Jim Harbaugh hired new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis to lead his Michigan Wolverines football team’s offense for one reason — to get the most out of his personnel. While Harbaugh has insisted this would be a ‘no huddle’ offense, it’s unlikely that’s the only direction it will go 100 percent of the time.
U-M’s linemen trimmed down this summer in preparation for more of the up-tempo they saw this spring, but senior captain and guard Ben Bredeson was clear in that this wasn’t just a finesse offense. They still work diligently on getting the needed yard on fourth and one, and they have multiple looks.
Michigan Wolverines Football: Several Questions As Practice Starts Today
Four-Star OT Zak Zinter Confirms He'll Enroll Early At Michigan
“We’ve been doing a lot more running this year. We’ll be playing more snaps, so we need to be able to hang in there for longer times,” he said. “It pays dividends for us later on. Defenses get more tired. Typically, as an offensive line you can hang in there a little longer than the defensive line can, and that’s only going to pay dividends later in games. Hopefully we can run defensive linemen and linebackers and get them tired.
“But we can go as fast or slow as we want. When we say up tempo, it just means we can go up tempo. It doesn’t mean we have to.”
And there will be times they won't.
Two Big Ten schools, Ohio State and Penn State, ran higher tempo offenses than Gattis did at Alabama as co-coordinator. Plays per game are also dictated by a team’s defense, of course, and the Crimson Tide’s could be dominant. But by all accounts, the 2019 Wolverines will be somewhere in between when it comes to hurry-up. It won’t be Indiana, but it will be much faster than Michigan fans have seen in Harbaugh’s first four years.
“It’s ideal, and we really ran it at an elite level throughout spring,” Bredeson said. “I think it’s only going to get better through the summer and into August.
“I love coach Gattis’ offense; I love the way it works. I love the way you can get playmakers the ball at any given play, no matter what’s called. I’m fully on board with this, and I think I speak for the entire O-line and offense when I say we’re all behind him.”
It wasn’t always that way, he admitted. Bredeson was skeptical when Gattis first arrived, wondering if the personnel fit the vision. Even former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer expressed recently that much of U-M’s success this season would be dictated by how quickly and efficiently the players picked up the new offense.
Bredeson is now firmly on board, and his teammates are, too. The offensive line lost weight across the board in preparation and the quarterbacks — the most important pieces of the no-huddle puzzle — seem to be a great fit. They both looked good by the end of spring.
“It’s their play-making ability,” Harbaugh said of the move. “Their ability to operate as a passer and a runner; how explosive they both are, Shea [Patterson] with his ability to make quick decisions. The shotgun really fits the RPO world. It really fits the up-tempo [style]. They both like it.”
The other being redshirt sophomore Dylan McCaffrey, who Harbaugh said would play in every game this year.
Bredeson said the new offense stressed the defense this spring, turning short gains into bigger plays than they’d seen by getting the athletes the ball in space. Senior linebacker Khaleke Hudson noticed the difference.
“It helped us a lot., too,” he said. “I feel like it will help us a lot during the season. Going to spread, RPO stuff, us practicing against it every day against Shea Patterson, guys like [junior receiver] Donovan Peoples-Jones … we’ll get better.”
Penn State coach James Franklin, for whom Gattis shined as a receivers coach before leaving for Alabama, believes he’s a future star in the profession. He’ll spend at least the next few years trying to slow his offenses.
“He’s very driven … very competitive,” he said. “You hate to see people leave, but it was a great opportunity for him and his family [at Alabama]. He’s done a great job every step of the way. I expect him to continue to do a great job, and I wish nothing but success for him and his family.”
With the likely exception of the one time a year the two teams play.
There’s no question, Bredeson said, that Gattis has made an impact, and he’s excited to see it this fall.
“We’re really hopeful we can hit for some quick scores,” he said. “I think fans are really going to notice the difference.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @Balas_Wolverine and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
