Michigan Football needs to get Zach Gentry more involved

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh showed great vision by encouraging Zach Gentry to switch from QB to tight end and now, it’s starting to pay off.

No one has ever accused Jim Harbaugh of being boring or conventional. He has done a lot of interesting things as the head coach of Michigan football, but one of his best moves, might be convincing Zach Gentry to move from quarterback to tight end.

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For those that don’t remember, Gentry was Harbaugh’s first quarterback recruit in Michigan, back in the 2015 recruiting class. Gentry was also the second-highest rated prospect in that class and a four-star quarterback.

In fact, he was committed to play for Texas, before Harbaugh flipped his commitment. Yet, after the development of Wilton Speight and the signings of other signal callers like Brandon Peters, Dylan McCaffrey and John O’Korn, Gentry saw the writing on the wall.

Yet, Harbaugh saw an opportunity. Gentry is 6-7. He also runs the 40 in 4.7, which is pretty nimble for someone so big. So Michigan football allowed him to compete at tight end and now, after two years in the making, the move is finally paying dividends.

And if Michigan will continue to feed Gentry the ball, it will only continue to pay off more and more. We saw a glimpse of what he could do against Cincinnati, when he caught two passes for 41 yards, including a 36-yarder in the third quarter.

“It took a while,” Gentry told the Detroit Free Press of his transition. “It just wasn’t something I was used to at all. But this last spring, really, was a big confidence-booster for me. My rep numbers were up more, I progressed over the summer.

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It seems at this point, at least as a receiver, the transformation is complete. Now, it’s time for Michigan football to keep feeding him the ball.

Through two weeks, the passing game has struggled. But as the saying goes, a quarterback’s best friend, is a tight end. And Gentry should become a good friend to Speight, who could use one.

With Tyrone Wheatley Jr., Sean McKeon and Nick Eubanks, the Wolverines are loaded at tight end. And all four players are going to get snaps. After all, they have all earned them. But Gentry can be a difference maker and right now, this offense needs one or two more, badly.

And with the way Gentry was able to take a short throw and turn it into a big gain, Michigan should try to get him more involved.

Short, quick passes are what Speight needs right now. Not everything needs to be down the field. But that also means your receivers and tight ends need to create yards after the catch, something Gentry has shown he can do on multiple occasions, both against Cincinnati and in the Spring Game last year,

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So Michigan football should feed the big guy the ball. He’s a matchup nightmare and he’s a player that should see his role on the offense expand as the season goes forward.