
Savion Hiter finishes the 2026 regular season with more rushing attempts than Jordan Marshall.
Michigan beat UTEP 52-17 at Michigan Stadium in front of 110,668 people to finish nonconference play 3-0. The Wolverines trailed 7-0 and then 14-7 and did not lead until Trey Butkowski's 49-yard field goal with five seconds left in the first half. After UTEP's second touchdown, Michigan outgained the Miners 308-28 and outscored them 45-3, per Michigan's own postgame notes. Michigan scored 28 points in the third quarter after scoring none in the third quarter of its first two games. Bryce Underwood carried six times after carrying 18 against Oklahoma, and completed 19 of 25 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. Michigan punted once, made 27 first downs and converted 9 of 13 third downs. Both UTEP touchdowns came directly off Michigan fumbles. Jordan Marshall left in the third quarter, and Andrew Sprague and Zeke Berry did not play at all.

Michigan beat Oklahoma 17-10 with a defense that stopped nine of Oklahoma's 11 possessions cold. The two it did not stop were the two on which Michigan committed a 15-yard personal foul, and those three flags supplied 45 of the 173 yards Oklahoma gained on them. Each foul converted a specific down: a face mask tacked onto a completion that had already made a first down, a personal foul that moved Oklahoma off its own 2, and a face mask that erased a nine-yard sack on third down. The second finding inverts the reading of Michigan's conservative second half. Michigan's first-half third downs needed 10.2 yards on average and it converted three of six. Its second-half third downs needed 3.9 yards on average and it converted one of seven, with six of the seven needing 5 yards or fewer. Michigan also took 56 of its 58 scrimmage snaps out of shotgun by ESPN's play-by-play tagging, and the two snaps carrying no shotgun tag were the fourth-and-1 it converted at its own 33 and Jordan Marshall's 1-yard touchdown.

Michigan beat Oklahoma 17-10 at Michigan Stadium in front of 111,240 people to go 2-0, a week after falling out of the AP Top 25. Oklahoma outgained Michigan 289 yards to 263 and made 17 first downs to 14, and lost because it turned the ball over twice and Michigan did not turn it over at all. The game was tied 10-10 with 11:49 left when Jyaire Hill intercepted John Mateer and returned it 24 yards to the Oklahoma 6; Jordan Marshall scored from a yard out two plays later. Michigan drew 11 penalties for 90 yards after drawing nine for 80 in the opener, and gave away 30 of the 83 yards on the Oklahoma drive that tied the game. Bryce Underwood completed nine of 17 passes for 111 yards, two of four for 15 in the second half, and gained 96 yards on 16 carries that were not sacks. Kyle Whittingham said afterward that Michigan cannot rely on running the ball. Oklahoma linebacker Kip Lewis hurt his right knee in the first half and did not return.

Michigan's running back room is the one place on this roster where fall camp is a formality. Whittingham named Jordan Marshall the starter and promised eighteen-year-old Savion Hiter carries in game one, both in early May. The man whose carries those are, Justice Haynes, averaged 7.1 yards a carry for Michigan last season and is now at Georgia Tech. The game log says the staff can probably live with that, and the reason is volume rather than talent.
