Michigan got to enjoy being the last team standing after last season’s magical 15-0 run to a national championship.

At 8-5, the Wolverines fell well short of that summit in 2024, but Fox Sports’ college football analyst Joel Klatt said only this year’s eventual national champ will have had a better close to the year than the Maize and Blue.

“Ohio State lost to Michigan, Alabama lost to Michigan and all of that happened after Michigan got Bryce Underwood to commit to play quarterback for them,” Klatt said on a recent episode of his podcast, The Joel Klatt Show. “So, my question would just be, did anybody other than the eventual champion have a better finish to the college football season than Michigan?”

The Wolverines had an up-and-down first year under new head coach Sherrone Moore, but following wins over the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide, and signing a Top 10 recruiting class for the 2025 cycle, it appears as if the foundation has been laid for future success in Ann Arbor.

“The momentum that Michigan is creating is staggering right now,” Klatt said. “Everybody in the playoff is going to end with a loss except for one team, so it’s like, who else is creating the momentum and the buzz for next year like Michigan? No. 1 recruit — Bryce Underwood, beat Ohio State, who very well could win the national championship. Beat Alabama your tackles [Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant], without Josaiah Stewart, without Will Johnson. Hello, what a month for the Wolverines.”

No one in Ann Arbor is satisfied with the way the 2024 season went as a whole, but Michigan worked through a tough stretch of four losses in five games to close the year with three straight victories, including its fourth in a row over Ohio State. With their quarterback of the future secured, there’s a ton of excitement heading into Year 2 of Moore’s tenure.

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