Michigan Football: Do the Wolverines need a dual-threat quarterback?
Could Michigan football benefit from having a dual-threat quarterback, one that can legitimately run? The evidence says yes.
When it comes to Michigan football, there is no secret about what’s haunting the program right now and that is an inability to win big games. Highly-ranked teams and rivals have owned the Wolverines during Jim Harbaugh’s tenure. But how does UM change it?
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One thing that will help is the evolution of the quarterback position. For the past three seasons, Harbaugh has been just getting by, trying to get to his recruits. That finally happened this fall when Brandon Peters took over as the starting quarterback.
Now it’s all Harbaugh recruits, following the transfer of Wilton Speight and Alex Malzone. Essentially, the quarterback job is going to come down to Peters, Dylan McCaffrey and incoming freshman Joe Milton.
Milton is 6-5 222 pounds and runs the 40 in 4.8. He’s a pro-style quarterback, but does have some mobility. McCaffrey is in the same mold. Neither is a run-first quarterback, but both are comfortable running and doing things like the zone read. Peters is actually pretty athletic, but it’s hard to see him keeping the ball and taking off on a zone read option.
However, Peters 4.85 time in the 40, shows he’s not far behind Milton in terms of pure speed. McCaffrey also clocks in at 4.87, which is actually a little behind Peters. But still, both have shown the ability to run a little bit and should bring that as an option to Michigan’s offense.
While all three quarterbacks run around 4.8, J.T. Barrett of Ohio State runs 4.57. Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley also runs a 4.5. And each of those players killed Michigan football this season. Well Barrett did late in the first half, but we all know his resume against the Wolverines.
Following the loss to Wisconsin, I took a look at Michigan’s inability to run the ball against good teams and it was telling. Like clockwork, if the Wolverines can’t win on the ground, they aren’t going to win.
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The last game against Ohio State was better to start, but it still led to just 100 yards on 36 carries. Not good enough, not against teams like the Buckeyes.
300 yards plus is great against Rutgers and Minnesota, but UM has to find a way to hit the 150-200 range against good teams. Otherwise, the results will continue to be the same. Which leads to the question, could Michigan use a dual-threat quarterback?
Look at a lot of the top teams in college football and the answer is probably yes. Ohio State, Penn State, Miami, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Auburn and TCU all have quarterbacks that are at least a threat to run. So does USC, although he’s more of scrambler, but still he gets yards when he needs to.
When the Buckeyes were in trouble, they turned to Barrett and his second-quarter touchdown stemmed the tide. Had Ohio State been forced to rely on just its running backs to get things going or its passing game, like Michigan always does, it could have been a much different story.
Harbaugh is a pro-style coach and it makes sense that he would recruit pro-style quarterbacks. But since he came aboard, he hasn’t brought in a legitimate dual threat.
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Maybe Peters or McCaffrey or Milton will be so good it won’t matter and hopefully that’s the case. But if Michigan football continues to struggle against good teams, especially in terms of running the football, Harbaugh may need to be more aggressive in finding a quarterback that can run.