A 27.5-point favorite in a season opener isn't supposed to need a replay booth and a second try at the clock to win by 1.
This was supposed to be a coronation. Bryce Underwood is in year 2 as Michigan's starter, now running a new offense installed by Kyle Whittingham's staff, and the Wolverines opened at home against a Western Michigan team most books had penciled in as a MAC afterthought against a blue blood. Instead the Broncos, defending MAC champions with quarterback Broc Lowry back under center, showed up and made Michigan sweat out every second of it.
+Blue-blood talent floor even without key starters
+Bryce Underwood entering year 2 as starter
+Season-opening home crowd behind a new coaching staff
−Missing two five-star pieces (Meadows, Babalola) up front
−Ace Hamilton lost for the entire season
−Brand-new offensive system untested in a real game
Michigan wasn't at full strength up front. Five-star edge Carter Meadows didn't suit up, five-star tackle Andrew Babalola was held out as he continues working back from a torn ACL, and Hogan Hansen was also unavailable — on top of Ace Hamilton already being lost for the entire season with a lower-leg injury. That's a real chunk of the roster's ceiling missing on the exact day Michigan needed its talent gap to show up the most.
None of that showed up in the pricing. The market had Michigan as close to a lock as college football offers, and the number never moved off that assumption. What it didn't account for was a MAC champion that returns its quarterback and its identity walking into Michigan Stadium and playing Michigan straight for four quarters.
It played out exactly that tight. Both offenses traded field goals into the second quarter, went quiet in the third, and then combined for 12 fourth-quarter points that decided the whole afternoon. Western Michigan had a shot to steal it outright before a review put 1 second back on the clock — enough time for Underwood to find JJ Buchanon for the winning score as the game appeared to be over.
That finish is the entire story of Whittingham's Michigan debut: a team with more former blue-chip talent than almost anyone on the schedule, playing a game that had no business being that competitive because it didn't have all of that talent available. The MAC's preseason favorite made them prove it snap by snap instead of on paper, and Michigan Stadium's chat room clearly felt it — traffic ran more than double a typical night for this sport.
Underwood gets the win in his first game running the new system, but a offense that needed a gifted extra second to beat a MAC team at home is not the version of Michigan the number implied going in. Western Michigan, for its part, leaves Ann Arbor with almost nothing to be ashamed of — a step up in class it more than matched.
