2 things we learned about Michigan Football during the bye week

The Michigan Wolverines were sidelined in Week 6 with a bye week in the middle of a two-game losing streak to Iowa and Minnesota. Answers are needed for a team that needs to make sure the wheels don’t fall off. They’re 0-2 in Big Ten play and have their toughest opponents still ahead of them.

Here’s what we learned as we head back into game week.

Michigan’s in the bottom-third of the Big Ten

It feels like the conference is split up into three or four tiers every year. There’s the elite of the elite — the perennial Ohio State and a few other teams with a legit chance at a Big Ten title and a College Football Playoff spot. Then there is the middle — an underperformer from the elite tier, teams that dominate at home but squander opportunities on the road. They have an identity, but are missing something to be in the elite tier. Then there’s the third tier, teams that are really struggling, can’t execute, are sloppy and fight to just be bowl eligible.

When I look at where the Wolverines are after their bye week, it feels like they are in that bottom-third of the conference. What makes that especially true is Minnesota’s stunning loss to Purdue over the weekend. A week ago, you could have fooled yourself to say the Golden Gophers were in the upper parts of that middle tier. They made Michigan’s offense look completely inept, earned a tough win on the road against Washington a week prior, and were 4-1 with their only loss coming to a ranked Mississippi State team.

That made the result in West Lafayette a shocker, not just because of the loss, but because it was a 41-13 beatdown where a three-loss Purdue team dismantled the Gophers in every facet of the game. Now Minnesota has Iowa, Indiana and UCLA as their next three opponents. Coming off a loss like that, it’s hard to have confidence they will be a .500 team a month from now.

If a team like that can make Michigan look as bad as it did, what does that mean for the rest of the Wolverines’ schedule? Kyle Whittingham’s program still has three ranked opponents left in Indiana, UCLA and Ohio State, along with an Oregon team that will likely have Dante Moore in mid-November. For bowl relevancy alone, this game against Penn State on Saturday is essentially a must-win. If not, Michigan’s path to a .500 season rests on beating one of those teams, which is hard to envision.

There is growing internal frustration on offense

Since the Minnesota loss (and for the majority of the season), I have been unimpressed with what Whittingham and his staff have said to the media when they face challenges. The postgame presser where Whittingham called this the greatest challenge in his 40-year coaching career is a perfect example of that.

He also publicly called on offensive coordinator Jason Beck to have more of a downhill running scheme, something that was absent from the gameplan against Minnesota. When asked to evaluate Beck’s performance through five games in Ann Arbor, the head coach called his track record “outstanding” before calling what he’s done at Michigan “unacceptable.”

Coming with Whittingham and Beck from Utah, wide receiver J.J. Buchanan has been one of the few bright spots on offense. He was asked about the message to the team from Beck during the bye week.

“We’re just little things away from things really being different,” Buchanan said. “Everybody’s gotta do a little bit more. That’s what he said. Everybody’s gotta do a little bit more.”

No other player has spoken to the media about what Beck has said internally. So although the information is light, that’s not the message I’d expect to hear because this team isn’t just a few things away from being relevant offensively. They’re 107th in the country in yards per game and 82nd in points per game, heavily skewed positively in both categories because of a blowout win of UTEP, one of the worst teams in college football.

This isn’t an “our players just need to do more” situation, it’s a complete and utter failure offensively. It feels like the players, and even the starters, are catching onto that. Not only were veteran tight end Zach Marshall’s group chat messages leaked, but now we have starting offensive lineman Blake Frazier making some interesting comments to the media as well.

“I mean this is Michigan football. Michigan football, you think downhill runs, and so I would love to see that implemented a little bit more,” Frazier said last week. “But again, I run the call that is called for me. … Regardless of what the play call is, we have to execute it.”

Frazier also said he and everyone on the team need to look internally and evaluate what they can be doing differently to improve so they aren’t pointing fingers.

He’s saying the right things, as have most of the Michigan players, throughout this turmoil. However, the frustration is mounting on the offensive side of the ball and the time to fix it may have run out.