Phil Steele Previews Michigan's Offense: Excitement And Concern At Once

College football expert Phil Steele joined The Wolverine Podcast this week to preview Michigan Wolverines football ahead of the 2020 season.

Steele went in-depth on the U-M offense as it enters year two under coordinator Josh Gattis, replaces former starting quarterback Shea Patterson and four starting offensive lineman and returns stars at the skill positions. Steele addresses several question marks surrounding Michigan's offense, and also talks about some of the aspects of Gattis' unit that he's most excited about.

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"You go in the first half of last year, and that offense struggled a lot. And then in the second half of the year, all of the sudden, I think once you got to the second half of the Penn State game, that looked like a finely tuned machine, and they were putting points on the board.

"Now that Gattis has been there for a year, everybody’s familiar with the offense, that’s going to be a big key. I love the skill players Michigan has back.

"I do think Josh Gattis’ system will work, and I like him as the offensive coordinator. I think he’s going to do a good job there."

"I think the possibility does exist [that the Wolverines receive better quarterback play this year than last]," Steele said. "Shea Patterson, the first play of the year, he seemed to get injured and wasn’t the same in the first half of the season. Got better in the second half of the season.

"The numbers were adequate, but I do think that whether it’s [redshirt junior Dylan] McCaffrey or whether it’s [redshirt sophomore Joe] Milton, the possibility does exist to improve on those numbers, especially when you’ve got receivers like [senior] Nico Collins or [junior] Ronnie Bell, [fifth-year senior] tight end Nick Eubanks. The possibility does exist this year."

"I think the Big Ten’s got pretty good quarterbacks, so it’ll be interesting to see.

"I went with Dylan McCaffrey edging out Joe Milton. I think, if you’re looking at these guys as far as arm strength and straight-line speed, you’re probably going to take Joe Milton. But Dylan McCaffrey’s a guy I feel is smart, cerebral, he’s a hard worker, I think he’s well-respected by the team. And, maybe not the arm talent, but I think when you look at McCaffrey at 6-5, 220, he’s a guy that can hurt you both running and passing, and I’m pretty excited if he does indeed win the job.

"My big question is, how are they going to protect him? They lose four NFL offensive linemen off of last year’s squad, so the offensive line is a little bit of a question to me."