By Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham had nothing good to say about his team’s offensive performance against Michigan State.
The Wolverines fell to 5-4 with a 15-6 home loss to the Spartans on Saturday. Michigan State entered the game 0-5 in Big Ten play. We’ll let Whittingham sum it up from there.
“Seems to be,” Whittingham said at his postgame news conference if it was time to panic about the offense. “It was very disappointing after we’d played pretty effectively last week on offense. We had some production, some good production in a lot of areas last week and there’s nothing productive about this game. Zero. It’s not one step back, it’s three steps back. Couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t throw the ball worth a darn. Turned it over four times. Couldn’t make first downs. Couldn’t make any third down conversions – I think we were 2-of-10 — got the quarterback sacked five times. Really, I can’t come up with one positive offensively in this game.”
Whittingham wasn’t overstating anything in his comments. The Wolverines had 192 yards on 52 plays, had just 13 first downs and averaged just over two yards per rush. Quarterback Tommy Carr was 14-of-26 for 138 passing and had two interceptions as two other players fumbled.
It was a brutal performance that left Whittingham saying he was as frustrated and disappointed as he’d ever been after a game as a head coach. He also said that he couldn’t remember a time where his team hadn’t given up a touchdown and lost the game. Michigan State kicked five field goals.
The loss dropped Michigan to 5-4 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. Outside of a 28-21 win over Rutgers in Week 9, Michigan hasn’t scored more than 21 points against a power conference opponent all season. Saturday was Carr’s third start of the season after taking over at quarterback for Bryce Underwood.
When asked about making a change at offensive coordinator, Whittingham said he would defer to the end of the season. Jason Beck came to Michigan from Utah with Whittingham after the 2025 season.
“Not right now. As I’m sitting here at this podium, no, but at some point you’ve got to have results. It’s a result-driven business and it’s a bottom-line business and I’ll evaluate everything after the season and determine what the best course of action is,” Whittingham said.
The end of the season could also come earlier than Whittingham or Michigan fans initially expected. The Wolverines’ three remaining games are against No. 23 Oregon, No. 8 UCLA and No. 12 Ohio State. Michigan could be an underdog in all three of those contests as it needs one more win to make a bowl game.
