ANN ARBOR, Mich. — No one at Michigan expected the 2024 Wolverines to enter the 2024 season looking like last year’s unstoppable, undefeated national champions. Especially when that team lost 13 of those players, the most in the FBS, to the NFL in 2023, along with their coach.

But the shocking difference that has unfolded over the last few months was on full display Saturday as No. 3 Texas blew the Wolverines apart in every way possible on their home turf, flying out of town with a 31-12 victory and snapping Michigan’s streak of 23 consecutive wins in the Big House. The loss also snapped Michigan’s Big Ten record of winning 29 consecutive regular-season games.

After the loss, first-year coach Sherrone Moore said he wasn’t thinking about this team’s early struggles and was instead focused on what the Wolverines could do to get better.

“We knew we were a new team,” he said. “We never tried to rest on our laurels after winning the national championship last year. So for us it was what are we going to do to get better and make this team good? We are where we are. We’re going to continue to grow and get better.”

The question isn’t just how fast, but how much better they can be. It was the second week that the offense struggled, as Michigan also got off to a slow start in its Week 1 win over Fresno State. The difference with Texas up front on both the offensive and defensive lines was glaring. While Texas thrived in both its running and passing games, Michigan sputtered to get anything going on the ground and was then forced into an unreliable passing game as it tried to overcome a 24-3 halftime deficit.

When asked after the game if he felt he needed to make any significant changes to his personnel, Moore said he would have to watch the game film to “find out.”

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions and just say something,” he said. “I’ll look at it, evaluate it and see what we need to do to get the right people in the right places to make it successful.”

Michigan, a team that had gone 16 games without losing, had three turnovers, including an uncharacteristic fumble by veteran tight end Colston Loveland, who remains one of the Wolverines’ most reliable players on offense. They finished with just 80 rushing yards on the ground, an indictment of the offensive line’s ability to block against a Texas defense that didn’t fool much. There were times when Warren showed promise — throwing a dart for a first down in the fourth quarter when he was completely tied up by a Texas defender.

But for most of the game, Michigan couldn’t sustain drives, converting just 3 of 12 third downs — while Texas controlled the clock by converting 10 of 16 third-down conversions. Not all of those mistakes, Moore said, are long-term problems. He said the first of two interceptions was a tipped pass, and the second was a miscommunication. As for the fumble, he said, Loveland didn’t put it away quickly enough.

“Those are three things that if you don’t have them,” he said, “you’re in a different game. But they happened. And they took advantage of them.”

According to Moore, Michigan allowed 135 yards after contact defensively, proving the fundamentals need to be improved.

“For us, if you fix those little things, you’re in a better position,” he said, “but you can’t do that against a good team.”

It’s not the last good team Michigan will face. The Wolverines, in a supersized Big Ten, host USC in two weeks, travel to Washington on Oct. 5 and host Oregon on Nov. 2 — all conference games. With a new 12-team College Football Playoff, though, there’s still a sense within the program that Michigan could return to the CFP. The five highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed a playoff spot, along with the next seven highest-ranked teams.

“Our season isn’t over yet,” defensive end Josaiah Stewart said, “so one loss doesn’t mean we’re out of the playoffs like we probably were last year.”

While there was certainly disappointment in the locker room after the loss, Warren said Michigan is “better than what we showed today.”

“We let them go too easily,” said Warren, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown when the game was out of reach. “It’s a really bad feeling because I know this offense, this team, has what it takes to win that football game and we didn’t do it.”

While this roster looks different than the national champions, Warren said the standard at Michigan hasn’t changed and it’s “no problem” maintaining that.

“It’s up to all of us to keep that standard high in every way possible,” he said. “That’s something we clearly didn’t do well enough today. That’s up to me to get better, to play better, and that sucks. Because you go into this game knowing there’s a lot at stake, you want to win. We have to take a good look in the mirror at what kind of team we want to be.”