ANN ARBOR – Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham, making his first Big Ten media days appearance in July as the Wolverines’ new head coach, praised his team but pumped the brakes on suggesting the program would be bound for glory this season.

Certainly, it was reasonable for the first-year coach not to create unrealistic expectations, especially with the preseason hype for Ohio State, Oregon and defending national champion Indiana as the top-tier group in the conference. Whittingham, hired last December after 21 seasons as Utah head coach, was still navigating the newness of his role at a place that is steeped in tradition and has major annual rivalry games against Michigan State and Ohio State. While expectations are always high at Michigan, a College Football Playoff berth this season was, realistically, not in the cards.

Michigan (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) plays both of those rivals this month starting with Michigan State (2-6, 0-5) on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Michigan Stadium in the fifth-straight night game in the series. The Wolverines play at No. 10 Ohio State on Nov. 28 in the final regular-season game. In between the rivalry games, they travel to Oregon (5-3, 3-2), which lost starting quarterback Dante Moore to injury and fired its offensive coordinator late last month, and face conference-leader and No. 5 UCLA (8-0, 5-0) in the final home game.

During media days, Whittingham said he really didn’t know what kind of team the Wolverines would field and pointed to this month as critical to an evaluation of their season.

“I think we got a good football team,” Whittingham said in July. “I can’t predict how good we can be or where we’ll end up. But if we’re playing meaningful games in November, then that’s probably for us a successful season and a chance to have something to build on.”

This has been nothing short of a rough season for Michigan, particularly on offense and special teams. The Wolverines swapped quarterbacks at halftime against Penn State on Oct. 17 from 19-game starter Bryce Underwood to freshman Tommy Carr and have seen some improvement. Carr has started the last two games and will be the starter going forward, Whittingham said.

Michigan, heading into the Michigan State game, ranks 128th in total offense (316.4 yards per game) and 115th in scoring (21.3 points per game), but Whittingham was encouraged from the 28-21 win at Rutgers last weekend in which the Wolverines had 427 yards. Carr accounted for 320 yards and three touchdowns. Whittingham has described Michigan’s defense as “elite.” It ranks No. 3 nationally (250.0) and 18th in scoring (16.4), but the Wolverines were gashed on three big plays against Rutgers, an 80-yard touchdown catch, a 32-yard reception and a 54-yard run up the middle.

The Wolverines are nearly two-touchdown favorites against Michigan State, which has had an abundance of injuries, but this rivalry game is never to be taken lightly, particularly by the team heavily favored. A win would give Michigan bowl eligibility but a loss could be the real test of this team’s makeup as it heads into a challenging, final three-game stretch.

So where is this team entering November, and are they playing those meaningful games?

“Yeah, not as meaningful as we would like them to be,” Whittingham said Monday, Nov. 2 at his weekly news conference. “I mean, every game’s meaningful, obviously, but it would take really weird circumstances to get back in the conference race. I don’t think that’s in the cards.

“But still playing for bowl eligibility and trying to get to a bowl game. And, just winning. Just the competitive nature of football. I mean, that’s always going to be a reason to prepare the right way and go out and play as hard as you can. But I would say, no, we wished and would have liked to have been in a little different position right now. We’re really only one game probably away from still being in the conversation. But that’s shoulda, woulda, coulda.”

This has been a season of shoulda, woulda, coulda with Whittingham several times saying Michigan could be undefeated if not for this or that. Seven of Michigan’s games have been close, one-possession games. The Wolverines opened with a 13-12 win against Western Michigan on a Hail Mary after one second was added to the clock, and they lost 20-19 to Iowa, then 20-14 to Minnesota, beat Penn State 21-18, lost 13-6 in overtime to Indiana, and beat Rutgers 28-21.

Michigan is not expected to be favored in any game beyond Michigan State, so in terms of bowl eligibility, this is a must-win against the rested Spartans, which were off last weekend.

“Every game’s important and every month’s important,” Whittingham, who like most coaches emphasizes the importance of finishing games, said when asked how important he views this month. “Every season’s important, so I don’t know exactly what you’re asking other than we want to continue to — you know, I think we’re on, even though it’s not as steep of a trajectory as we would have liked, an upward trajectory.

“And this game this week will hopefully be able to add to that. The season’s important, obviously from start to finish, and I don’t see that we’re going to approach things any differently whether we’re 8-0 right now or 5-3. We’re still going to practice the same way and compete and all that type of stuff.”

Asked if there’s a sort of sales pitch he’s making to Michigan fans to entice their interest for the rest of this schedule and toward next season, Whittingham said the upward trajectory of the offense he noted should be evidence enough.

“I’m not a used car salesman,” Whittingham said. “But we are playing elite defense, and I hope the fans appreciate that. The offense has started to get some traction based on the last game. I know that was our best game of the season offensively. So it’s still a work in progress, but we are making progress. Not as fast as we like on that side of the ball, but there’s still some good things going on.

“And, you know, didn’t get here until January after the recruiting cycle and obviously (had) some portal opportunity. But we’re working hard and we understand that we want to put a great product out there for our fans. So far this year hasn’t been as good as we should have been, I hoped to have been.”

Michigan State at Michigan

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7, Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor

TV/radio: Peacock/94.7 FM

Records: Michigan is 5-3, 3-3 Big Ten; Michigan State is 2-6, 0-5.

Line: Michigan by 12.5.

Series: Michigan leads 75-38-5 (Last meeting: Michigan won, 31-20, on Oct. 25, 2025 at Spartan Stadium. This will be the fifth-straight night game in the rivalry).

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan on ‘upward trajectory’ heading into rivalry games, Whittingham says

Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect