| Michigan Wolverines football | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
 | |||
| First season | 1879; 145 years ago | ||
| Athletic director | Warde Manuel | ||
| Head coach | Sherrone Moore 1st season, 6–5 (.545) | ||
| Stadium | Michigan Stadium (capacity: 107,601) | ||
| Year built | 1927 | ||
| Location | Ann Arbor, Michigan | ||
| NCAA division | Division I FBS | ||
| Conference | Big Ten Conference | ||
| All-time record | 1009–356–36 (.733) | ||
| Bowl record | 23–29 (.442) | ||
| Playoff appearances | 3 (2021, 2022, 2023) | ||
| Playoff record | 2–2 | ||
| Claimed national titles | 12 (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, 2023) | ||
| Unclaimed national titles | 7 (1910, 1925, 1926, 1964, 1973, 1976, 1985) | ||
| National finalist | 1 (2023) | ||
| Conference titles | 45 | ||
| Division titles | 4 (2018, 2021, 2022, 2023) | ||
| Rivalries | Ohio State (rivalry) Michigan State (rivalry) Notre Dame (rivalry) Minnesota (rivalry) Northwestern (rivalry) Penn State (rivalry) | ||
| Heisman winners | Tom Harmon – 1940 Desmond Howard – 1991 Charles Woodson – 1997 | ||
| Consensus All-Americans | 88 | ||
| Current uniform | |||
 | |||
| Colors | Maize and blue[1] | ||
| Fight song | "The Victors" | ||
| Marching band | Michigan Marching Band | ||
| Outfitter | Jordan Brand | ||
| Website | MGoBlue.com | ||
The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history.[2][3] The team is known for its distinctive winged helmet, its fight song, its record-breaking attendance figures at Michigan Stadium,[4] and its many rivalries, particularly its annual, regular season-ending game against Ohio State, known simply as "The Game," once voted as ESPN's best sports rivalry.[5]
Michigan began competing in intercollegiate football in 1879. The Wolverines joined the Big Ten Conference at its inception in 1896, and other than a hiatus from 1907 to 1916, have been members since. Michigan has won or shared 45 league titles, and since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936, has finished in the top 10 a total of 39 times. The Wolverines claim 12 national championships, including 3 (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-service: AP Poll and/or Coaches' Poll.[6]
From 1900 to 1989, Michigan was led by a series of nine head coaches, each of whom has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame either as a player or as a coach. Fielding H. Yost became Michigan's head coach in 1901 and guided his "Point-a-Minute" squads to a streak of 56 games without a defeat, spanning from his arrival until the season finale in 1905, including a victory in the 1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football bowl game ever played. Fritz Crisler brought his winged helmet from Princeton University in 1938 and led the 1947 Wolverines to a national title and Michigan's second Rose Bowl win. Bo Schembechler coached the team for 21 seasons (1969–1989) in which he won 13 Big Ten titles and 194 games, a program record. The first decade of his tenure was underscored by a fierce competition with his former mentor, Woody Hayes, whose Ohio State Buckeyes squared off against Schembechler's Wolverines in a stretch of the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry dubbed "The Ten Year War".
Following Schembechler's retirement, the program was coached by two of his former assistants, Gary Moeller and then Lloyd Carr, who maintained the program's overall success over the next 18 years, Carr winning a national championship in 1997. However, the program's fortunes declined under the next two coaches, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, who were both fired after relatively short tenures. Following Hoke's dismissal, Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh on December 30, 2014.[7] Harbaugh is a former quarterback for the team, having played for Michigan from 1982 to 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the Wolverines to three consecutive Big Ten titles and College Football Playoff appearances during his final three years as head coach, from 2021 to 2023. His final team, the 2023 Michigan Wolverines won the program's first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 National Championship Game. Following the championship victory, Harbaugh left Michigan to return to coaching in the National Football League (NFL). Currently, the head coach position is held by Sherrone Moore, who had been on Harbaugh's coaching staff since 2018, and had been an offensive coordinator since 2021. He was the acting head coach for four games during the national championship-winning 2023 season. He won them all, including games against ranked opponents Penn State and Ohio State. The Wolverines promoted Moore on January 26, 2024, two days after Harbaugh's departure.[8][9]
The Michigan Wolverines have featured 88 players that have garnered consensus selection to the College Football All-America Team. Three Wolverines have won the Heisman Trophy: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991, and Charles Woodson in 1997. Gerald Ford, who later became the 38th president of the United States, started at center and was voted most valuable player by his teammates on the 1934 team.
- ^ "University of Michigan Style Guide: Colors". July 7, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
- ^ "Football Bowl Subdivision Records" (PDF). NCAA. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
- ^ "No. 1! Michigan passes Notre Dame in all-time win percentage". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- ^ "Fields of (amateur) dreams: the 22 US college football teams with crowds bigger than the NFL average « Sporting Intelligence". Sportingintelligence.com. February 9, 2011. Archived from the original on February 14, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ^ "The 10 greatest rivalries". ESPN. January 3, 2007. Archived from the original on October 25, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2009.
- ^ Brown, Matt. "Final AP Top 25 takeaways: Michigan returns to No. 1, Georgia jumps Bama, infamy for Iowa". The Athletic.
- ^ Illustrated, Molly Geary and Scooby Axson / Sports. "Michigan Hires Jim Harbaugh as New Head Coach". Time. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^ Morik, Ryan (January 26, 2024). "Michigan naming offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore head coach after Jim Harbaugh's departure: report". Fox News.
- ^ Meek, Austin. "Sherrone Moore's head coaching debut produces a Michigan win and some lessons for later". The Athletic.