The majority of the buzz this offseason surrounding the Michigan Wolverines’ football team has centered around first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and the no huddle, spread out system he has implemented.
Fans got a brief glimpse of it in the spring game, but for the most part, the new philosophy remains a bit of a mystery.
The Big Ten Network crew swung by Michigan’s practice on Tuesday to get a look at the new offensive attack themselves, and interviewed Gattis afterward to get a better understanding of his methods.
They began by asking him to explain his offensive philosophy and identity.
“It’s an exciting offense,” Gattis exclaimed. “It’s predicated on putting defenses in conflict. We truly believe in gaining an advantage with numbers, angles and some of the RPO stuff we do in our run game, and making the defense defend 53 and a third on the field and all eligible skill players.
“We’re a pro-spread, and that’s what I tell people. We’re not just a spread offense — we like to keep our physical mentality and play big-boy football.
“We run all of our run schemes from inside and outside zones, and gap schemes. We’re still keeping the same mentality that everything starts up front and that we want to establish a physical presence.
“We also want to spread the ball around and get our skill guys out in space to allow them to be the best skill players they can possibly be.”
There is always a learning period for the athletes any time a new system is brought in, but Gattis revealed that he has been thrilled with the way his crew has handled the adaptations, especially the quarterbacks.
“Coach [Ben] McDaniels has done a phenomenal job with our quarterbacks, preparing them daily with the installs,” Gattis explained.
“We have a great group of quarterbacks — not just their arm talent, but also how smart they are at understanding coverages and concepts.
“To see those guys carry over what they learned from the spring to the summer has been outstanding. That was actually one of the areas I was most worried about, but they did a phenomenal job in 7-on-7s to help lead to success early in camp.”
Perhaps the most talked-about aspect surrounding the offense this offseason has been the fact that head coach Jim Harbaugh revealed right from the get-go that he would be letting Gattis call the plays this year, despite the fact that the rookie coordinator had never done so before.
Both Harbaugh and Gattis have insisted that aspect shouldn’t be a deterrent, however.
“Throughout the years, I’ve had some tremendous mentors, from [Jacksonville Jaguars offensive quality control coach] John Donovan to [Mississippi State head coach] Joe Moorhead to [Maryland head coach] Mike Locksley.
“The style of our practices have also helped me in that area, because we do a lot of calling in practice. We don’t script a lot of plays on a paper sheet — we come out here and actually get in situational football.
“That allows the players to have tremendous confidence that I’m going to put them in the best positions to be successful.
“Coach Harbaugh has been so supportive. I’m taking over an offensive unit who was top 25 in scoring last year, so they did a lot of good things.
“When you come in as a new coordinator, you often try and figure out what went wrong and what you can fix. Coach Harbaugh has been someone I can lean on — we talk a lot about situational football and I’ve been putting my mindset in those situations, so I lean on him for a ton of support.
“He’s been fully open and has bought in to the offense — he’s having fun and has seen how exciting this is, and has just been a great mentor to me.”
Notes
• While Gattis mentioned above that he has been thrilled with how well the quarterbacks have picked up the new offense, he admitted the transition has probably been the most difficult for the offensive linemen.
"Not huddling and playing at a certain tempo [are the main adjustments]," he began. "We can choose when we want to play fast and at certain tempos, but they’ve been doing an unbelievable job adjusting and buying in to the principles, and developing the identity of who we want to be offensively."
• Last year's de-facto offensive coordinator, Pep Hamilton, called the plays from up in the booth, and Gattis was also asked if he plans to be on the field or in the booth as well.
“My gut tells me to be up in the booth," he said. "I’ve never been in the booth though — it’s a challenge, because I call practice from the field and I’ve trained my eyes to see things from field level.
"I’ll probably need to be up there though because I’m an emotional guy and that will keep me from having rants on the sideline. We have an unbelievable staff on the field and they’ll help prepare our guys to execute.”
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