Michigan football has named its four captains for the 2026 season. Quarterback Bryce Underwood, running back Jordan Marshall, safety Rod Moore and defensive tackle Trey Pierce were elected by a team vote. All four are returning, with a combined 15 years in the program, after being named captains for the spring. Underwood, naturally, is the headliner. The quarterback is still the face of the program entering his second season. He has spent the offseason focused on leadership, he said.
HARDCOURT HELP: Michigan basketball legend John Beilein to work with Orlando Magic “For me, the biggest goal was to be more of a leader, which is vocally,” Underwood recently told Big Ten Network. “I feel like I took that role pretty well with the trust of my teammates, so that was my biggest focus going into this year.” Underwood completed 60.3% of his passes last season for 2,428 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He was named starter by Whittingham early in fall camp and has had an "A-plus" fall camp. Marshall, meanwhile, has long been seen as a leader, with two-time captain Max Bredeson saying last season, “Jordan is an unbelievable leader. ... If I were to bet on it right now, I bet you guys we’ll one day be talking to him as 'Michigan captain Jordan Marshall.'” The running back rushed 150 times for 932 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, despite starting the season backing up Justice Haynes, who went down with a foot injury in the final month of the season. He had four consecutive weeks with at least 110 rushing yards and one touchdown, but his season was cut short when he suffered a shoulder injury with two games to play. He tried to gut it out against Ohio State, but lasted just two series, rushing seven times for 61 yards. Marshall, too, comes with high expectations, even as he goes into a season where he's one of the focal points of the offense for the first time. The main one, per U-M RBs coach Tony Alford: "To lead. Whittingham echoed that a few weeks later.
"Favorite part of Jordan for me is who he is as a person," Whittingham said. "He's a great person, he's a leader in every respect. He is a guy that − the supreme function of a leader is to set the bar and then demand everyone live up to that. That's him, that's Jordan to a T. He is a guy that leads by example. "He's constantly encouraging teammates − everything that you would expect from a leader, you get from Jordan Marshall." Trey Pierce, meanwhile, was one of U-M's three representatives at last month's Big Ten media days (along with Underwood and Marshall) in Chicago. The senior is moving into a starting role for the first time, but he has been praised for his work ethic, gains in the weight room and the consistency he provides on a daily basis. NEXT UP: Led by Savion Hiter, Michigan has freshman group that could be a spark Moore, meanwhile is a captain for the third time in his career. Moore is U-M's first three-time captain in the modern era, as he enters his sixth season in Ann Arbor. He missed all of 2024 when he suffered a torn ACL in the spring, but was still elected a captain. He tried to come back last season, when he was named a captain for a second time, but played just three games – in the middle of the season – before shutting it down for the year. Prior to his injuries, Moore was a star for U-M; named an All-Big Ten player in 2023, he was most known for his game-sealing interception against Ohio State to send Michigan to the Big Ten championship game in a season that ended with a College Football Playoff championship. Now, he's said to be back at 100% and already emotional about what his final year in Ann Arbor means.
“I’ve been sitting here sometimes getting chills about it, because being able to start from Game 1,” Moore recently told reporters. “It being my last year here, [it’s] kind of bittersweet because I’ve been here six years and it’s about be my next part of life. And it kind of depends on what I do here this year that’ll tell me what I’m going to do [next]. So it’s important to me.” Michigan opens its season against Western Michigan on Sept 5 (7:30 p.m., NBC).\ Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football names four captains for 2026