What will U-M roster look like for Citrus Bowl vs. Texas?

By Clayton Sayfie

No. 18 Michigan Wolverines football is just one week from taking on No. 13 Texas in what is one of the most unique games in U-M history. Exactly three weeks before the Dec. 31 Citrus Bowl will be played, head coach Sherrone Moore was fired with cause for an inappropriate relationship with a staff member and later arrested for breaking into her apartment. Biff Poggi, previously the associate head coach, has been tasked with taking over the program in the interim.

The 66-year-old Poggi — who’s in consideration for the full-time head-coaching position, having interviewed with director of athletics Warde Manuel — Monday held one of the most unique press conferences we’ve seen, with most of the discussion surrounding the state of the program, his candidacy and qualifications for the job.

One of the things Poggi has going for him is that he has the support from some players and class of 2026 signees, with the assumption that he would have a shot to keep the roster’s young core together. On Monday, Poggi said that Michigan would only have three ‘opt outs’ for the bowl game, all of them NFL-bound starters in senior EDGE Derrick Moore, senior linebacker Jaishawn Barham and graduate left guard Giovanni El-Hadi.

Answering a follow-up question, Poggi said he wasn’t expecting any others to sit out of the game, other than those who are injured, saying, “If you were going to opt-out, you wouldn’t go through what we just went through the last 10 days. We put them through their paces. At least I wouldn’t do it.

However, on Tuesday, Poggi appeared on a podcast covering the Texas Longhorns, ‘The Stampede,’ and indicated that the Wolverines may have many more players quit before the season is over with.

“We sent them home for Christmas [Monday], and I think there’s a really good chance that we’re going to have many more opt-outs for the game unfortunately,” Poggi said. “Because we’re in such a state of flux, and when they get to this business of it, they think ‘We don’t have a coach, we’ve had this situation with our former coach, there’s investigations, all these things. I don’t know who’s going to coach me. Why do I want to play in that game?’

“I can see some of that happening. I would tell you, on the 26th we’re probably going to have a significantly different roster than we had when we sent them home.”

Money is at the crux of the issue, according to Poggi, as is the case with almost anything to do with college sports these days.

“We’re not able to give anybody a financial agreement because we don’t have a permanent coach,” the Michigan coach said.

That is something Manuel has relayed to the parents of Michigan players, according to The Detroit News.

“Manuel said [in a meeting with parents] there will be no negotiations at the moment with the current roster as far as NIL/revenue sharing,” The Detroit News wrote. “That will be left to the next head coach and general manager to evaluate the roster and make financial decisions. This didn’t sit well with some parents, whose sons are getting offers from other programs.”

A sign of the times, we guess, that no financial agreements for next season impact players finishing out this season, for which they’ve been paid through revenue sharing and NIL deals. Michigan has one of the most proficient NIL collectives in the nation, Champions Circle, but it appears the group has been sidelined for the time being. Best believe it will be fired back up in full force once the next coach is hired, though.

Manuel plans to hire a new head coach before the Dec. 31 bowl, but if that doesn’t happen before the team reconvenes Dec. 26 and resumes preparation for the bowl, perhaps Poggi is correct that there will be up to two dozen Wolverines who don’t play. Or, perhaps, it’s a leverage play by Poggi, putting the pressure on Michigan’s athletic director to promote him so players take the field on New Year’s Eve. Nobody knows at this point, and the podcast comments were quite surprising.

Michigan needs edge rushers to step up

With Moore and Barham out, Michigan will need two other edge rushers to step into starting roles, and it’s hard to envision there not being a big drop-off. Moore, for one, ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 10 sacks, while Barham is second on the team with 4.

The Moore (41) and Barham (21) duo are the top two on Michigan’s defense in pressures, with graduate TJ Guy checking in tied third with 17. Graduate defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny, by the way, is slated to play, and he also has 17 pressures, with the ability to put heat on the quarterback from the interior.

Guy and junior Cameron Brandt are next up on the depth chart at EDGE, and one of the benefits of the Wolverines heavily rotating throughout the season is that they’ll be prepared for bigger roles, as will sophomore Dominic Nichols and freshman Nate Marshall. Sophomore Lugard Edokpayi has also received some playing time throughout the season and could step into a bigger role.

Offensive line shakeup

A blessing now but a curse at the time, Michigan endured several different offensive line injuries this season, particularly at the beginning of the fall. The Wolverines have had four starters at the guard spots.

Sophomore Jake Guarnera will start at right guard, and with El-Hadi out as the starting left guard, junior Nathan Efobi is expected to take his spot.

Efobi started at left guard while El-Hadi was out for games against Oklahoma, Central Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin. He’s seen the type of competition the Wolverines will face against Texas and has played next to graduate center Greg Crippen for quite a few reps. He and junior left tackle Blake Frazier haven’t seen much time next to each other, but there have been a lot of practices between the regular season and the trip to Florida to build up that cohesion.

Efobi has a 62.3 overall PFF grade with a 75.4 mark in pass protection and 60.0 figure in run blocking. In pass pro, he’s given up 6 pressures (no sacks) on 130 such snaps.

Now, there is a chance junior Brady Norton will move back to guard and get the start, with classmate Evan Link getting healthier at tackle. Norton began the season as the starting right guard, got hurt, saw Guarnera hold onto the job and later shifted out to tackle following an injury to Link. The kicker is that Norton took all 95 of his in-game guard reps on the right side, not the left, making Efobi the more likely option in our opinion.