List of Michigan Wolverines head football coaches The Michigan Wolverines football program is a college football team that represents the University of Michigan in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ' s Big Ten Conference . The Wolverines have played over 1 , 200 games during their 132 seasons , winning 884 contests for a winning percentage of . 735 . The marks for wins and winning percentage are the best in college football history . Michigan has had 19 head coaches since its first recorded football game in 1879 . Mike Murphy and Frank Crawford , co - head coaches for a single season in 1891 , were the team ' s first head coaches . In his first season at Michigan in 1901 , Fielding H . Yost guided the Wolverines to the 1902 Rose Bowl , the first college bowl game ever played . Since then , seven other coaches have led the Wolverines to postseason bowl games : Fritz Crisler , Bennie Oosterbaan , Bump Elliott , Bo Schembechler , Gary Moeller , Lloyd Carr , Rich Rodriguez , and Brady Hoke . Nine coaches have won at least one of Michigan ' s 42 Big Ten Conference championships : Gustave Ferbert , Yost , Harry Kipke , Crisler , Oosterbaan , Elliott , Schembechler , Moeller , and Carr . Yost , Kipke , Crisler , Oosterbaan , and Carr have also won national championships with the Wolverines . Schembechler is the program ' s all - time leader in wins ( 194 ) and games coached ( 247 ) . Yost coached for the most seasons ( 25 ) and has the highest winning percentage ( . 833 ) of any coach who led the program for more than three seasons . Michigan had nine head coaches between 1900 and 1989 , each of whom has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame either as a coach or as a player : Langdon Lea , Yost , George Little , Elton Wieman , Kipke , Crisler , Oosterbaan , Elliott , and Schembechler . The Wolverines ' current head coach is Brady Hoke , who was hired in January 2011 . Statistical leaders . Most overall wins < br > 1 . Bo Schembechler ( 194 ) < br > 2 . Fielding H . Yost ( 165 ) < br > 3 . Lloyd Carr ( 122 ) < br > 4 . Fritz Crisler ( 71 ) < br > 5 . Bennie Oosterbaan ( 63 ) Most Big Ten wins < br > 1 . Bo Schembechler ( 143 ) < br > 2 . Lloyd Carr ( 81 ) < br > 3 . Bennie Oosterbaan ( 44 ) < br > 4 . Fielding H . Yost ( 42 ) < br > 4 . Fritz Crisler ( 42 ) Highest overall winning percentage < br > 1 . William Ward ( . 900 ) < br > 2 . William McCauley ( . 875 ) < br > 3 . Gustave Ferbert ( . 875 ) < br > 4 . Fielding H . Yost ( . 833 ) < br > 5 . Fritz Crisler ( . 806 ) Highest Big Ten winning percentage < br > 1 . Bo Schembechler ( . 855 ) < br > 2 . Fielding H . Yost ( . 796 ) < br > 3 . Lloyd Carr ( . 779 ) < br > 4 . Fritz Crisler ( . 777 ) < br > 5 . Gary Moeller ( . 775 ) Lowest overall winning percentage < br > 1 . Rich Rodriguez ( . 405 ) < br > 2 . Frank Crawford / Mike Murphy ( co - head coaches in 1891 ) ( . 444 ) < br > 3 . Bump Elliott ( . 547 ) < br > 4 . Elton Wieman ( . 594 ) < br > 5 . Harry Kipke ( . 632 ) Lowest Big Ten winning percentage < br > 1 . Rich Rodriguez ( . 250 ) < br > 2 . Bump Elliott ( . 485 ) < br > 3 . Elton Wieman ( . 500 ) < br > 4 . Harry Kipke ( . 560 ) < br > 5 . Langdon Lea ( . 600 ) Big Ten championships < br > 1 . Bo Schembechler ( 13 ) < br > 2 . Fielding H . Yost ( 10 ) < br > 3 . Lloyd Carr ( 5 ) < br > 4 . Harry Kipke ( 4 ) < br > 5 . Gary Moeller and Bennie Oosterbaan ( each with 3 ) National championships < br > 1 . Fielding H . Yost ( 6 ) < br > 2 . Harry Kipke ( 2 ) < br > 3 . Fritz Crisler ( 1 ) < br > 3 . Bennie Oosterbaan ( 1 ) < br > 3 . Lloyd Carr ( 1 ) The only Michigan head coaches with more than one post - season win are Lloyd Carr with six , Bo Schembechler with five , and Gary Moeller with four . Profiles . Murphy and Crawford ( 1891 ) . Although Michigan began fielding a football team in 1879 , the first season in which the team had a coaching staff was 1891 . While official sources list only Mike Murphy and Frank Crawford as the coaches of the 1891 team , the " Chicago Daily Tribune " reported in November 1891 that the Michigan team was " coached systematically " by Murphy , Crawford , Horace Greely Prettyman and James Duffy . After leaving Michigan , Murphy was the athletic trainer at the University of Pennsylvania for many years and coached the American track athletes at the Summer Olympics in 1900 , 1908 , and 1912 . The " Washington Post " in 1913 called Murphy " the father of American track athletics . " He was considered the premier athletic trainer of his era and was said to have " revolutionized the methods of training athletes and reduced it to a science . " Crawford went on to coach at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , the University of Nebraska – Lincoln , the University of Texas at Austin , and Nebraska Wesleyan University . Frank Barbour ( 1892 – 1893 ) . In 1892 , Yale graduate Frank Barbour took over as head coach and led the Wolverines to a 14 – 8 record in two seasons as head coach . William McCauley ( 1894 – 1895 ) . Medical student William McCauley took over in 1894 and led the team to a 17 – 2 – 1 record from 1894 to 1895 . The 1895 team compiled an 8 – 1 record , won seven of their games by shutouts , and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14 . The sole loss in McCauley ' s final year was a 4 – 0 loss to Harvard , then one of the three great football powers . Undefeated against Western opponents , the 1895 Wolverines laid claim to Michigan ' s first Western football championship . William Ward ( 1896 ) . William Ward was the head coach for the 1896 team . Ward ' s team won the first nine consecutive games by a combined score of 256 to 4 . In the final game of the season , the team lost a close game to Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s University of Chicago team by a score of 7 – 6 . In his one season as head coach , Ward compiled a 9 – 1 record , which stands as the best winning percentage ( . 900 ) among all 18 Michigan football head coaches . Gustave Ferbert ( 1897 – 1899 ) . In 1897 , Michigan ' s former star halfback Gustave Ferbert took over as head coach . The 1898 team coached by Ferbert finished with a perfect 10 – 0 record and won Michigan ' s first Western Conference championship . In May 1900 , amid the Klondike Gold Rush , Ferbert resigned as Michigan ' s head coach and left for Alaska to search for gold . After several years in the Klondike , Ferbert emerged in 1909 having become wealthy from his gold finds . Langdon " Biffy " Lea ( 1900 ) . With the departure of Ferbert , Michigan hired three - time Princeton All - American " Biffy " Lea to coach the 1900 team . Lea led the 1900 team to a 7 – 2 – 1 and a fifth place finish in the Western Conference . Ninety years of Hall of Fame inductees . Beginning with Lea , all nine individuals who served as head coach at Michigan during the 90 years from 1900 to 1989 have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame either as a player or coach . They are Lea , Fielding " Hurry Up " Yost , George Little , Elton " Tad " Wieman , Harry Kipke , Fritz Crisler , Bennie Oosterbaan , Bump Elliott , and Bo Schembechler . Fielding H . Yost ( 1901 – 1923 , 1925 – 1926 ) . Fielding H . Yost has the longest tenure among Michigan head coaches , holding the position for 25 seasons from 1901 – 1923 and 1925 – 1926 . His famed " Point - a - Minute " teams from 1901 to 1905 outscored opponents 2 , 821 to 42 . The 1901 team was undefeated and unscored upon , having won all eleven games by a combined score of 550 to 0 , including a 49 – 0 victory over Stanford in the first bowl game , the 1902 Rose Bowl . George Little ( 1924 ) . When Yost retired after the 1923 football season , his assistant George Little took over as the new head coach . Little served only one year in the position , leading the 1924 team to a 6 – 2 record . Little later served as the football coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , athletic director at Rutgers University , and executive secretary of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame . Elton " Tad " Wieman ( 1927 – 1928 ) . In 1925 , Yost returned to the position of head coach through the end of the 1926 season . In 1927 , assistant coach Elton " Tad " Wieman took over as head coach and led the Wolverines to a 9 – 6 record in two years as head coach . Harry Kipke ( 1929 – 1937 ) . In 1929 , Michigan ' s former All - American halfback Harry Kipke was hired to replace Wieman . In his first year as head coach , the Wolverines finished in an eighth place tie in the Big Ten with a 5 – 3 – 1 record . However , Kipke quickly turned things around , leading the Wolverines to four straight conference championships and two national titles between 1930 and 1933 . The 1932 and 1933 national championships teams did not lose any games . Kipke called his system " a punt , a pass , and a prayer " and reportedly coined the phrase , " A great defense is a great offense . " In 1934 , Kipke ’ s Wolverines fell from national champions to a tenth place finish in the conference with a 1 – 7 record . Between 1934 and 1937 , Kipke ' s team accumulated a 12 – 22 record . Fritz Crisler ( 1938 – 1947 ) . Fritz Crisler took over as head coach at Michigan in 1938 and remained in that position through the 1947 season . Crisler is best known as " the father of two - platoon football , " an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and defense . Crisler developed two - platoon football while serving as Michigan ' s head coach . Crisler also introduced the distinctive winged football helmet to the Michigan Wolverines in 1938 . Crisler ' s 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team , dubbed the " Mad Magicians , " has been selected as the best team in the history of Michigan football . Bennie Oosterbaan ( 1948 – 1958 ) . Crisler retired as head coach after the 1947 season to become the school ' s full - time athletic director . He appointed his former assistant , Bennie Oosterbaan as the new head football coach . In the mid - 1920s , Oosterbaan was a three - time first team All - American football end , a two - time All - American basketball player , and an All - Big Ten Conference baseball player . As recently as 2003 , Oosterbaan was selected by " Sports Illustrated " as the fourth greatest athlete in the history of the State of Michigan . In his first year as the head coach of the football team , the 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team won an Associated Press national championship . His 1950 team won the 1951 Rose Bowl . Oosterbaan also coached the baseball and basketball teams at Michigan . Bump Elliott ( 1959 – 1968 ) . In 1959 , Bump Elliott took over as head coach . Elliott had played halfback for Fritz Crisler ' s Michigan teams in 1946 and 1947 and won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the conference in 1947 . He was Michigan ' s head coach for ten years from 1959 to 1968 . His 1964 team won a Big Ten Conference championship and the 1965 Rose Bowl . He later served as the athletic director at the University of Iowa from 1970 to 1991 , hiring such coaches as Dan Gable , Hayden Fry , Lute Olson , C . Vivian Stringer , and Dr . Tom Davis . Bo Schembechler ( 1969 – 1989 ) . Bo Schembechler served as Michigan ' s head coach for 21 years from 1969 to 1989 . He is the winningest head coach in Michigan history with 194 wins . His teams won 13 Big Ten Conference championships . Gary Moeller ( 1990 – 1994 ) . Gary Moeller was named Michigan ' s head coach after Schembechler ' s retirement . During his five seasons as head coach ( 1990 – 1994 ) , the Wolverines had a record of 44 – 13 – 3 and won or shared conference titles in 1990 , 1991 and 1992 . Moeller resigned in May 1995 after tapes were released of his alleged drunken outburst following an arrest on a charge of disorderly conduct at a restaurant in Southfield , Michigan . Lloyd Carr ( 1995 – 2007 ) . Following Moeller ' s resignation , Lloyd Carr took over as Michigan ' s head football coach . Carr held the position for 13 years from 1995 to 2007 . Under Carr , the Wolverines compiled a record of 122 – 40 and won or shared five Big Ten Conference titles ( 1997 , 1998 , 2000 , 2003 , and 2004 ) . Carr ' s 1997 team was declared the national champion by the Associated Press . Carr also compiled a record of 19 – 8 against teams ranked in the Top 10 . Rich Rodriguez ( 2008 – 2010 ) . In December 2007 , Rich Rodriguez was hired as the head football coach at Michigan . Prior to joining Michigan , Rodriguez was the head coach at West Virginia University for seven years . In his three seasons as Michigan ' s head coach , Rodriguez compiled a record of 15 – 22 , including a mark of 6 – 18 in Big Ten Conference games . His winning percentage of . 405 overall and . 250 in Big Ten play are the lowest among all 18 individuals to serve as Michigan ' s head football coach . Brady Hoke ( 2011 – present ) . Brady Hoke was hired as Michigan ' s new head football coach in January 2011 . He had previously been the defensive line coach at Michigan ( 1995 – 2002 ) and a head coach at Ball State University ( 2003 – 2008 ) and San Diego State University ( 2009 – 2010 ) . In his first season as Michigan ' s head football coach , Hoke compiled a record of 11 – 2 , as Michigan finished 6 – 2 in conference and second place in the newly - formed Big Ten Legends Division and then won the Sugar Bowl .