With the College Football Playoff hopes gone, Michigan is starting to shift its focus to next year’s roster.
There are still three weeks remaining in the college football regular season, but the Michigan Wolverines are sitting at 5-5, and they will need to either beat the Northwestern Wildcats or the Ohio State Buckeyes to become bowl-eligible a season removed from winning the National Championship.
With Playoff hopes gone, the Wolverines should (and are) shifting their focus to next year’s roster, contacting high school recruits and checking in on potential transfer portal additions.
The first transfer portal window will open at the end of the regular season, the day after the College Football Playoff field and bowl games are announced. According to the NCAA , the portal will open for business Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, and close on Dec. 28.
There will then be a second 10-day window in April, from April 16, 2025 to April 25, 2025. The transfer portal will open for 30 days whenever a head coach leaves their program, allowing athletes to leave and decide on their future, according to NCAA guidelines .
Michigan is currently projected to lose four starters to the first round of the NFL Draft , and it will most likely see more than half of the starters on both sides of the ball graduate/declare such as four starting offensive linemen, both starting running backs, depth at wide receiver, two starting edge rushers and both starting safeties.
The Wolverines have done a solid job in recent years developing athletes within the program to fill starting roles, but sometimes you need to go outside of the house to be competitive.
Here are three positions that Michigan needs to target in the transfer portal:
Quarterback:
The Wolverines had been fortunate to have two competent starting quarterbacks during their three year playoff run in Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy, but in 2024, Michigan has the worst Power 5 passing game in the country. Statistically, the Wolverines are the worst Power 5 school in terms of total pass yards, yards per attempt and yards per completion.
Head coach Sherrone Moore has thrown out Davis Warren, Jack Tuttle and Alex Orji to start games, but none have been able to lead a consistent offense. Moore decided to not get a transfer portal quarterback heading into the season because he believed in his guys and it may have been too expensive, but priorities change.
Michigan will return Orji, Jayden Denegal and Jadyn Davis next season (barring any of them leaving via the transfer portal), but adding another guy to the room feels inevitable. Davis is redshirting this season, so it is unclear what he can bring to the offense, and four-star QB commit Carter Smith decommitted two weeks ago. There are rumors of a strong financial push to acquire five-star plus QB prospect Bryce Underwood, but nothing has come of that yet.
With names such as junior Miller Moss from USC, fifth-year senior Jacolby Criswell from North Carolina, 7th-year Senior Cam Rising from Utah, sophomore Conner Weigman out of Texas A&M and junior Haynes King from Georgia Tech , many prolific names can step in and be an immediate starter for the Wolverines next season.
Wide Receiver:
It takes two players to produce air yards, and the wide receiver group has been inefficient throughout the season. Coming into the season, Tyler Morris and Semaj Morgan combined for 38 career receptions as the two leading receivers. Ten games into the year, Morgan leads the receiver room with 23 catches for 134 yards, Morris has 15 receptions for 170 yards and walk-on Peyton O’Leary is next with six catches for 67 yards. Those numbers are not enough to inspire confidence going into next season. As far as other options already on the team, 2024 four-star I’Marion Stewart has not played a game yet this year, but he caught 38 passes for 909 yards with nine touchdowns in his senior high school season. In addition, Michigan received a commitment from 2025 four-star receiver Andrew Marsh. Marsh has over 2,400 career receiving yards out of Fulshear, TX, and he adds value as a potential punt returner. Nonetheless, the Wolverines could still use a proven target for whoever leads the offense next season.
Four-star Texas wide receiver Johntay Cook II has already entered the portal along with Indiana wideout E.J. Williams. Keep an eye out for future potential names.
Defensive Back:
Michigan already had to replace two starting cornerbacks from the 2023 National Championship team, and it lost starting safety Rod Moore to an ACL tear before the season started, so Moore brought in former Michigan State safety Jaden Mangham, former Tennessee safety Wesley Walker and FCS All-American Aamir Hall , who came to Ann Arbor from Albany.
Mangham and Walker are just coming back onto the field after dealing with injuries for part of the season, and Hall has filled in as the team’s No. 2 cornerback for most of the year, and he even played as the top guy in the secondary against Illinois with Will Johnson and Jyaire Hill out with injuries.
Thinking to 2025, the Wolverines will lose Johnson to the first round of the NFL Draft, Quinten Johnson, Makari Paige and Keshaun Harris will be graduating, defensive backs Ja’Den McBurrows and Rod Moore may return on a medical redshirt, but it is unclear as of now, and Hall and Mangham will also be out of eligibility.
Similar to the wide receivers, Michigan has three cornerback commits right now for 2025, all four stars. However, there are reports of Ivan Taylor flipping from the Wolverines to Alabama , and Michigan rarely plays true freshmen in the secondary. Because of this, the Wolverines need to look into pursuing secondary help to fill the voids left by the current roster.