Moore and Weiss take over offensive staff Harbaugh calls 'tremendous'

Michigan is replacing both of its coordinators in 2022. With Mike Macdonald back with the Baltimore Ravens and Josh Gattis electing to make a lateral move to the Miami Hurricanes.

While Harbaugh chose to hire outside the program on the defensive side of the ball with another former Ravens coach in Jesse Minter, on the offensive side he elected to stay in-house with QB coach Matt Weiss and OL coach Sherrone Moore serving as co-offensive coordinators.

Both coaches will maintain their position coach roles while also leading the offense. While it will be a group approach including all of the offensive coaches, Harbaugh will lean on Weiss to be the scheme and strategy of the offense in 2022. Weiss' game planning and strategy were integral to the Raven's success and were a huge factor in Harbaugh bringing him on staff in 2021.

"Matt Weiss is incredibly smart," Harbaugh said. "He is one of those persons that when you are doing a project, so detailed, thinks about it from every angle, plans everything out."

Weiss was the key to Michigan's strategy game plan for 2021. In previous years Michigan would struggle at times with the execution of getting play calls in and making tough in-game decisions. Not only does Weiss' analytic prowess help in those tough decisions, his attention to detail and planning makes it so Michigan already has those decisions made during the week. So when one of those 4th and short calls comes up, the Wolverines already know what they are going to do. This level of planning made Michigan's offense more cohesive and in rhythm throughout the 2021 season.

Weiss was an innovative play designer in his time in Baltimore, and he brought many of those schemes and designs to Michigan last season.

"I've never met a play (of Weiss') I didn't like. I always feel that our players can execute anything, just give them the chance."

Harbaugh has never shied away from his desire to run the ball at Michigan. While he has understood the need to modernize the offense and be creative in the passing game, he still wants Michigan football to play Michigan's brand of football. In 2021, that meant "run the damn ball."

While "speed in space" never seemed to grab hold, last season it evolved into an explosive offense that saw Michigan become one of the nation's most dominant rush attacks while still adding innovation and leading the conference in explosive plays of 20 yards or more.

The key to that was Matt Weiss' impact on the game plan and Sherrone Moore's impact on the run game, leading the nation's best offensive line. Harbaugh sees Weiss as the perfect counterpart to his football knowledge, and Moore as a combination of them both.

"We make the perfect blend really, between Matt and myself. And Sherrone is really the living embodiment of both Matt Weiss and myself."

Although both coaches will hold co-offensive coordinator titles, Harbaugh knows Moore's biggest impact on the team will continue to be with his position group.

"The most important, is that he is coaching the offensive line."

When Harbaugh first arrived in Ann Arbor, Tim Drevno was the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. The two roles are so demanding that Drevno often seemed to stretch too thin, and he was unable to make a serious impact with either position. Possibly lessons learned, Moore is deserving of the title of offensive coordinator after his successful 2021, but his focus will remain largely with that group and planning the run game each week with RB coach Mike Hart. Weiss is expected to be the play caller on game days.

Moore has all the tools to be a sole offensive coordinator and is a future head coach. Harbaugh made it clear that the reason the offense was successful last season was the fact it was a group effort from the staff. So while Weiss and Moore will get a lot of attention, his focus is on the work of the entire staff throughout the week.

"It's an incredible group. Mike Hart does a great job with the run game and the blitz protections. Ron Bellamy is another person like Matt Weiss, very detailed very organized very analytical. Grant Newsome is tremendous, will be a great coach."

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