What is Michigan football’s ceiling for 2025 season?
USA TODAY columnist Dan Wolken shares insights into how the Wolverine’s football program may fare in the 2025 season.
It’s one of the greatest honors a Michigan football player can earn during their time in Ann Arbor, and now the greater public knows exactly which players are looked up to as the leaders of the 2025 Wolverines.
Max Bredeson (fullback), Rod Moore (safety), Gio El-Hadi (offensive line), Ernest Hausmann (linebacker), Derrick Moore (defensive line) and Marlin Klein (tight end) were named captains for the 2025 squad, just more than a week before the season opener Saturday, Aug. 30, at home against New Mexico (7:30 p.m., NBC).
The players voted for three individuals on each side of the ball to represent the team every week, while wide receiver Joe Taylor and edge rusher TJ Guy were nominated as alternate captains in Year 2 under coach Sherrone Moore.
Bredeson, Hausmann and Moore were U-M’s three player representatives at July’s Big Ten football media days in Las Vegas.
Rod Moore was a captain last year despite missing the entire season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and Bredeson, originally a walk-on, worked his way up to captain in 2024, too.
U-M hadn’t had a two-time captain since Mike Sainristil (2022-23).
Meet Michigan football captain Max Bredeson
Bredeson, with 44 career appearances for U-M, has been honored for his toughness and love of the program.
Perhaps his biggest play in 2024 came on fourth-and-goal against USC on Sept. 21, 2024; he blew up a down lineman on the 1-yard line to pave the way for a winning Kalel Mullings touchdown in the final minute.
“Full-back, utility (guy), heartbeat of our football team,” Sherrone Moore said this summer. “Tone-setter for our football team, continues to do that on and off the field for us.”
Meet Michigan football captain Rod Moore
Moore was an NFL draft prospect — thanks to six interceptions and 141 tackles in 37 games with the Wolverines — who returned to U-M for 2024 to try and play himself into a first-round pick. Instead, he tore his ACL in April 2024.
Moore isn’t fully healthy yet, though he told the Free Press in July he was about “85%” and implied he expected to play sometime during the first three weeks of the 2025 season.
“Seeing his journey where he was and where he is now, running again, just makes me happy, because he’s like a mentor to me,” defensive back Zeke Berry said recently. “He told me just to be confident and believe in yourself, because if everybody else believes in you, you should, too.”
Meet Michigan football captain Ernest Hausmann
Hausmann calls plays on the field for defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, after making All-Big Ten honorable mention last season.
This offseason, Hausmann returned to his homeland of Uganda for the first time in 16 years as he became a partner with One Million Wells, a U.S. based nonprofit, to provide a community with clean drinking water.
“You develop relationships with players and as a defensive coordinator, it’s like an offensive coordinator does with his quarterback,” Martindale said about his bond with Hausmann. “I think that he understands what I’m calling while I’m calling it, because we have those conversations.”
Meet Michigan football captain Gio El-Hadi
El-Hadi, an All-Big Ten honorable mention last season with 42 career appearances for U-M, spent his summer working to bond with fellow offensive linemen, including organizing an outing at the Belleville Yacht Club. El-Hadi said it costs “thousands” to feed dozens of college athletes, but made it a point to help his team come together.
“At 95-97% of programs across the country, he is a three-year starter and is probably in the NFL already,” offensive line coach Grant Newsome said in August. “I think it’s a credit to him and his mentality, being patient but not being complacent. Going out and competing and winning the starting job.”
Meet Michigan football captain Derrick Moore
Recently listed by ESPN as one of the top 100 players in college football – U-M’s only representative on the list – Moore has played in 41 games with 12 starts and is a two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention. All of his starts came last season when he recorded 23 tackles (with six for loss), four sacks, four quarterback hurries, two pass breakups and one fumble.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does and the work that he puts in and the value to the team,” Martindale said. “He does a lot of the hard stuff. He’s healthy and he looks good, and we’ll keep him that way.”
Meet Michigan football captain Marlin Klein
Klein, from Germany, recently detailed how coach Steve Casula brought him to “the jungle” a few years ago with some tough love and coaching. Casula borrowed Moore’s phrase, “We coach hard, but we love harder,” to describe his motivational tactics to get the most out of players.
Klein has emerged as a pass-catcher who had “never blocked a soul” to the man Casula says is the best blocking tight end in the nation. The past three years were spent behind No. 10 overall NFL draft pick Colston Loveland; now it’s Klein’s turn to show out.
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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.