Phil Steele Breaks Down Michigan Football's Offense, Talks Breakout Players

Michigan Wolverines football took a major step back on offense in 2020, and it was due to a number of factors, but college football expert Phil Steele believes the unit will be better as it heads into year three under coordinator Josh Gattis.

First and foremost, the quarterback play from Joe Milton, who has since transferred to Tennessee, was sub-par for the majority of the six-game 2020 season, but the Wolverines appeared to have found something in redshirt freshman Cade McNamara, who completed 43 of his 71 pass attempts for 425 yards with five touchdowns, at the end of the season.

In Steele's college football preview magazine, he projected redshirt sophomore Alan Bowman, a Texas Tech transfer, to be the starter, but noted that it could be any of the three — McNamara, Bowman or freshman J.J. McCarthy who winds up winning the job.

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He believes that whoever wins the job will be better than the overall quarterback play a year ago.

But the biggest reason why Steele feels that the offense as a whole will have made strides this season is the offensive line, a group that flashed potential last season but was plagued with injuries and never had a consistent five in the game.

"I’m going to draw one big circle on the offense, and that’s the offensive line," Steele told TheWolverine.com. "Last year, they lost four NFL Draft picks, they had 17 career starts returning. Both starting offensive tackles — Jalen Mayfield (now with Atlanta Falcons) and [redshirt sophomore] Ryan Hayes — missed the last four games with injuries, so this was a banged up offensive line that was inexperienced."

The bunch in the trenches lost Mayfield to the NFL, but returns every other player who saw game action, with the exception of center Zach Carpenter, who transferred to Indiana this offseason.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh said recently that Hayes is near lock to start at left tackle, and freshman guard Zak Zinter and redshirt junior tackle Andrew Stueber are both solidified as starters as well. Zinter could move over to center if needed, and Stueber has the ability to play guard. It's all about finding the top five players and plugging them in, Harbaugh insisted, and that's a good sign for the trajectory of the group.