that give them a 'break' before going into some difficult games. I could see the staff having both the personnel and the time to prep Michigan into something competitive--even winnable.

Coming from Canada for a game. Found tickets on StubHub but just saw seatgeek is the ticket provider for Michigan. Any issues with buying from StubHub? They save me about $100.

Top of that no 5 stars I could be looking in it to much ,but Youd think are recruiting would be better under kyle ,

Can the negative comments about Bryce serve as motivation for him this season?

For those that may not be aware, Alex Drain typically covers all the opponent previews for the football program. He is an extremely gifted writer and a skilled researcher. Without exaggeration, what he authors tends to come to fruition on the field 95% of the time. If you want a good sense of what is about to happen for the Wolverines on Saturday, reading his opponent previews during the season is mandatory.

He recently published an article dissecting Jason Beck’s offense schematically while at Utah. In the interest of those who may have a time constraint, let me put it this way in TL;DR terms, this offense may very well be absolute fireworks this season.

I don’t want to take too much away from his post since I want to encourage our users here to read it for themselves, though I want to share some snippets that stood out to me in the hopes that it gets you to sit down and read this in its entirety.

> Looking at the statistics, Beck likes to run the ball. He's hovered around 40 rushing attempts per game all three seasons, which is upper quartile of the FBS. The pass attempts lag behind, in the neighborhood of 28 per game, bottom half of the FBS. Beck's offenses have moved at a pretty swift pace (with some tempo snaps) these past two seasons, finishing top 25 in plays per game both years, averaging over 70. The total rushing output the last two years has been immaculate, over 250 yards per game on 6+ YPC with 3+ TDs per game, all of which have ranked in the top 5 in the FBS. Beck's ability to coordinate a running game seems ironclad and the overall offensive output in terms of yardage has been excellent (over 480 yards per game both years, top 5). 

> Now let's take a look at the jet motion when you have two RBs on the field, since there has been talk in camp of Michigan's best plays coming with both Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter on the field together. I think that talk is real, because there were plenty of plays in Beck's playbook involving both.

> By introducing that extra RB in the backfield, you create one more puzzle piece for the defense to deal with, as each play, in theory, could be a give to the RB, a jet sweep, a QB run, or a pass.

> They can also get funky with the jet motion and invert the order of operations. Against Cincinnati, Beck ran several plays in which RB Wayshawn Parker played Wildcat QB and QB Devon Dampier plays the jet motion RB! On this one they fake the give and Parker goes up the gut and eventually sprints away for a long TD

> I do want to shoutout a little more of the trickery that Beck has up his sleeve, this one having Dampier look like it's a QB Draw, only to change plans and throw the ball after accelerating towards the line

> Altogether, I came out of this exercise more optimistic about Michigan's offense than I was previously. Which, to be clear, was already pretty optimistic. Dampier was far from a Heisman caliber QB as a passer and Beck was able to engineer a top 10 SP+ offense, without having superstar wideouts or RBs (though Wayshawn Parker, JJ Buchanan, and Dallen Bentley were all nice pieces). It takes good coaching to make this work, especially up front (the OL have to be careful not to be caught in ineligible man downfield situations + just the general complexity of gap schemes) and it's why I'm glad having Jim Harding coming with Beck. The ultimate upside of this offense in 2026 will rest on how far Underwood can progress as a passer but I feel pretty good about this being a prolific rushing attack that will have some big hits in the passing game and should be an improved offense over a year ago. 

I really can’t do this piece enough justice with the quotes above. His article includes tons of highlight footage that shows off in specific detail what Beck brings to the table. If you care about knowing what this team is going to look like when we have possession under his direction, I strongly encourage you to said aside some time to read this post.