Michigan Wolverines football
2026 Michigan Wolverines football team
First season	1879; 147 years ago
Athletic director	Warde Manuel
General manager	Dave Peloquin
Head coach	Kyle Whittingham 1st season, 0–0 (–)
Location	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Stadium	Michigan Stadium (capacity: 107,601)
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	Big Ten
Colors	Maize and blue[1]
All-time record	1,021–362–36 (.732)
CFP record	2–2 (.500)
Bowl record	24–30 (.444)
National championships
Claimed	1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, 2023
Unclaimed	1910, 1925, 1926, 1964, 1973, 1976, 1985
National finalist
CFP	2023
College Football Playoff appearances
2021, 2022, 2023
Conference championships
Big Ten: 1898, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1943, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1964, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2021, 2022, 2023
Conference division championships
Big Ten East: 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023
Heisman winners	Tom Harmon – 1940 Desmond Howard – 1991 Charles Woodson – 1997
Consensus All-Americans	89
Rivalries	Ohio State (rivalry) Michigan State (rivalry) Minnesota (rivalry) Northwestern (rivalry) Penn State (rivalry) Illinois (rivalry) Notre Dame (rivalry)
Uniforms
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 (FBS) 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 ten a total of 39 times. The Wolverines claim twelve national championships, including three (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-services: the AP Trophy or Coaches' Trophy.^[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.^[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 National Championship Game. Following the championship and nine seasons at Michigan, Harbaugh left to return to coaching in the National Football League (NFL). The Wolverines promoted offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore to head coach, who had been on Harbaugh's coaching staff since 2018, and was the acting head coach in four games during the national championship-winning 2023 season.^[8][9] After the 2025 regular season, Moore was fired and replaced by longtime Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

The Michigan Wolverines have featured 89 selections that have garnered consensus honors on 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.