Michigan Football Wide Receivers Prep for Dramatic 2025 Turnaround After Crushing 2024 Collapse

Man, let me tell you—Michigan’s wide receiver scene in 2024 was, well, a downright disaster. No wideout cracked even 250 yards for the entire season—not one! Not a single touchdown haul above two catches either, and forget about long bombs; they didn’t snag a single catch over 40 yards, making them a national oddity. It’s like watching a team trying to find daylight through a fog with barely a flashlight. The stats paint a brutal picture: collectively, the receivers barely edged past 700 yards and five touchdowns over thirteen games—a figure overshadowed by individual players across the country. But here’s the twist that fans should hold onto: this benching of mediocrity sets the stage for an inevitable rise. With Chip Lindsey now calling the shots and fresh talent shaking things up, Michigan’s passing game is poised for a revival that promises to leave last year’s struggles in the dust. Believe me, the Wolverines are cooking up something fierce for 2025. LEARN MORE

AI-assisted summary
• Michigan football’s wide receivers struggled significantly in 2024, with no player reaching 250 receiving yards or catching more than two touchdowns.
• The Wolverines’ entire receiving corps was statistically outperformed by numerous individual receivers across the nation.
• New offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey’s scheme and the addition of transfer Donaven McCulley aim to improve the passing game in 2025.

Over 13 games, every Michigan wide receiver on the team combined for 83 receptions for 742 yards and five touchdowns — fewer catches than 12 individual wideouts nationally, fewer yards than 100 wideouts nationally and fewer TDs than 103 wideouts.The main addition to the room is 6-foot-5, 205-pound Donaven McCulley. The former Indiana standout who moved from quarterback to wide receiver had his best season in 2023, with 48 catches for 644 yards and six scores.All told, it would be difficult for Michigan football wide receivers to be less productive in 2025 than in 2024.

“We’re excited, we just feel like our skills are older,” wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy said on May 31 at the National College Showcase at Wayne State University. “Feel like we’ve created some competition in our room, the kids had a really good spring, stayed healthy and the boys are ready to get back to work.”But the real reason for the added juice this season isn’t just the targets, but who’s calling the shots. Lindsey’s offenses have averaged better than 30 points in nine of the 12 years he’s called plays. Two years ago, his offense at North Carolina ranked No. 7 nationally in yards per game (491.2) as it ranked in the top 20 both in passing at 292.2 yards per game (14th) and rushing (192.1, 19th) per contest with NFL first-round pick Drake Maye under center.

The Wolverines did not have a single wideout amass 250 yards — not even 20 yards a game — for the season. Nor did U-M’s wideout room have a single player catch more than two touchdowns, average better than 2.1 catches per game or haul in a 40-yard catch. Indeed, U-M was the only team in America without a single reception of at least 40 yards —the two longest catches of the year came from tight ends, and neither topped 36 yards.

He arrived in Ann Arbor in the winter to start getting acclimated to his new situation. Beyond his abilities on the field, Bellamy implied he has emerged as the alpha in the room, something that was lacking a season ago.For all the excitement around some of the older pass catchers, there’s intrigue surrounding a pair of incoming freshman: 6-4 Jamar Browder and 6-1 Andrew Marsh, who is U-M’s highest-ranked wide receiver recruit since Donovan Peoples-Jones nearly a decade ago.

Bellamy feels that having Lindsey call plays will be good for his position group, but also pointed to those stats to demonstrate why he’s still a good fit for the overall scheme.Indeed, just one U-M wideout had a catch for more than 30 yards: Semaj Morgan’s 31-yard touchdown grab against Texas’ third string secondary when U-M trailed 31-6 in the closing minutes of Week 2 last season.

U-M’s wideouts from a season ago have grown as well. Morgan told the Free Press he “can’t wait, for real” to start exploring the new system under offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who took over after one year of Kirk Campbell calling plays.

“Explosive,” Bellamy said. “Explosive in moves. Obviously, he’s an older guy, too. We want to get some experienced guys that have experience playing football, (so) we took two older guys in the portal this winter cycle.”Another person who fits that mold, though he’s new, is Anthony Simpson, a transfer from UMass. He is undersized like Morgan, standing 5 feet 11 and 180 pounds, but he’s twitchy and had an impressive 2023 campaign in which he had 57 grabs for 792 yards and three scores.”You’ll have more explosives,” Bellamy said about the most exciting aspect of Lindsey’s style. “If you follow Chip’s career, you know he’s a balanced guy, but you know he’s going to take his shots down the field. Super excited about that.Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.In other words, Michigan’s entire wide receiver corps was outplayed by dozens of individuals across the nation. But the good news headed into 2025? The only direction to go is up.

Not only is new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey’s scheme a better fit on paper for wide receivers, but the group also looks more talented, and no matter who is getting them the ball, it figures to be an improvement from the quarterback carousel a season ago.Morgan and Fredrick Moore, who had three grabs for 37 yards and a touchdown in December’s ReliaQuest Bowl, are now upperclassmen who are expected to take the next step.

“He’s had a really good spring, getting himself adjusted with everything — new system and teammates,” Bellamy said. “Experienced guy, unbelievable person and I think his leadership and presence alone will help our room grow.””It’s just a little different brand of football, but we’re still Michigan, we’re still going to run the football, still going to throw the football, we’re going to be balanced and going to play complementary ball.”