In its second and final season under head coach William McCauley, the 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.

Michigan finished the season with a 12–0 win over Western rival, Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons.

In the second half, right tackle Jesse Yont scored a touchdown, goal was made, and Michigan led, 28-0.

[2] A newspaper account of the game noted that the score would have been more lopsided except that the Wolverines gave up the ball several times "on fouls and off-sides.

Against Michigan, however, Western Reserve had the ball only five or six minutes in the entire games and, as one newspaper wrote, "was never in the hunt.

[9] On October 26, 1895, Michigan defeated a combined team from Lake Forest University and Rush Medical College, both located in Chicago, by a score of 40 to 0.

[1] A Chicago newspaper's account of the game reported: "Michigan was crippled by the absence of Baird, Senter and Hall, but the play showed improvement over last week.

Harvard was one of the elite teams in the early days of college football, winning three national championships in the 1890s, and the match between great squads from the east and west was widely anticipated.

There is absolutely no way of judging the relative merits of the teams, so the veil of doubt will add to the interest of the game.

[14] Michigan's offense had success in easily making holes in Harvard's line, but lost the ball repeatedly through off-side penalties.

"[14] The report continued: "The Michigan team deserves great credit for their work and the dash and spirit of their play.

The play throughout was clean football, devoid of all roughness, and they early on earned the good will and applause of the crowd by their fairness and ever-apparent desire to keep from making it a slugging game.

With respect to the Harvard game, Denby noted that the Michigan football team had traveled to "the distant and holy places of the East" and proved to the Eastern press "that we were farmers, miners, cutthroats, thugs and garroters, and to the reasonable people of the country that the men who came out of the West knew one or two games besides mumblepeg and marbles.

"[18] Denby continued that the loss to Harvard was "a virtual victory" and asserted that those best qualified to judge were of the opinion that, "given equal conditions," Michigan would have won:"We had traveled twenty-four hours by rail and rested less than two days before going on the field, we had changed drinking water and diet, we played before some thousands of Harvard sympathizers (though they displayed an impartial appreciation of the good plays of either side, and acted throughout in a thoroughly gentlemanly manner) and finally we played in the rain and on wet and slippery ground, conditions entirely new to us.

[21] In light of Michigan's dominance in its earlier games against Western teams, a larger margin of victory had been expected, leading one newspaper to suggest a two-point win was a cause for "mourning" in Ann Arbor:"There is mourning in the Michigan camp tonight over the downfall of the football team, for such it seems, when they managed to win from Purdue today, 12 to 10.

The defense was thought to be strong enough to shut out Purdue, however, but it was not in evidence, and the offensive work was ragged and dispirited.

He described the line-plunging of Giovanni Villa against Purdue as follows: "It was exhilerating [sic] to note how when Villa took the ball and plunged through the Purdue line as the beautiful lady in the circus jumps through paper hoops, the rest of the Michigan men slouched down the field, crushing and driving everything before them by sheer muscle and determination.

Michigan faced the University of Minnesota on November 23, in a game played at the baseball park in Detroit.

[23] The playing field was soft and slippery from snow and rain, and "the wet ball caused a good deal of fumbling, especially on the part of the Minnesota team.

The final game of the season matched Michigan against Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons.

[27] Due to the inclement weather, the field had to be "carefully scraped and sawdust scattered over the thin layer of ice" before the game began.

[28] Michigan's first scoring drive came in the first half when the right halfback, John W. Hollister, took the ball on Chicago's 45-yard line and ran around the right end for a 35-yard gain, a play the press called "a prettily-executed criss cross.

"[28] Later in the drive, Frederick W. Henninger fumbled the ball which rolled beyond the goal line where it was recovered by Richards for the game's first touchdown.

[27][28] The running of Michigan's fullback John A. Bloomingston, a Chicago native, was reportedly the high point of the game.

Bloomingston received the ball, and, dodging the tacklers, who sought to bring him to the ground, ran back the entire length of the kick.

Even the worried Chicago substitutes and coaches on the side line could not refrain from an occasional word of admiration at the perfect defense of the visitors.

[29] Following the game The World of New York wrote that the Michigan players had "clinched their claim to the Western championship.

[33] Keene Fitzpatrick, considered "one of the pioneers of intercollegiate sport,"[34] was the trainer (and also the school's track coach).

"[35] In his review of the 1895 season, Edwin Denby described the contributions made by the team's four leaders:"If to any one man above another credit is due for this result, McCauley should receive it.

Not only his splendid coaching, but his quiet, gentlemanly, kindly manner, his forbearance, and his abstention from the use of language too strong for the public prints, all had their good effect upon the team.