Josh Gattis Discusses What Michigan's Offense Needs To Break Through

Michigan Wolverines football kicks off spring practice on March 18. The Wolverines are losing a lot on offense, including four starting offensive linemen, but are returning some key pieces, as well.

It's also year two for the Wolverines' offense under offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. For Gattis, this offseason is less about installing a new system, and more about developing the players on his side of the ball.

"Across the board, I think this [offseason] is just going to be about player development," Gattis told former U-M All-American on his In The Trenches podcast. "Just developing our players that are on our roster, because that’s an area of growth in the spring that you’re really kind of able to focus in on the fundamentals, the details, the technique and not necessarily the plays. Just trying to get them the best they can be individually at their craft."

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With the Wolverines having a season under Gattis' system already under their belt, there's things to glean on from 2019 that will help in 2020, as new players have to emerge and come to the forefront.

"What we really saw toward the end of the year, is just understanding to do your job," Gattis said. "We don’t need any extraordinary plays or players. We just need everybody to do what they’re asked of them every single play. No one has to try to make a play outside the framework of the offense. Trusting the details that are laid in to them, but also trusting each other.

"A big part of trusting each other is holding each other accountable. I think that’s going to be the biggest area of growth for us from year one to year two, but this team is completely different.

"This year two team is going to be completely different. We’re possibly going to have five returning starters. We have a lot of guys that are going to have to step up and provide us with some leadership and some guys that will have to provide us with some depth."

One spot where the team will be completely different, is the quarterback position. With Shea Patterson graduating, it's time for either redshirt sophomore Joe Milton or redshirt junior Dylan McCaffrey to be the guy. That starts now and in spring practice, Gattis says.

"The biggest thing that we’ve gotta do, is we gotta maintain a system that’s going to be fair, that’s going to give all of the quarterbacks on our roster the opportunity to really push themselves and apply themselves to be able to compete for the job," Gattis said. "It’s often a challenge during the season, because when you have a starter in the past, your backups don’t always get the fair amount of reps. They’re getting them with the twos and the threes, but they’re not given the same opportunity as the starter. As compared to spring ball, we’ve gotta come up with a system of reps and opportunities, to allow each and every one of our quarterbacks on our roster to be able to compete with a fair amount of opportunity and reps. Whether that’s splitting time with the ones, whether that’s splitting time with the twos by rotation, it’s something we’ve gotta be able to manage, and it’s a challenge, especially when you have multiple quarterbacks.

“If the job is coming down to just two guys, then obviously it’s a two-way system. We feel like [redshirt freshman] Cade [McNamara] has developed, Joe has developed. I’m really excited to see Joe; I’m really excited to see Dylan. So, we gotta figure out a way to get those guys the equal amount of opportunities to be able to show what they can do, and lead this team in the direction we need them."

Gattis pointed out that the Wolverines competed closely with some of the better teams in the country, including Ohio State and Alabama, late in the year, but competing closely was not good enough to come out with victories.

The biggest area that needs to improve to be able to win those close games are the skill players.

"We played arguably two of the top four teams in the country the last two games, and we played them competitively for 90 minutes out of 120," Gattis pointed out. "You really need the full games, but the thing that stood out in those two games was the skill. That’s an area where we have to develop.

"Games are going to be won by our skill players, and they understand that and they know the challenge.

"We were much better at the end of the year than we were at the beginning of the season, but you need skill to take over games. You need that from your quarterbacks, you need that from your running backs, you need that from your receivers. That was an area at the end of the year where we didn’t capitalize and make the plays that were needed. That’s where we could’ve won those two games. You look at the receiver position, there were some big-time opportunities that we missed in those last two games that could’ve been difference makers in the game. It’s going to be refreshing this spring, to be able to get [senior receiver] Nico Collins out here for a full spring [after he missed last spring with an injury.]

The good news for Gattis, is there's talent returning at all of the skill positions, none more so than at running back. The Wolverines return both players that started games in 2019, in sophomore Zach Charbonnet and redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins, and also add fifth-year senior Chris Evans, who was not with the team last season due to an academic issue and freshman newcomer Blake Corum, a four-star from Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances.

"I feel like we have great depth at running back," Gattis said. "We’ll be able to make sure that our guys are competing at a high level. We have some guys back that have played, and we’re adding some new pieces that have played here before in Chris Evans. So, we should have some competition brewing there."

At the receiver spots, the Wolverines lose Donovan Peoples-Jones to the NFL Draft and Tarik Black to the transfer portal, but return Collins (37 receptions, 729 yards, 7 TDs in 2019) and junior Ronnie Bell (48 receptions, 758 yards, 1 TD in 2019), as well as sophomores Giles Jackson and Mike Sainristil, who were able to make impacts later on in the 2019 season.

"The leadership of Ronnie Bell and Nico is something that we’re going to lean on heavily," Gattis said. "As the year went on, you saw the emergence of Giles Jackson, Mikey Sainristil, [sophomore] Cornelius Johnson. We’ll be a much better skill unit, even though we’re younger. We just gotta be able to capitalize and make the plays that we need to make."

Gattis is especially excited about working with Jackson and Sainristil throughout the offseason and into the 2020 season, to build off of what the duo did as freshmen. Jackson caught nine passes for 142 yards and one touchdown, while Sainristil caught eight passes for 145 yards and one score a year ago.

"They’ve got a skillset to be able to create separation," the offensive coordinator said. "They also have the skillset to be dynamic with the ball in their hands.

"When you look out at the field, you gotta have somebody out there that scares the defense, that makes defensive coordinators think, ‘OK, where’s this guy aligned, how is he going to touch the ball, what’s the game plan?’ As the year went on, you saw those guys really make a difference in opposing defenses thoughts.

"They’re exciting, they’re young and they’re only going to get better. The sky is the limit for both, but they just have to focus in on the details and that’s something that they really take pride in doing."

Tight end is another position where there's a key loss, but also standouts still remaining on the roster for next season. Sean McKeon graduated, but redshirt senior Nick Eubanks will likely be the starer, with younger players like sophomore Erik All and redshirt sophomore Luke Schoonmaker contributing behind him.

"If you asked me specifically if there’s one position that is as vital as quarterback in your offense, it would be tight end," Gattis said. "Tight ends is the most vital position for us because of how much we ask of those guys. Our tight ends are not just great pass catchers, but they’re great run blockers, and then we use them in pass protection. So, they really are involved with every area of our offense.

"When you look at our room with the type of dynamic athletes that we have, in Nick Eubanks, Erik All and Luke Schoonmaker, those guys possess all those traits — they’re big, they’re strong, they’re fast, they can run, they have loose hips, they can catch the ball, they’re all smart. So, they’re really the kind of Swiss Army knife of our offense, where they’re asked to do everything, and a lot of times that gets overlooked. But, we could not play and could not be successful with our tight end group."

One of the challenges Gattis faces is getting the ball to all of the different weapons U-M has. As he said, he has "a lot of mouths to feed."

"When you have all the eligible skill guys that we have, it gives you a great opportunity to do [spread the ball around]" Gattis said. Now, are we there yet? Absolutely not. We still gotta develop. I think every skill position, for us, has an area that we need to focus on, specifically when you look at receivers. We gotta catch the ball more consistently. We had some big-time opportunities, whether that’s pass breakups or drops. I think when you look at our passing game, I’ll tell you an interesting stat, out of our 203 incompletions last year, we had 125 that were catchable, whether the ball was broken up or just dropped off the tip.

When you look at how many opportunities we had one-on-one in space, that’s an area we gotta improve, making the last defender miss, to be able to create explosive plays. These are challenges that I’ve presented to these groups already."

• Gattis said he learned a lot from being a first-time coordinator and playcaller in 2019 that he will carry with him into this offseason and beyond.

"There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot more than what you actually think, as far as managing players, managing coaches, managing your staff," he said. "I think that’s a big piece of being a coordinator. But also, being able to handle adversity, whether that’s rallying the troops and handling adversity among players or within games. Just being a voice of confidence and a voice of reason, that when the kids need someone to fall back on, they can look towards, as far as leadership."

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