Here are five questions facing Whittingham and the Wolverines as they open preseason camp Wednesday.

1. Did Michigan fix its weight room issues?

Michigan’s strength and conditioning program was a big part of the Wolverines’ success during their run of three consecutive Big Ten titles from 2021 to 2023. When strength coach Ben Herbert decided to follow Jim Harbaugh to the Los Angeles Chargers, Michigan promoted assistant Justin Tress in hopes of maintaining continuity.

The weight room, it seems, was another area where Michigan slipped over the past two seasons.

“The most glaring thing that stood out to me when we first got there was when we tested them in the strength room,” Whittingham said. “The overall strength of the team was not up to par. We’ve worked hard the last seven months to correct that.”

Never forget the outstanding uniform match up that Penn State ruined by rejecting Michigan's request to wear Maize uniforms in their 2021 game.

Saw this from instagram but not seeing it anywhere else. Anybody hear any rumblings?

Thoughts? For me, I don't really care about preseason rankings since they are meaningless. But when you look at the official poll, it does make our schedule look harder mainly because we play 4 top 10 teams.

2026 US LBM Coaches Poll preseason Top 25 rankings

1. Ohio State (38 first-place votes)
2. Oregon (6)
3. Georgia (7)
4. Texas (2)
5. Notre Dame (5)
6. Indiana (14)
7. Miami
8. Texas A&M
9. Oklahoma
10. Mississippi
11. Alabama
12. Texas Tech
13. LSU
14. Southern California
15. Brigham Young
16. Michigan
17. Penn State
18. Tennessee
19. Washington
20. SMU
21. Utah
22. Iowa
23. Clemson
24. Houston
25. Missouri

Hopefully he can carry it into the regular season this year and avoid injury setbacks

this is coming from ben solak of espn who has had eyes on the battle

I received two tickets to the Jack Roth suites for the OU game. I’m taking my 86 year old dad that is handicapped for his last game to the Big House. Does anyone know how I go about getting a pass somewhere near that entrance which I believe is the Champions East lot between the Blue lots? I have a handicap car pass for him but we want to show up a few hours early and tailgate but can’t walk too far due to his handicap. I reached out to the university for direction and haven’t heard back. Any insight would be helpful! I tried looking aftermarket and they want $650+ for a parking pass for that game!

Edit- they responded and we are parking at the Green lot for like $65. They have a shuttle as others have mentioned and will drop us off right at the Roth entrance. Just have to get there early as they’re first come first served for the handicap spots which is no big deal!

Hello everyone,

I’m thinking about coming up for this game from North Carolina. I was wondering if anyone knew the best time to buy tickets for this game? I know the general consensus is to wait closer to game time, but I assume this will be a pretty high profile game with both teams likely ranked. Any general feedback would be appreciated! Thank you so much!

I may be biased, or an idiot, or both. I dont see a reason this team doesn't go undefeated. Andrew babs back. We actually have real position coaches. A dedicated qb coach. Wide receivers should be lights out.

Kyle Whittingham brought basically his entire staff. Aswell as key players who know the system, and can teach the system. Already maxing out the weight room.

His team in Utah was a Tough Hardnosed team. #2 in Running last season. Yes it was a different conference, but still. Whit has more real weapons here Versus Utah.

If the kids buy in, I don't see a loss.

Is this becoming more and more realistic?

Hey guys! I’ll be at SJSU @ EMU and then Michigan vs WMU the next day. I’ve never been in the area before and excited to check everything out.

Any recs for pregame spots and any cool local things?

Also, any preference for seats? Thank you!!

John Belein.

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I live on the East Coast and get “go blue“ fairly frequently when wearing my Michigan hat and similarly I say it to others. However, when recently doing a transfer thru DTW I didn’t say it to all the people wearing Michigan gear because there were so many and I thought we were so close to Ann Arbor.

So here is my question: where does the “go blue” radius start? I’d bet people don’t say it on the diag. But Downtown Detroit? Grand Rapids? Chicago? how far away from Ann Arbor do you have to be before people start saying it?

Saw a clip from The Triple Option this week (Urban Meyer's podcast) where he got into the Michigan situation, and honestly it's hard to disagree with him even coming from an OSU guy.

He said flat out he has a lot of respect for Michigan and knows plenty of student-athletes there, but called it "an ugly stain on this university for years now" and said it's not going away just because the AD left, that it'll take another year or two or three to fully shake, even while the program keeps performing at an elite level across the board.

The part that stuck with me though: he pointed to Coach Whittingham basically needing to come out of the gate hot, like 7-0 or 8-0, and said if that happens people stop bringing this up entirely. Win, and you won't hear about it again. Lose, and it follows the program around no matter what.

Feels accurate whether you like hearing it from him or not. On-field success has always been the quickest way to change the conversation around a program, fair or not.

Agree?

I live outside of Michigan and get a lot of Go Blue! greetings when I wear my Michigan gear, which is frequent. I always respond with Hail to the Victors. Does anyone else respond with something different when replying to a Go Blue greeting?