during the winter transfer window (12/4/2023 - 1/2/2024) U-M coaches were likely preoccupied with Playoff prep and McCarthy never gave any good indication at all what his plans were, and probably himself didn't even know at that time
by the spring window there weren't any good QBs left
there was a program failure to plan ahead for this moment during years prior, and it might just be as simple as: it's exceedingly difficult to sell an impact QB on waiting potentially 2 years as a pure backup for a coach that might be gone by then in a system that doesn't even like passing the ball vertically
WR recruiting and retention was just as big a failure; despite all the program successes, it's not a real good school to sign up for to play wideout, specifically given the relative disinterest to incorporate them strongly into the gameplan.. these are Nico Collins' stats just for example:
Sherrone will have to change the offensive identity in some ways at some point, to make life easier on himself going forward