After Michigan’s spring game Saturday, the talk around the Internet was about Michigan’s new look offense. Here’s what’s being said about the Wolverines:
Cody Stavenhagen, The Athletic: At Michigan’s spring game, everything is about offense
After getting a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterbacks coach, after making shirts plastered with those painful scores from three losses last season, after losing two assistant coaches to hated Ohio State, after nearly four months of swishing around water and waiting for the bitter taste of the way last season ended to fade, people in the Michigan program believe things really are different now, that there is a new offense and new energy and new life.
They believe this primarily because they believe the offense under new coordinator Josh Gattis — previously the co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Alabama — will be better, faster and, more importantly, different. Gattis has said his team will not huddle. They’ll lean on putting fast athletes in open space, and they’ll have an experienced quarterback throwing the ball to those athletes.
But coming into Saturday, it was fair to wonder: How much would we really see? Major college programs tend to operate with a state of competitive paranoia when it comes to putting any new schemes on display before actual, meaningful games. This is why all those eager eyes opened a little wider Saturday when the Wolverines moved into the scrimmage portion and when the offense came out with these play calls:
A read option, Shea Patterson pitching to Tru Wilson. A fly sweep pitch-pass, something that isn’t necessarily new but can be effective if used properly. A counter handoff out of a split-back set. A shotgun pass with high-low route concepts, resulting in a deep Patterson completion. A mesh pattern that sprung open freshman Mike Sainristil for a touchdown.
That first drive was probably the most creative it got Saturday, though the first four drives featuring Patterson, Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton at quarterback all showed subtle signs of a new, more dynamic approach. On this first drive, though, Gattis called horizontal plays to spread out the defense, and then he let his playmaking weapons fly, going no-huddle and showing off-route concepts that simply felt faster and more advanced than most of what we’ve seen in Jim Harbaugh’s pro-style offense.
Aaron McMann, MLive.com: Spring game observations: Shea Patterson and Michigan’s new-look offense
Patterson looked the most comfortable, completing 7 of his 11 pass attempts, including a short pass to receiver Ronnie Bell that resulted in a 45-yard touchdown. Patterson overthrew two receivers, had to get rid of the ball quickly on another and was sacked once.
His targets included Bell, tight end Sean McKeon, Oliver Martin, running back Tru Wilson and Mike Sainristil.
McCaffrey used his scrambling ability on more than one occasion, including a run late that resulted in a touchdown. But he overthrew several receivers and looked inconsistent, and at times uncomfortable, in the new offense.
Milton, too, appeared jittery in the pocket and had several passes fall incomplete. Among the three quarterbacks, he threw the lone interception -- to linebacker Michael Barrett.
Overall, the offense was much faster, more up-tempo. They did not huddle once and the quarterbacks all worked out of the shotgun, offering up several opportunities to use the run-pass option. A lot of throws were crossing routes over the middle of the field and deep balls downfield, which validates new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ ‘speed in space’ moniker early.
No one will really see what Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ offense looks like until the fall when the season begins, but fans got a sneak peek during some scrimmage situations on Saturday as part of the spring game at Michigan Stadium.
There were no surprises in terms of the up-tempo and no-huddle aspects, and the quarterbacks, made available for media interviews for the first time this spring practice, said there is nothing they don’t like about what Gattis has installed. It is a complete departure from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s offenses here the last four years.
“It’s night and day,” said returning starting quarterback Shea Patterson, who looked sharp running the offense on Saturday. “We’re going to carry over some stuff from last year. But as far as similarities there are very few of them. It’s going to be fun. Just relying on playmakers.”
Michigan offensive players have said they’ve studied Alabama’s offense last year to see what Gattis runs. They’ve all embraced the change and challenge and like the more modern, up-tempo, attack-the-defense approach.
“I was just excited,” Patterson said when he heard Gattis had taken over. “I watched Alabama a lot last year. As soon as he came in, Day 1, just got with the installs and looked it over with him and couldn’t wait to get on the field.”
Nick Baumgardner, Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's new offense just makes a lot of sense
A thirst for nostalgia can only provide so much.
Eventually, you adapt or you disappear.
Jim Harbaugh's first four years at Michigan were heavy on the old stuff. Fullbacks, 22 personnel. Discussions about steel being inserted into one's spine and homage after homage to the program's storied past. There was adaptation, too, of course. But not much.
Now, with an obvious path in front of him, Harbaugh is going full steam ahead toward modernizing an offensive system that could help take his program to the next level.
"It just feels natural out there," quarterback Shea Patterson said Saturday. "(I have all these) playmakers around me and all (these) different ways we can get what we want."
Harbaugh's biggest change this offseason was the biggest of his coaching career so far. He scrapped the core of an offense he'd spent more than a decade fine-tuning and winning with, a system that made him a young coaching star and got him to a Super Bowl. He gave up his play-calling duties. He gave up the fullbacks and the grinding pace. Because he had no choice. In short: He did what good head coaches do.
When modern football forces your hand, you adjust. And entering Year 5 under Harbaugh, Michigan's new-look offense just makes sense.
Michigan had no other choice. The old stuff worked sometimes, but not all the time. Against top-level teams, it just looked old.
The Wolverines unveiled the basics of Josh Gattis' system last week during a public open practice at Michigan Stadium and showed much more Saturday during the team's annual spring event in Ann Arbor. They didn't show a ton. But they showed enough to prove change is happening.
Tom VanHaaren, ESPN: What we learned from Saturday's spring football games
Michigan's spring game was more of a public practice than a game, but it gave viewers a glimpse of the new offense.
Josh Gattis was hired as the offensive coordinator, and we have heard about his speed-in-space mentality but haven't actually seen it. The biggest difference, from what was presented in the form of a small scrimmage, was the tempo and no-huddle between plays. Last season, Michigan was often slow to run offensive plays, but that was so evidently different with Gattis that quarterback Dylan McCaffrey talked about making sure his endurance is up to keep up with the new tempo.
The offense lived up to its premise of speed in space, getting wide receivers Ronnie Bell and Mike Sainristil some big opportunities in the passing game. If this is what Michigan's new offense will look like during the season, it will be a big change from what we saw last season
Many of Michigan’s playmakers have been out with injuries this spring, including receivers Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and running back Christian Turner, along with incoming freshman back Zach Charbonnet. But the quarterbacks, including Patterson, Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton have had plenty to work on as they’ve absorbed the offense. Not that they haven’t missed those key players, but their absences have given opportunities to freshman receiver Mike Sainristil, and receivers Ronnie Bell and Oliver Martin.
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