Kyle Whittingham's first Big Ten fall is barely underway and he already gets a soft landing spot: a UTEP team replacing basically its entire offense as it jumps into a new conference.
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UTEPMICH
UTEPMICH
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Best BetMichigan
Michigan's talent and experience edge over a UTEP team replacing all 11 offensive starters is about as wide as gaps get in September. Underwood has a full season of starts under him now, while Colson is still adjusting to a massive jump in competition level. This is a lay-the-favorite spot, not a value hunt.
UTEP
+EJ Colson was efficient at Incarnate Word: 16 TD, 4 INT
+4th-best 2026 recruiting class in the Mountain West
−Finished 2-10 overall, 1-7 in conference in 2025
−Replacing all 11 offensive starters entering a new league
Michigan
+Underwood returns with 13 starts and a sophomore leap expected
+Whittingham brought staff continuity over from Utah and BYU
−Underwood threw 9 picks and completed just 60.3% as a freshman
−Brand-new head coach still installing his system in year one
Everything about this one centers on the Underwood-Colson gap. Bryce Underwood is back in Ann Arbor as a sophomore with 13 starts already banked, and Whittingham made keeping him there job No. 1 the moment he took over. On the other side, UTEP is starting over behind EJ Colson, a grad transfer who lit up FCS competition at Incarnate Word but has never taken a snap at this level of competition.
UTEP isn't just breaking in a new quarterback -- all 11 offensive starters are gone from a team that went 2-10 a year ago, and new coordinators are installing systems from scratch. Michigan's rebuild looks different: Whittingham brought a chunk of his staff over from Utah and BYU, so while the branding changed, the install isn't starting from zero. That continuity is a big reason Michigan opens as such a heavy home favorite here.
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MICH Michigan
By Saturday, September 19, UTEP will also be adjusting to life in the Mountain West after years in Conference USA, and a trip to the Big Ten's winningest program isn't the gentlest welcome. Michigan, meanwhile, is trying to show its fan base that last season's coaching chaos is fully in the rearview and that a 9-4, final-AP-Top-25 roster hasn't lost a step under new management.
UTEP Miners
Sep 12?vs Texas Southern—
Sep 4?@ Oklahoma—
Michigan Wolverines
Sep 12?vs Oklahoma—
Sep 5?vs Western Michigan—
Recent form.
Whittingham's Utah teams were built on physical, run-first football, and he's already signaled he wants Michigan playing the same way behind Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall. That's a bad matchup for a UTEP front trying to replace its whole offensive identity in month one of a new system.
The betting market treats this like the mismatch it looks like on paper, and there isn't much reason to fight that read. The intrigue here isn't whether Michigan wins -- it's whether Underwood looks sharper than the 9-interception freshman tape and whether Whittingham's ground game is humming early enough to matter later against real competition.
