Michigan football opened the 2024 season with a 30-10 win over Fresno State at the Big House on Saturday night.

Here are three takeaways from the game against the Bulldogs.

When Michigan won the national championship last season, a key part of the team's success was its depth on both sides of the ball and the ability for multiple players to step up in key situations, even if they were outside the starting rotations.

In game one of the 2024 version of the Wolverines, it seemed like head coach Sherrone Moore wanted to test the depth on both sides of the ball as they did early on last season. Being able to go three and four deep at key positions is valuable and is typically a common theme with championship teams.

However, the coaching staff seemed to take the philosophy to the extreme against a Bulldogs team who came to the Big House fully expecting to win.

At one point in the second quarter, star Michigan cornerback Will Johnson missed the better part of two consecutive series' before finally getting his number called again, only to get beat by receiver Mac Dalena on a pass to the endzone down the sideline that should have gone for six points for Fresno State.

In the secondary, defensive backs Micah Pollard, Aamir Hall, Wesley Walker, Ja'Den McBurrows Quentin Johnson and others all saw meaningful snaps off the bench, along with of course Makari Paige, Zeke Berry, Jyaire Hill and Johnson, who started the game.

With Fresno being a pass-heavy team and the Wolverines playing a lot of nickel to counter that, it makes sense the Wolverines would want to rotate in the back end to keep guys fresh.

However, the level to which defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and the staff rotated at those spots could be considered excessive.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Wolverines took a similar approach, although rotations on the offensive line—particularly at center and right tackle, where there were close position battles, could be expected.

At wide receiver, the third spot was a question mark coming in, and it was Peyton O'Leary who got that nod early on. However, beyond Semaj Morgan and Tyler Morris, Michigan's clear top two receivers coming into the season, Kendrick Bell, C.J. Charleston, Fredrick Moore and O'Leary all saw action.

The receiver spot isn't a position the Wolverines are particularly deep at in terms of guys ready to make a big impact, so the deep rotations there were also interesting.

This one doesn't come as a huge surprise as the Wolverines have had to undergo a full transformation along the offensive line after the departures from last season's team.

Dominick Giudice and Evan Link won close battles at center and right tackle, with Myles Hinton (left tackle), Giovanni El-Hadi (left guard) and Josh Priebe (right guard) filling out the remaining spots.

Flashing back to last season again, the Wolverines' offense did take awhile for the running game to get going as that offensive line also had to work through some early links. However, that team had J.J. McCarthy to find big completions on third-and-longs and Blake Corum to drive his legs and fall forward for two or three yards even when there wasn't much of an open hole.

Obviously, those two players are no longer around, and Michigan cannot afford to live behind the sticks.

The offensive struggles (the Wolverines averaged just 4.4 yards per play), weren't solely on the guys up front. The pass catchers, outside of Colston Loveland (who had a monster game) have to get open. The QBs, whether that be Davis Warren or Alex Orji, have to make throws, and everyone has to play their part if this offense plans to be efficient and have success this season.

However, the success of Michigan's offense over the past few years has started up front and it's going to need to start there again this year.

The concerning part about the lack of open holes created by the line in the run game is that Fresno didn't seem to play a ton of heavy boxes, although they did crash safeties and corners into the box in certain situations.

Against Texas next week, the offensive line and the entire offensive unit as a whole will have to function at a much higher level to have a chance against the Longhorns.

One of the positives in this game was clearly the performance of the defense.

Despite the constant rotating in the secondary, the unit played at a high level and should continue to be a defense that keeps the Wolverines in games even when the offense struggles.

With the transfer of Keon Sabb in the offseason, it was going to be paramount that Zeke Berry stepped up at the safety position and took his game to the next level.

Against the Bulldogs, Berry made an impact and came up with a big play right off the bat when he made a nice interception off a tipped pass from QB Mikey Keene in the first quarter.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Paige came up with a pick of his own on an overthrown ball but was negated on a weak roughing the passer call. However, later in the drive, Will Johnson beautifully jumped a Keene pass and took the ball all the way back for an 86-yard pick six.

Up front, the Wolverines tout one of the nation's top defensive line units in the nation, and the group did not disappoint as they made life difficult for Keene and the Fresno offensive line all night long.

Defensive end Josaiah Stewart came up with two sacks, Rayshaun Benny had one and the interior line, led by Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, did their thing and helped hold the Bulldogs to just nine rushing yards and 247 total yards.