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Michigan Football’s Offense Is Right Where We Expected

By Tyler Fenwick

Oct 8, 2016; Piscataway, NJ, USA; Fans of the Michigan Wolverines cheer during the second half of their game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at High Points Solutions Stadium. Michigan defeated Rutgers 78-0. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2016; Piscataway, NJ, USA; Fans of the Michigan Wolverines cheer during the second half of their game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at High Points Solutions Stadium. Michigan defeated Rutgers 78-0. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /
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Now that the Michigan football season is halfway through, we can look back at some of the things we’ve seen thus far and gauge where the Wolverines stand.

A quarterback who takes care of the ball but doesn’t do much to drop your jaw, a crew of running backs that can go between the tackles and get to the edge, and an offensive line that’s getting a good push and proving protection.

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Yeah, that sounds a lot like what we all expected the Michigan football offense to look like. And here we are, midway through the season, with the Wolverines meeting expectations.

Before I go any further with this, I want to dismiss the claim that Michigan’s offensive line hasn’t been good enough, especially against Central Florida and Colorado.

Those defenses stacked the box—I’ll argue UCF was right to do it—in order to make Wilton Speight, a first-year starter, beat them through the air. He obviously did that. When the Wolverines weren’t able to run the ball very well in those games, there was an obvious reason for that. Unless Michigan had rolled out a jumbo package on each down, the ground game wasn’t going to find success.

With that out of the way, back to how this offense has been doing just fine so far.

It starts with a quarterback who emerged from a heated competition in the spring and summer to be the starter. Speight hasn’t been spectacular, no, but he hasn’t needed to be. He’s completing 61 percent of his passes and has a great 11-2 touchdown-interception ratio.

As an added bonus, Speight has been able to throw the deep ball on occasion, a weapon Michigan didn’t have in the first half of last season.

Speight is throwing the ball to multiple pairs of reliable hands: Amara Darboh, Jehu Chesson and Jake Butt. The three have combined for 63 catches, 901 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.

Butt has made himself especially useful on crossing routes to the left side. Chesson has also been used occasionally on end-arounds, though most of those are going to freshman Eddie McDoom.

Running back Chris Evans has perhaps been the biggest surprise for Michigan this season. He’s leading the Wolverines in rushing with 400 yards and has three touchdowns. His speed is a great compliment to the more powerful styles of De’Veon Smith and Ty Isaac.

Another candidate for most surprising player is fullback Khalid Hill. You’ll have to go to the bottom half of the stat sheet to find his name, but he’s become a favorite of Jim Harbaugh and Tim Drevno down by the goal line. That’s resulted in a team-leading seven touchdowns for the human wrecking ball.

In all, Michigan’s getting 5.7 yards per carry from its backs, and their diversity is proving to be incredibly useful and effective.

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What the Wolverines have been doing on offense is not far at all from what we expected them to. It’s been physical, consistent, relatively mistake-free football through six games.

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