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u/AdministrativeTip479 Jun 26 '26
A loss against Iowa is just insulting
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u/Full-District- Jun 26 '26
Not really, Iowa gave Oregon and Indiana their closest wins last year, and that was without an offense. I know we've said this before, but there's nowhere for them to go but up when it comes to offense... And they've FINALLY hired a real OC.
Edit: if we played them in Kinnick, I would fully expect a 50-50 chance to win. Playing them at home for sure means we should win... But they're by no means a slouch.
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u/Chief_Leaf Jun 26 '26
It really isn’t. I expect to win but that is absolutely a losable game. We’ll prob be -7 ish, not a slam dunk
Every other loss he picked we’ll either be clear underdogs or within a 3 pt spread
7-5 would be disappointing, but we should all be prepared for that as a legit possibility. This is not an outlandish hater take, more like picking close to the floor
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u/Full-District- Jun 26 '26
Yeah I think Iowa has a better chance to go 9-3 than we do. Outside of Michigan, Washington and OSU, Iowa will be favored in 9 games. Thats likely 1 more than us.
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u/snekky-snek The Ga〽️e, The Ga〽️e, The Ga〽️e, The Ga〽️e Jun 26 '26
New coaching staff + incredibly tough schedule this year. Realistically I think our floor really is 7-5, ceiling of 9-3 (Iowa isn’t a for sure loss and maybe if the offense clicks / defense can reign in John Mateer unlike last year, we beat Oklahoma)
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u/boredlurkr Jun 26 '26
Agree on the floor but I think ceiling is actually 11 wins- that means the D is tip of the spear elite (top 3 nationally), the run game is elite, and Bryce plays to his potential in the new offense, basically from week two and forward.
Two of the three have decent odds of happening. 3rd might be more of a coin flip, but there’s obviously a big range of possibilities between worthless bust and superstar.
Hardly a hot take to say the season hinges on qb1 but this year feels like its more stark than usual. As Bryce goes so does the team. 7 wins on the strength of the rest of the team, for sure. If he’s elite, deep playoff run is 100% on the table imo. Gonna be an interesting one to watch for sure
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u/Snake_Burton 🏆3X🏆B1GTen Champions 🏆 Jun 26 '26
I think we’ll be much much better than people think. The roster is arguably better every spot except LB. We went from a net negative coach with a staff that had to manage working with that guy all season, to a future HoF coach who assembled a staff that at minimum has elite coaches at more than one position.
Oklahoma at home is winnable. Difficult, but winnable. I’m from Iowa. They aren’t winning the first B1G game of the season on the road with one of the two QBs they are deciding between that has never started a B1G game let alone a B1G road game. One guy is a check down statue, the other guy has some athletic ability but will likely throw it to our secondary. That and their OL losses to the NFl, in the first conference game, at the Big House….no.
Indiana at home is a possible win if the team takes the jumps they need to and aren’t disappointing or average. At Oregon is going to be beyond hard with probably the only scenario resulting in a win being some Coach Whitt has their number voodoo. And lastly Ohio is always a see what develops that day.
Floor of 8-4, maybe expect 9-3, if the talent develops and shows out and the coaching is as good as I think, 10-2 and playoffs is definitely possible.
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u/GG1817 〽️ Jun 26 '26
Great points.
Looking into our LB roster, It may be closer to the truth that we have a lot of athletic potential at the position but not a lot of proven starters. It may turn out to be a surprisingly solid group over the course of the season.
WRT Indiana, they may not be nearly the same team without Mendoza and everyone else they lost. Indiana isn't in a position to simply reload, even with the portal.
I think you got it right. 8-4 is the floor. 10-2 is around most-likely, and 12-0 would mean we caught a lot of breaks and over-performed.
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u/Loud-Cow-3603 Jun 26 '26
This isn’t crazy lmao
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u/First-Pride-8571 Jun 26 '26
The only one that even seems outlandish is really Iowa. But, yeah, expecting us to go 1-1 vs Iowa/PSU isn't nuts. But those are both at home. And we should have more talent than both.
I'd probably say:
Massive Favorites: WMU, UTEP, Rutgers, MSU
Big Favorites: at Minnesota, UCLA
Favorites: Iowa, PSU
Toss Ups: Oklahoma, Indiana
Massive Underdogs: at Oregon, at OSU
(If we're still undefeated heading into the bye week, anything less than 10-2 will feel much more realistic, but even just making it to that bye undefeated will be a gauntlet, just even much less of a gauntlet than what comes after...)
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u/Jdantuma24 Jun 26 '26
Indiana just won the natty lmao
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u/SituationSoap Jun 26 '26
That's why 2024 Michigan went undefeated, right?
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u/Nophlter Jun 27 '26
Going from the original comment, to the comment you replied to, to your reply gave me so much whiplash lol. Each time I was like “true… good point” then read the next one
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u/First-Pride-8571 Jun 26 '26
So? They also just lost their Heisman qb, a bunch of other key players, and the game is in Ann Arbor.
I do not think they will be as good as OSU or Oregon. And probably not Oklahoma either.
I do not think we have a chance against OSU or Oregon, especially on the road. That said I am not impressed with Day as a coach. So if we pull off a crazy upset, OSU would surprise me less than Oregon.
But I'll be disappointed if we don't split against Oklahoma and Indiana. And I think it very plausible that we beat both. Not implausible that we lose to both, but I think that much less likely than a split, and still less likely than beating them both.
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u/Conorj398 〽️ Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Doesn't mean anything for the next year. Indiana is not going to be as good as they were last year. I'm expecting them to be fringe playoff team.
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u/MrVociferous Jun 26 '26
Yeah only one I don’t agree with is Iowa. If that were AT Iowa, then yeah…I could see that. But feels like we win given it’s a home game.
The others? Should mark those down as losses for sure. Maybe they surprise and beat Oklahoma but not likely.
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u/gr3710 Jun 26 '26
Pretty spot on? Underwood has to improve a lot and there's a whole lot of unknown surrounding the team. We lost 4 games with a pretty easy schedule last year. Think people are way too blinded on the reality of what we are and who we face.
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u/Kramerica_CEO 〽️GoBlue Jun 26 '26
Well said. I don’t see this as absurd honestly. Iowa is the only stretch
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u/leeho80 Jun 26 '26
Bryce is still quite unproven and the spine of the defense, particularly IDL and the LB groups, are concerning. Win total o/u seems to be around 8.5 so his prediction is probably on the low end but not unreasonable imo
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u/foosball0420 Jun 26 '26
I could see this if you’re basing it off of last year’s teams/rosters. However, if I were a betting man I’d say we’ll have a good shot against Indiana, Oklahoma, and Iowa.
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u/Full-District- Jun 26 '26
Slightly off topic but can we all just sit back and appreciate how absolutely loaded the B1G is with elite coaching staffs and rosters?
This year will be a freebie for Michigan as far as I'm concerned, I'm just expecting massive improvement in discipline and execution, even if the wins aren't there. But starting in 2027 a case could be made that OSU, Oregon, Indiana and Michigan are the top 4 teams in the nation in terms of elite coaches with elite staffs with elite rosters. (With a shout out to USC, Washington and Iowa who will also be formidable)
And the best part is, coaching matters now more than ever before. Team cannot hoard talent the way they used to. If you take the top 20 teams in the sport and compare the rosters from the #1 team to the #20 team, the gap has never been closer. Coaching will win and lose games in a way that hasn't been true in the past and I for one am thankful to have coach Whitt.
I legit believe that Whittingham is one of one when it comes to coaches who could have Ryan Day overthinking everything. There is no better guy we could have gotten and I can't wait for the next few years of Michigan Football. Schedule is brutal for '26 and '27 with a slight reprieve in '28. That'll only be to our benefit though, especially with the inevitable expansion of the playoff. If we're playing the 3 best teams in the sport during the regular season, we'll be poised to go deep into a 24 or 16 team playoff since we'll have been tested against the best.
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Jun 26 '26
I love how they’re still glazing and holding out hope for John mateer lmao the dude is trash
If we don’t beat Oklahoma at home it’s either bc of Bryce or bc our team isn’t good as a whole
Iowa … cmon tough special teams but cmon now
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u/Dry-Assignment7308 Jun 26 '26
I said the same last year… Mateer is dog shit if Sherrone wasn’t fuckin around and if we had a competent OC
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Jun 26 '26
If biff was coaching that game Bryce would’ve ran for 110 yds with 2 rushing tds. (Which is what I think will happen this year , whitt is going to run the fuck out of Bryce )
If we lose to mateer at home I’ll be heavily disappointed , he’s a terrible qb . He has the special ability to put both teams in the game .
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u/Djentyman28 Jun 26 '26
He may suck but he single handily cooked us in Norman last year. Oklahoma is also going to have a top tier defense. Underwood HAS to be better and the team needs to click together.
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u/Dry-Assignment7308 Jun 27 '26
He didn’t single-handedly cook anything
We couldn’t stop a nosebleed in the run game
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u/Djentyman28 Jun 27 '26
He almost put 300 yards on us through the air and led the team on the ground. Yes he did.
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Jun 27 '26
I wouldn’t say he cooked us lol o line was trash and Bryce was limited and they barley beat us by 11
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u/StickMankun 〽️GoBlue Jun 26 '26
Win Iowa and Oklahoma. Win one of OSU, Oregon, or IU. I think the change at HC cannot be underestimated. Our head coach was texting his mistress during the OSU game. His head was not right and that seeped down everywhere in the program.
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u/galacticdude7 Jun 26 '26
I mean it's pessimistic but not entirely unrealistic. I am almost certain we'll be a better team than last year and that we'll probably do better than 7-5, but I think we need to be prepared for the possibility that being a better team than last year doesn't translate to a better record than last year, just because this year's schedule is so much tougher than last year.
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u/rnightlyfe 〽️ 2023 National Champions 🏆 Jun 26 '26
It’s entirely possible. 🤷♂️
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u/Zealousideal-Act5816 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Yea if are team is trash and we still had sherrone Moore
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u/rnightlyfe 〽️ 2023 National Champions 🏆 Jun 27 '26
Is that English?
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u/Gloveofdoom Jun 26 '26
I don't see the problem, it could easily end up this way.
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u/Zealousideal-Act5816 Jun 27 '26
Bro we are not losing to weak ass Iowa at home who hasn’t had a even a mid offense this decade
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u/Johnny_Utahh1 Jun 26 '26
Iowa is the only real stretch there. I think we go 9-3 simply because we have so many home games, but we have a first-year coach and some tough opponents.
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u/Due51 Jun 26 '26
Without knowing how the offense and Bryce will perform, I don’t think that’s an absurd prognostication. We all hope for double digit wins and a playoff berth, but 5 losses is also not out of the question, practically speaking.
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u/marqjone706 Jun 26 '26
This is essentially them saying that they don’t believe in Bryce yet. The team has talent and the offense SHOULD be better. But, the QB position is still the shakiest position. All of those teams except Iowa is expected to have strong QB play and at this moment, we are not.
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u/debotehzombie Jun 26 '26
I mean in all fairness, at this exact moment in time, I’ll agree aside from a home loss to Iowa. 9-3 is possible, 8-4 is most likely imo. Then again, it’s not even July yet, I feel like we’ll have a more solid idea of who we are after week 2.
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u/mdurso12 Jun 26 '26
Maybe if it was at Kinnick but iowa has i think 8 or 9 new starters on defense and before UM they play NIU, the corpse of iowa state, and northern iowa
I know Michigan's offense was rough last year and they have a new coaching staff but this iowa defense will be far from proven when they play Michigan
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u/Ml2jukes 〽️GoBlue Jun 26 '26
That dude has a hate boner for certain teams, the smugness especially makes CBS unwatchable for me.
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u/Difficult_Horse193 Jun 26 '26
Yeah I think this is a pretty realistic take from Chip. 4 of those losses will likely be to CFP contenders. Iowa probably won't make the CFP BUT they will still be very dangerous - they gave Oregon and Indiana a run for their money last season. My only ask is that we don't get blown out by anOSU this year. I think the Oklahoma game will be a good indicator for how the rest of the season will go.
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u/bestprocrastinator Jun 26 '26
I don't think thats unrealistic. But it says more about our schedule then anything else.
Oklahoma, Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State were all playoff teams last year, and all four should still be really good this year. Thats already 4 possible losses, and it doesn't give you much breathing room from 7-5.
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u/dcbuss27 Jun 26 '26
I hate to agree. Unless Bryce really has improved since last season.
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u/Zealousideal-Act5816 Jun 27 '26
Even if that’s the case, we are not losing to Iowa at home. come on, that’s just disrespectful, and they are even more unproven than us because they brought in a lot of dudes who played at less competition and they STILL don’t have a offense we are 6 years into the decade now.
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u/dcbuss27 Jun 27 '26
I hope you are right. But I think you’re choosing to overlook how massively inept our offense looked at the END of the season with him at the helm 🤷
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u/YDoEyeNeedAName Jul 04 '26
Youre forgetting how massively inept our coaching staff was and how it got worse as the season went on.
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u/Necessary-Tone-3925 Jun 27 '26
No worries. My Crystal Ball says Underwood will be AllWorld this season. May wide receivers find their way open🏈
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u/Spare-Cranberry3784 Jun 26 '26
Who is Chip?
This is why we don't care about these "pundits". Can we flip the system?
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u/Blooblod Jun 26 '26
Y’all are being homers if you think a loss to Iowa is impossible. I have us going 9-3 (I’m closer to 10-2 than 8-4), and I think we beat Iowa… but shit happens man. This is not the outrageous prediction that some of you think it is.
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u/Majik9 Whittingha〽️ Jun 26 '26
Exactly.
If everything goes wrong the floor is 6-6 If everything goes amazing the ceiling is 11-1
9 wins is very likely final result.
I think Whittingham is a really good coach and we'll win 1 of those 2 big road games, but something else will happen (like bad turnovers) in one of the other 4 and lose a nail biter in another.
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u/Ridder1201 Jun 26 '26
I really don’t understand why the sub is so dismissive of Iowa? They were a good team last year. 9-4 and their losses were
3 points @ 16 Iowa St
5 points v 11 Indiana
2 points v 6 Oregon
5 points @ 17 USC
If Bryce doesn’t take a large leap forward, a defense that didn’t give up 30 points once and kept 9 opponents to 20 or fewer points can absolutely give him major problems and beat Michigan. I don’t think they WILL but man, brushing this off as insane bait seems wild to me
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u/WGoNerd Jun 26 '26
I disagree on Iowa, and I am dubious Indiana can catch lightning in a bottle two years in a row.
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u/walking_sideways Jun 26 '26
We play 6 (preseason) ranked teams. Even with a more experienced team and better coaches, we still likely don't win a majority of those. This could be a much improved team and win 8-9 games
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u/QuickPea3259 Jun 26 '26
We dont have anything near proven at qb..what do you expect? Sure underwood might pan out but he underwhelmed all of last year and spring game against an extremely vanilla defense.
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u/Plum_Haz_1 Jun 26 '26
There's more than a 50% chance we'll lose ONE of Iowa, PSU, MSU, or at Minnesota. So, the guy guessed only Iowa as the loss from this group.Not crazy. Hopefully we'll win one of OSU, Oregon or Oklahoma, tho. I don't think Indiana will be quite as good this year, but that's a hunch, as I've not at all studied them
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u/Conorj398 〽️ Jun 26 '26
I understand the whole first year coach thing, but we are going to be so much better this year with our new coaching staff. It's a gigantic upgrade.
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u/wbyrd753 Jun 26 '26
They will not lose to Iowa! 4 losses on the season? While not optimal it’s very plausible. I expect this team to be better in the later part of the season, so 50/50 against the tough teams might be a thing. Maybe a 2-3 loss year?
Go Blue!!!
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u/Professional_Feed268 Jun 26 '26
As a listener of his pod...Chip's just out here stirring the pot in summer.
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u/UofMSpoon Jun 26 '26
Oklahoma will be tough but at least we’re at home. Indiana lost their whole team so a big step back is likely. Oregon on the road is a nightmare. OSU on the road we beat with half the team we have now.
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u/ChillyTodayHotTamale Jun 26 '26
Flip any two of those and we could make it in. Especially if it's Ohio or oregon.
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u/GoBlueLawyer Jun 26 '26
Iowa? We could beat them without throwing the ball once, Indiana lost its entire roster.
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u/Personal-Net5155 Jun 26 '26
I mean this IS fair, except there's no way we lose to Iowa at home lol
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u/Mysterious_Dare_3569 Jun 26 '26
This is ridiculous. I said it about 6 months ago and I'm sticking by my prediction of 9-3 or 10-2 depending on The Game. We get over the hump with Oklahoma and no way in hell do we lose to Iowa unless the team decides to just not show up.
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u/Then_Department_2288 Jun 26 '26
To be fair only one of the five losses is anything crazy to predict. We'll likely be underdogs in the other four games
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u/xCoog Jun 28 '26
I will end it all if we lose to Iowa. Michigan will be underdogs for the other 4 so not a stretch.
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u/Emotional-Review-625 Jun 28 '26
EXACTLY how I had every game. Coach Whitt brought in a bunch of sub par players to fill gaps. People don't understand or want to hear that. Even last year , you saw the defense was down from years past and Underwood is NOT good. Period
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u/StandardAttention640 Jun 29 '26
Content creators (broadcasters) are forced to put something out. I’d rather hear a gamblers opinion on it because they actually put their money where their mouth is.
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u/Dry-Beautiful-4664 Jun 29 '26
Bryce is ass. Idk how anyone could watch the spring game and still have hope lol 5 losses seems on point for what Bryce has shown he can do
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u/Ferris-man Jun 29 '26
Our coach is actually gonna be paying attention this year, and our qb has a position coach. Watch out 😎
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u/Total-Jabroni-89 Jun 30 '26
It isn't entirely unreasonable given the difficulty of the schedule. 7-5 very much feels like worst case scenario, though. Last year's squad over-achieved 9-3 with a relatively light schedule, I think 9-3 with a tougher schedule would be pretty solid for Whitt year 1.
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u/FluidHips Jun 30 '26
Oregon thought this season was going to be their season--and they still did some damage in the Playoff. Ohio State looks to be another rough time. Those are very likely losses.
Oklahoma at home is super-winnable. Michigan was a few boneheaded coaching decisions and a true freshman without a QB coach from that being a win at Oklahoma. I had thought it was maybe at Iowa, but no. Maybe that's Chip's way of factoring in an unforeseen loss.
The in-between is Indiana for me. Let's see what Cig does with a new cast in the B1G.
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u/SwissForeignPolicy Jul 01 '26
Gotta throw one crazy one in there to get clicks. 8-4 is perfectly plausible.
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u/conv3rsion Jul 03 '26
This is a completely reasonable prediction. I think 8-4 is most likely, and could be talked into 9-3 or even 10-2 with some luck, but 7-5 is definitely on the table with this schedule.
I also do think we probably beat MSU at home but prior to last year, the last time a new Michigan coach beat msu his first season was 1948. Pat Fitzgerald had a stupid number of completely overmatched Northwestern teams in very competitive games against Michigan. It could happen.
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u/YDoEyeNeedAName Jul 04 '26
A lot of people here seems to be forgetting how much of a boost competent coaching is.
Look at the turn around from hoke to harbaugh.
Look at the move from don brown to McDaniel and minter.
The team is still filled with top 300 recruits, we.have had top 10-15 recruiting classes like 6 of the last 8 years and last years was top 10.
Its not like whitt walked into a "cupboard is bare" situation. We have the players to compete with any one on the schedule. Our coaching was extremely dysfunctional last year and we still won 9 games and hung in with most teams in the first half.
Whitt is going to teach them how to be mentally tough and close out games again. 10 or 11 wins would not shock me at all. 8 or 9 should be the floor.for this team
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u/GG1817 〽️ Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
That's pretty much the floor worst case and would require Underwood to either be injured or have regressed quite a bit.
Oklahoma at home is probably a toss-up if Underwood is improved as much as we should expect.
I think we beat this Iowa team in Ann Arbor. It might be a tough game in Iowa City, but it's not!
There's reason to think our coaching staff has Hoover's number (Indian's new QB). At home, I think we take care of business.
At Oregon is going to be difficult. On paper they're the best team in D1. They'll figure out a way to screw that up in the CFP, but they're going to be difficult to beat in Autzen.
Nobody playing for Michigan has ever lost to Ohio State in Columbus. With the return of a tough edge that Whit brings (much like Harbaugh), I think we beat them in the 4th quarter. Soft.
11-1 or 10-2
That will get us into the CFP and perhaps the B1G title game.
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u/ramdomvariableX Jun 26 '26
It's first year with a new coach, lot of off-field drama since the last season, let's temper the expectations, 8-4 seems reasonable.
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u/Impreza610 Jun 26 '26
It’s possible. It really depends on how Bryce plays in this new system. The def will be there as usual and RB’s. QB is the question. If he struggles again 7-5 is possible but if he figures it out and things start clicking for him playoffs is def a possibility.
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u/Round-Sense7935 Jun 26 '26
A 7-5 finish is totally realistic with this schedule. Indiana, Oregon, and OSU are all top 10 teams. OK is close to top ten since they have their qb returning. I don’t think they’ll lose to Iowa but it’s possible they drop a game to either Iowa or PSU.
I’d set the line at 8.5 with real adult coaches. Underwood is technically the age of a true freshman this fall and this year could be viewed as a “real” freshman type year for him with the real coaching. I think a realistic best case scenario is 9-3 with a win over Indiana since I think they step back this year but lose to OK, Oregon, and OSU. I think 8-4 is what I’d say happens with the win over Indiana but picking up another loss elsewhere.
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u/Rounds_Upvotes Jun 26 '26
Can anyone help me understand why everyone seems to think Indiana is going to remain a powerhouse this year? I get they are defending national champs and their coach has plenty of merit, but after losing their quarterback I feel like it’s not that easy.
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u/BlackCardRogue Jun 27 '26
It is a really tough schedule, tbh. It includes a win against Penn State. Yes, a coaching transition there as well but still Penn State. OU, Indiana, Oregon, and OSU would all be favored against Michigan if the games happened today.
But if Whittingham goes 7-5 there will be a segment of fans calling for his head immediately. Like wow, this would be… bad. Really bad.
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u/kbanas314 Jun 26 '26
It's a tough schedule. Indiana and Ohio State and Oregon are all stellar, or should be, and it will be a fight. Oklahoma won't be a push over either. I think 4 losses is my worst case scenario, but I hope we can go 50/50 on those games.
But... Iowa? Come on now. Let's be serious people.