Latest news with #Wolverines'
USA Today
20 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Michigan football's passing offense doesn't need to be exceptional, just functional
When people don't expect much of a change to Michigan football's offensive prowess entering 2025, they may not realize that there's nowhere to go but up. The Wolverines' passing attack under former offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell with a trio of quarterbacks (Davis Warren, Alex Orji, Jack Tuttle) had the worst yards per attempt in the country. Not the conference -- the country. Averaging just 5.4 yards per passing attempt, it was literally half of the country's leader, Ole Miss. As a result, Michigan had the No. 127 offense ranked by yards per play -- brought down mostly by the ineptitude in the aerial attack, given that the rushing attack was middling, at 77th in average yards per rushing attempt. While pundits don't give much credit to the 2021-23 Michigan passing attacks, in the national championship year, 2023, J.J. McCarthy led the 15th-best offense by yards per attempt. It was 24th the year before and 37th in 2021. Even the lowly COVID year (with Joe Milton and Cade McNamara at the helm) was 70th -- again, in the middle of the pack. Part of it was the lackluster completion percentage. But Michigan was 61st in the country -- not a terrible mark overall, but certainly numbers that pale in comparison to 2023 when J.J. McCarthy led a room that was third nationally with a completion percentage of 72%. But the mixture of mediocre completion percentage with shallow depth of field attempt-wise meant that the passing game did next to nothing to help out the offense. Ranking offenses by 20-yard plays, Michigan was dead last, at 134th overall. It was 29th in 2023, 54th in 2022, and 44th in 2021. In 2021, Michigan had the second-most long scrimmage plays above 50 yards (though that included the run and the pass) with 17. The Wolverines were 129th last year with just two. The maize and blue don't have to be that explosive (they weren't in 2023), they just have to be functional and methodical. While many place the onus on Bryce Underwood to lift the Wolverines out of the doldrums, the true freshman doesn't have to be a hero in order to get Michigan to the point where it is capable. Cade McNamara wasn't thought of as a world-beater, and yet, he led U-M to a win over Ohio State, a Big Ten Championship, and a College Football Playoff berth. When pundits insist that Underwood has to be ahead of schedule (to which, ahead of the typical schedule or his own development schedule?) ignores who Michigan has been over the past four years. It didn't work last year, but the identity is one that has been likened to a boa constrictor -- the offense does just enough (or more) while the defense makes every possession crucial for the opponent. By the end of the game, the line play on both sides have worn down the Wolverines' foe, and the opposing team leaves the field broken, dejected, and with another number in the loss column. Michigan doesn't need Underwood to play hero ball at this juncture; it just needs him to run the offense. And it needs the offensive line to be better than it was last year -- something that would be aided with the promised, more-downfield passing game. So long as the Wolverines can get back into at least the middle of the pack in terms of yards per attempt, that will take a lot of pressure off of both the run game and the defense. And that should be absolutely doable for Bryce Underwood and new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey -- who had the 59th-best YPA passing attack, even after Drake Maye left the Tar Heels.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Paul Finebaum praises Moore's words but doubts Michigan's CFP bid with Underwood at QB
Pundits are all over the map when it comes to assessing Michigan football in the preseason. Though expected to be ranked in the polls entering 2025, a lot are saying that the schedule is too hard (there's only one team on it that was a College Football Playoff team last year, and Michigan beat them), or that there's too much to fix. But, as some who are looking at the situation more closely following the Wolverines' 8-5 season think there's a chance for a decent rebound. Appearing on ESPN's Get Up on Friday, Paul Finebaum and Harry Douglas both shared their thoughts on Sherrone Moore and the maize and blue, with Finebaum initially reacting to Moore's Big Ten media days comments where he said, 'don't let a speed bump become a roadblock.' "I like what he said there. It's hard to find a criticism of a coach who ended the season beating your biggest rival and then beating Alabama in a bowl game with almost no starters as a double-digit (underdog)," Finebaum said. "Sherrone Moore is saying the right things. My question is, does he have the right stuff as a head coach? He did a nice job filling in for Jim Harbaugh during all of the controversy. But he didn't show anyone much last year other than at the very end. He's gotta be more consistent. He does only the best quarterback coming into college football this year in Bryce Underwood. How long will Bryce Underwood take to matriculate? And if he can get him going quickly, they have a chance for a CFP bid, but I don't think they're going to make it. I think they'll fall just short." Douglas agrees with most of Finebaum's assessment, but thinks that just by having Underwood under center, if he is named the starter as expected, that will fix a lot of ills given the problems Michigan had a year ago. "They're gonna be better because the speed bump in 2024 was the quarterback position," Douglas said. "There's three games that I have circled: it's the Oklahoma game when they go to Oklahoma, it's the Nebraska game, and it's the Ohio State game. If they can go 2-1 in those games, those three games that I just mentioned, they have an opportunity to make the College Football Playoff because their schedule isn't hard." Fans will get an opportunity to see the new-look Wolverines on August 30 when they host New Mexico for the 2025 season opener at The Big House.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Sherrone Moore and Chip Lindsey aim for balanced, dynamic Michigan offense in 2025 season
Michigan football fans got a small preview of what the new-look offense might be in the spring game, but not fully. The team was in a split-squad, but not in an A offense vs. B defense sort of way, as the teams were selected via draft. So what Chip Lindsey brings to the table as the Wolverines' new offensive coordinator remains to be seen. What will be interesting is how he meshes with head coach Sherrone Moore's vision. As the former offensive coordinator for the maize and blue himself, Moore's offense was smashmouth, and there's no indication that that will change overall. In fact, as Moore said at Big Ten media days, while 'SMASH!' is the primary directive of that side of the ball, there was a lot more capability we didn't see, situationally -- but this year it might be different. "I think where me and Chip are really similar is just he wanted to do the best for what's best for our offense, what's best for our players," Moore said. "And even when I was calling offenses it wasn't about like I wanted to just -- people say, 'Oh, we just wanted to run the football.' That's not really true. There's times we did, but I wanted to be balanced. Sometimes that balance got out of whack because either I got mad or we wanted to set a tone, and we did that, but it's really about balance. "And people say we didn't throw the ball. J.J. McCarthy was quarterback of the year in the Big Ten, as voted by the coaches. So you can't say that we can't throw the ball when the quarterback is the quarterback of the year. So I really feel strongly that it's all about balance and he wants that." As Moore notes, it's all about balance, but balance doesn't mean equal reps of run and pass or even equal outcomes. But it is about setting the expectation, having prolific production from multiple positions, and keeping a defense off-kilter. And that's something that Lindsey is familiar with. "He's been a guy that's had a 1,000-yard rusher, had a 3,000-yard passer," Moore said. "Fun stat about Chip, he was the offense coordinator at Southern Miss that had 2,000 yard rushers and a 3,000 and a 4,000-yard passer, and I was at Louisville at that time and had like a 1,000 yard rusher and 3,000 yard (passer). So he understands football, he understands the game. "Where we're different, I don't know. There's a lot of different things -- we think about different plays differently. Not necessarily total philosophy, but Chip's not like a, 'Hey, I just want to be an up-tempo, spread guy.' He's a balanced guy and does whatever's best for your program and team. We'll have those elements in the game. We'll be able to do things like that, but we've always had that. We just chose not to do it as much, where we might, where we might not. I think that all depends on the situation in the game." Fans will get their first opportunity to see the new-look Michigan football offense on August 30 when the Wolverines host New Mexico for the 2025 season opener.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Michigan's deep linebacker group, led by Barham and Hausmann, eyes top front seven in 2025
When it comes to analyzing the Michigan football defense, most pundits look at the fact that the Wolverines lost Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, Josaiah Stewart, and Will Johnson and just assume that they'll take a big step back in 2025. However, the feeling inside Schembechler Hall is that it might have the best front seven in the country -- not just because of retooling the defensive front, but also because of the linebacker corps. One of the big things about the Wolverines' national championship run was the stellar linebacker play. Last year, it took a step back for much of the year, but eventually it got up to speed. Sherrone Moore says that what this group has at the moment reminds him of the unit from two years ago. "Probably eerily similar to '23 with those guys -- Mike Barrett, Junior, and Ernest and those guys," Moore said at Big Ten media days on Thursday. "This group might be deeper because of Ernest, Jaishawn, absolute freak show, Cole Sullivan, who's going to take the college football world by storm, and Jimmy Rolder. "Jimmy Rolder played as good as anybody on our defense, just needs to stay consistently healthy, and he's done that. And then you add a superstar freshman like Nate Owusu-Boateng and Chase Taylor. That's six guys that can play for you, so really ready to see what happens in fall camp and how they take the reins on that." Jaishawn Barham is the one who has been getting the most attention, not unlike when he arrived from Maryland as a transfer a year ago. It took him some time to get acclimated, but once he did, it was game on. Now, starting fresh in 2025, Moore expects that Barham will reach (or at least get closer to) his potential, given the multiple things he can do, especially now that he understands the defensive scheme. "6-3, 250 pounds, playing linebacker is really scary, but then he can play the edge," Moore said. "He can go inside and pass through situations and rush the passer, or outside and rush the passer. So he's the guy that gives you a lot of versatility and what he can do and how he can manipulate the defense." Ernest Hausmann is the elder statesman in the room, and there's a strong possibility he'll end up being a team captain once voting takes place in fall camp. Given that there's also been a lot of hype surrounding Jimmy Rolder and Cole Sullivan, he spent some time breaking down both at Big Ten media days. "We treat him like a third starter, because he truly is a third starter," Hausmann said. "And he's done a great job of being not only a reliable person, but also an example for other people, others to see -- young guys, right? Someone that he's stuck through it, right? Because in this day and age, it would have been very easy for him to say, 'You know what? I'm very talented, and I can go somewhere else to be a starter.' But the decision for him to stay is to figure it out. It just pays dividends. It just shows who he truly is as a person. I think he needs more credit than people give him, because who he is as a person is so incredible. "Cole Sullivan, when he first came in as a freshman, the first thing I noticed was his size, his build. And he filled out really quickly. And to see his unique skill making, and just to see his growth from first practice to now, I'm so excited to see what he's going to do this season going into his second camp." Fans will get an opportunity to see the linebackers in action on August 30 when the Wolverines host New Mexico for the season opener at The Big House. Fall camp is set to begin next Wednesday, July 30, in preparation for the season.
NBC Sports
4 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Michigan a value bet to win Big Ten, make CFP
Drew Dinsick and Vaughn Dalzell explain why they like Michigan over 8.5 wins, breaking down the Wolverines' favorable schedule and chances to win the Big Ten and make the College Football Playoff.
