Coming off a national championship, most expected Michigan to take a step back as a program after all the changes that occurred last offseason.

However, for the Wolverines to go from winning college football’s grand prize to fighting tooth and nail for mere bowl eligibility has been disappointing, to say the least.

On a recent episode of his podcast, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt outlined what he perceives to be the biggest disappointment in Michigan’s season, as well as the two things that should motivate this program to close out the year.

“I don’t think a loss to Oregon is actually the disappointing part of Michigan’s season. A loss to Texas isn’t actually the disappointing part of Michigan’s season. The disappointing part of their season is the losses to Washington and Illinois “Klatt said. “That’s what will bother the fans the most.

“This team was never going to have a big margin for error, so in those games against teams that they needed to beat and they were going to be close games, they had to play clean. No turnovers, play good defense, not be penalized”. , they won the battle for field position, and when they didn’t, they were defeated handily.”

In a sobering reminder, Klatt noted that Michigan has only gone 3-4 in games against Power 4 competition this season. Those three wins have come by an average of 4.3 points per game, while the losses are by an average margin of 16 points per game. That’s indicative of a team and program that aren’t close to competing for anything meaningful.

“Remember, a couple of those wins could have easily been losses for Michigan,” Klatt said. “USC, Minnesota come to mind. Now, you look up and lose to Oregon, and you think this isn’t the game I’m disappointed in. The others were.”

From Klatt’s perspective, there is only one season goal that can still motivate this current Michigan team, and another goal that should motivate the coaching staff in preparation for 2025.

“For Michigan fans, the season comes down to two things,” Klatt said. “You can ruin Ohio State’s chance to win a Big Ten championship, potentially, depending on what happens in the Ohio State-Indiana game. But that will always be a motivation for Michigan, trying to get its fourth straight win over the Buckeyes.

“The next motivation is that you have to change the squad. I know that is not a motivation for the locker room, but it should be for the coaching staff. Because the coaching staff is going to go out and they are going to have to recruit. They will have to identify the players from their own roster that they need to keep, then they will need to identify the players from other rosters that they will need to get and then they will need to identify the recruits that they have to do all those things.

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