The Michigan Wolverines have a need.

No, you are not about to watch the popular movie Top Gun from the 1980s, because that need is not for speed.

Kyle Whittingham has identified a problem that reared its ugly head during Michigan’s dominant 52-17 victory over the UTEP Miners in the Wolverines’ final non-conference game.

Michigan was caught sleep walking through most of the first half, but still able to escape with a 17-14 lead at halftime.

A 28-0 third quarter washed all the stink off of Michigan’s sluggish first half, and gave plenty of good feelings heading into the conference opener this weekend against Iowa.

Not to the coaching staff.

Michigan’s head coach knows that his team can ill afford a slow start against the gauntlet that Michigan is set to face on its schedule.

There are no more tomato cans waiting for them. Michigan will have to earn their wins for the duration of the season.

Whittingham addressed the need to figure out why his team is lacking some focus in early portions of games.

The Problem

“You want to play at the same level week in and week out regardless of your opponent,” Whittingham said in his media availability on Monday. “I think that our guys were definitely more excited about the challenge of Oklahoma, perhaps, than the other two games. Preaching that you’ve got to play at a certain level and not have the peaks and valleys.”

Whittingham was right to note the problem. Intensity was not an issue when Michigan faced Oklahoma. A big game in that type of atmosphere is going to be easy to keep a certain level of emotion throughout the course of a game.

Against UTEP and Western Michigan? The Wolverines either were sleep walking, or downright bad through at least half of those respective games.

Possible Reasons?

One reason that Whittingham gave was the youth of his team as a reason that they could struggle with maintaining focus throughout the game.

“We don’t have a lot of those fourth- and fifth-year guys,” Whittingham said. “We do definitely need to be more consistent with our enthusiasm, passion, energy. It seems to ebb and flow a little bit. We’ve had three really poor halves in that regard the entire Western game and the first half of this last game.”

Perhaps that thought has some merit. Michigan is one of the youngest rosters in the conference, and a good portion of their contributors are younger players.

In the same breath, however, Michigan has a lot of very experienced players. Their top three cornerbacks are seniors. Rod Moore was a safety on a team who won the national championship in 2023. He was voted as a captain and knows what intense focus looks like due to his tutelage under Jesse Minter and Jim Harbaugh.

This is where the leadership group of the team, including the captains need to step up.

There are some challenges there. Trey Pierce and Rod Moore are seniors. Bryce Underwood and Jordan Marshall are not. Still, those guys were elected to those spots for a reason. This is where they earn their stripes.

“We’re still working on the culture and getting things instilled that way and the expectations,” Whittingham said. “When things get tough, that’s when you really need to rise up and up your game and not get a deer-in-the-headlights look type of thing. I think that we’re making progress in that regard. It’s just when things get hard and you get in difficult situations and face adversity, that’s when you need to really rise up with the emotion and the energy and not just put you in a funk, so to speak.”

A Solution

The good news is that Whittingham noted they had issues against teams who were supposed to be inferior to them. Western Michigan proved not to be, but UTEP did.

There are no games left to overlook on Michigan’s schedule. Iowa, Penn State, and Indiana are all going to be formidable challenges at home.

Michigan State is a rivalry game and they will bring a certain type of intensity under Pat Fitzgerald.

Minnesota will be Michigan’s first road game of the season, which is always an interesting test. Of course, the two marquee road games are Ohio State and Oregon to finish the season.

Apart from a road game against Rutgers, and potentially a home game against UCLA, all of the games remaining on Michigan’s schedule should catch the attention of the players.

If it does, the sky can be the limit for this team and they could be competing for a Big Ten championship at the end of the season.

If it doesn’t, the Wolverines will be forced to wonder what could have been.