Ron Bellamy on Chip Lindsey's balanced, explosive Michigan offense for 2025

USA Today

01-06-2025

Ron Bellamy on Chip Lindsey's balanced, explosive Michigan offense for 2025
DETROIT -- To some degree, the Michigan football offense will be a bit different in 2025. Head coach Sherrone Moore dismissed offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell, who had the nation's fourth-worst passing attack, and brought in former North Carolina and Auburn OC Chip Lindsey to revamp that side of the ball.
With freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood and running back Justice Haynes, the Alabama transfer, there are still questions, but the Wolverines are more talented and now have a more experienced playcaller who should help the offense become much more formidable -- potentially in short order.
But what will the offense look like? Some say it will look radically different, but one coach for the maize and blue insists that it will still look like Michigan football -- at least to some degree.
'You'll have more explosives'
Semaj Morgan indicated that this offense suits him better, but what does that mean? We've heard there's a lot more 11 personnel (meaning three wide receivers on the field), but will the Wolverines go full air raid?
Don't count on that. But wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy noted that there is an increased emphasis on getting the ball downfield in the passing game.
"You'll have more explosives," Bellamy said. "He's balanced. I think everyone has his mindset. You go watch the film last year and see that Chip ran the ball with Omarion Hampton. Obviously, having Drake Maye a year before, but you follow Chip's career -- he's a balanced guy, but he's going to take some shots down the field. We're super excited about that.
"It's a little different brand of football, but we're Michigan. We're still going to run the football. We're going to throw the football. We're going to be balanced. We're going to play complementary ball."
Being more explosive doesn't mean that it's a wholesale change. After all, in 2021, Michigan was No. 2 in the country with 17 offensive plays that went for 50 yards or longer and led with plays that went 60-plus yards.
The players have bought in
Speaking less about Lindsey and the offense and more about the culture in Ann Arbor, after the Wolverines got back to campus following the ReliaQuest Bowl, the players got back to work. Through winter conditioning, they understood that the 2024 season wasn't up to the Michigan standard, and thus did as much as they possibly could to get back to what worked from 2021-23.
Now that spring ball is done, Bellamy is excited about what the team has done, but notes there's still a long time before fall.
"The kids, as soon as the season ended, as soon as the bowl game ended, they took some time off, got right back to work, and Coach Tress and his guys, and Tress' staff did a phenomenal job with the boys," Bellamy said. "We had a really good spring. I like where we're at. Obviously, we've got to attack the summer phase of what we're doing."
Summer conditioning will take place in June and July while fall camp is slated for the month of August.