When talking about offenses this week, there's a good chance that a lot of attention will be placed on Georgia's tight end corps, and for good reason: they're excellent. True Freshman Brock Bowers is arguably Georgia's best offensive player, and his backup is 6'7" former five-star Darnell Washington. I'm as guilty of this as anyone; a large part of the first-look article I wrote on Georgia's offense involved slack-jawed copying of Bowers' advanced stats from Pro Football Focus.
Michigan, however, has quite an impressive tight ends room of its own. Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was asked about Erick All, immediately expanded the scope of the question, and did not mince words when discussing their importance to what Michigan has done this year.
"Yeah, specifically Eric but I'll talk specifically for the group, too, because they're the unsung heroes of their offense. You talk about what's the most important position in this offensive system, it's the tight ends," Gattis said. "They allow us to do everything that we want to do. They allow us to be the physical, downhill run game team. We ask those guys to go out and catch passes but also protect for passes. They're really the Swiss army knife to get us going, and really that group is led by Eric All and Luke Schoonmaker."
Between All's touchdown catch against Penn State and Schoonmaker and All's deep receptions against Iowa that set up touchdowns, lasting memories of the tight ends seem to be from the pass game. Even greater value, though, came on smaller plays, from things like blocks that helped a run get three extra yards.
"When you have the type of tight end room that we have, it makes you complete as an offense," Gattis said. "I think coach Jay Harbaugh has done a tremendous job developing that room, as well, because even early on in the season when they weren't getting all the attention of the catches, those guys were playing selfless football. They were going out, we were asking those guys to make some tough blocking assignments in the run game, and never once did they complain about getting the ball. It's really been pleasing to see them have success later in the year in the passing game because they deserve it. Those guys are tremendous assets to our team and to our offense, and we couldn't be who we are without them."
For his part, Schoonmaker appreciates that the staff has found ways to make the unit a multi-dimensional threat. "Yeah, I think we've just been able to grow our room so much. Obviously just guys that -- we can do so much, and Coach Gattis has done a great job with getting us all involved with so many ways to attack defenses. It's been a pleasure to play for him, and we just accept anything he asks us to do, so it's been fun."
Mike Sainristil was asked how Michigan's offense can be both physical and explosive, and he sees it as two sides of the same coin.
I feel like the physicality or the explosiveness comes after the physicality in terms of the O-line creating holes for guys like Blake, Hassan, Donovan, tight ends, as well, a part of the blocking, and then receivers are blocking downfield to help the explosive plays continue, and then that just leads into the pass game," he said. "Physical -- the physicality of the offensive line allows Cade to have time back there in the pocket. Clean pockets allows him to have 7-on-7 vision, deliver balls the way he wants to, and then that's just how we like to do it, just physical."
Whether it's insert blocking, lead blocking on split zone, or getting open deep, Michigan's offense leans heavily on its "unsung heroes."
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