Over the last several seasons, the Michigan football program has been synonymous with a strong rushing attack to fuel its offense. It was largely why the Wolverines were able to make the College Football Playoff for three straight seasons, culminating with a national championship in 2023 thanks in part to Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards and elite offensive line play.
Even over the last two years, as Michigan’s offense sputtered week in and week out, the run game was never in question. In fact, it single-handedly dragged the Wolverines to wins in which they wouldn’t even attempt to throw the ball, with Kalel Mullings’ performances against USC and Ohio State in 2024 standing out as the biggest examples. At times, though, the offense’s predictability made it easy for defenses to adjust and limit the run game’s overall impact.
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In 2026, Michigan’s offensive philosophy is set to shift under Kyle Whittingham and Jason Beck, with spread formations likely becoming more commonplace.
Urban Meyer’s Ohio State teams thrived on this philosophy in the 2010’s, spreading the field despite not having prolific passers under center or the caliber of wide receiver that we’ve seen in the Ryan Day era. Instead, players like Ezekiel Elliott, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, and J.K. Dobbins were able to make names for themselves in an offense that was explosive on the ground and lit up the scoreboard seemingly every week.
In 2026, Michigan is similarly poised for success with two great running backs and a dual-threat quarterback to lead the charge — not to mention an offensive line that returns six players that started games last season.
Looking at the running back room, Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter will likely share more than 80 percent of the team’s carries from that position. Marshall, in particular, showed last year that he’s not only physical but also has great straight-line speed that helped him rip off a handful of long runs. With lighter boxes in 2026, he should be able to do that even more, even on carries designed to go straight through the middle of the opposing defense.
Additionally, Marshall chipped in a few times in the passing game last season with nine receptions for 92 yards. Look for that to continue to be a part of his game this season.
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As for Hiter, the former five-star recruit has plenty of expectations on his shoulders coming into his freshman year, and there is a big role awaiting him this fall. He plays a similar style as Marshall in terms of speed and physicality, but Hiter might be a better runner when it comes to moving laterally at the line of scrimmage and picking his way through traffic. This should make him more of an asset in short-yardage situations when the formations don’t span the width of the field, but expect to see him used in a multitude of downs and distances this year.
In addition to what the running backs can do, the quarterback run game was a staple of those Ohio State teams we mentioned previously, but it was also a big part of Beck’s offense last season at Utah. This is why it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Bryce Underwood more heavily involved as a runner.
Last season, Underwood showed in a limited sample size he can be effective as a runner with his combination of size, speed and elusiveness, making him hard to bring down in the open field. He finished the year with 88 carries for 392 yards and six touchdowns, which does include the 20 times he was sacked. By making a more intentional effort to utilize this part of Underwood’s game on zone reads, midline options and even draw plays, we could see his overall stock jump while helping the offense as a whole take a step forward.
There will undoubtedly be some hope and urgency for Underwood to take a step forward as a passer this year as well. But by utilizing his dual-threat abilities more often, it should only serve him more as a passer, with defenses needing to use a spy on him more instead of dropping an additional defender in coverage.
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In 2026, there’s a clear need for the Wolverines to make sweeping changes when it comes to how they operate during games. And even with a new brain trust pulling the strings for the offense, the ability to run the ball likely won’t be something that’s a question mark. The way they go about it and how it looks on the field might be different from what we’ve seen recently, but it will all be in the hope of making sure they are able to score with some of the best offenses in the country.
