Where Michigan stands in college football returning production rankings for 2025
Michigan Wolverines football finished 8-5 with a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten last season, looking to bounce back in 2025 in its second year under head man Sherrone Moore. While the Maize and Blue have lost eight players to the NFL that were invited to the scouting combine, they still have a lot of pieces returning.
According to ESPN.com, Michigan has the 29th-most returning production in college football. The Wolverines have 63 percent of their production back on offense (47th) and 64 percent on defense (28th).
Clemson (81 percent), Arizona State (79), Illinois (76), Texas Tech (75) and Kennesaw State (fifth) are the top five teams nationally in returning prodcution.
Michigan has the fourth-most returning production in the Big Ten, behind Illinois (third), Rutgers (seventh) and Wisconsin (25th). Michigan State (30th), Penn State (33rd), Minnesota (40th) and Indiana (44th) are close behind.
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Michigan is set to bring back nine players that started at least half of the Wolverines’ games in 2024 (four offense, five defense). Due to injuries, position battles, rotations and bowl game opt outs, the Maize and Blue also have several others with starting experience that remain on the roster.
Graduate offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi ranked second on the team in offensive snaps last season, the highest among returning players. Senior linebacker Ernest Hausmann leads the way with 712 defensive snaps a year ago. That was first on the team in 2024, and he was also the Wolverines’ leading tackler with 89 stops.
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ESPN.com’s Bill Connelly revealed how he calculated returning production.
“For returning production, I mash an incoming player’s production from his previous team into the numerator and denominator for his new team,” he wrote. “(Because the translation in moving from the lower levels of the sport to the FBS is extremely inconsistent, I give only half-credit for players transferring up from lower divisions.)
“For the recruiting aspect, I attempt to account for incoming transfers’ recruiting rankings in a given team’s overall recruiting averages.”
He also revealed the weighting for determining the offensive percentages:
• Percent of returning OL snaps: 40% of the overall number
• Percent of returning WR/TE receiving yards: 35%
• Percent of returning QB passing yards: 22%
• Percent of returning RB rushing yards: 3%
Here’s how he determined returning production on defense:
• Percent of returning snaps: 66%
• Percent of returning tackles: 19%
• Percent of returning tackles for loss: 15%
