Michigan Wolverines football
2024 Michigan Wolverines football team
First season	1879
Athletic director	Warde Manuel
Head coach	Sherrone Moore 1st season, 1–0 [n 1]
Stadium	Michigan Stadium (capacity: 107,601)
Year built	1927
Location	Ann Arbor, Michigan
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Division	East
All-time record	1,004–353–36 (.734)
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[2]
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.^[3][4] The team is known for its distinctive winged helmet, its fight song, its record-breaking attendance figures at Michigan Stadium,^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

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. 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.^[8] 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 College Football Playoff National Championship. 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.^[9][10]

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.

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