Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh has to change who calls plays

Pep Hamilton seems like a good guy but his play calling is terrible and Michigan football needs to make a change immediately. That’s on Jim Harbaugh.

One of the biggest problems in the Michigan football team’s loss to Notre Dame last Saturday was the poor performance of the offense. The final score was 24-17 but one of those touchdowns came on a 99-yard kickoff return by Ambry Thomas, so the much-hyped Wolverines offense managed just 10 points.

It was another colossal failure for a Michigan football offense that has routinely let the team down the past three seasons. And despite the growth we were supposed to see at quarterback, offensive line and wide receiver, unfortunately, the game reminded of 10-point efforts at home against Michigan State and on the road at Wisconsin last season.

Those were two others game Michigan could easily have won. However, the offense, even with Shea Patterson, seems stuck in the stone age and something needs to change, now.

That change needs to come in the play-calling duties. Sure, Jim Harbaugh has a say in the calls but he is not the play caller. That title belongs to Pep Hamilton and it’s one he should have been relieved of long before but certainly after the showing Saturday.

Michigan Wolverines

Hamilton is conservative; has no imagination and treated Patterson like he was John O’Korn. Notre Dame came out with a quarterback that completed 49.5 percent of his passes a season ago and slung it all over. What was the result? Two quick touchdowns. Good things can happen when you push the envelope. Not all the time granted, but Brian Kelly had the faith in his offense and defense to come out swinging.

For whatever reason, Harbaugh didn’t. Michigan football started with eight runs and a bubble screen. It seemed like forever before Patterson was able to throw the ball downfield and even after a 52-yard completion to Nico Collins, UM continued to dink and dunk.

Hamilton is a smart guy, yet this team just needs something new and it’s disappointing if Harbaugh can’t see that. But this offense seems determined to play like a team that is just hoping to score 20 points and settles for field goals. Well, guess what? That’s not going to win you big games.

When you kick field goals against good teams, you lose. That’s the bottom line. And despite all the bad plays, if Michigan has scored touchdowns on all three of its red-zone trips, it would have won the game. Quarterback play and play calling are especially important in the red zone and Michigan football has been a miserable failure in that area under Harbaugh.

Wilton Speight, John O’Korn, Brandon Peters and now Patterson have all struggled under Hamilton and Harbaugh. So something needs to be done and in my opinion, Hamilton needs to be handed a pink slip. It would send a message and for goodness sakes, it would get the play sheet in the hands of someone else.

Harbaugh either needs to take over himself or he needs to hand the reigns to Jim McElwain, who in four seasons as OC at Alabama, had the Crimson Tide ranked in the top-30 in points scored each season. Yes, his offenses struggled at Florida but he never had a QB like Patterson.

Hiring Hamilton was a mistake and Harbaugh has waited too long to remedy it and if he doesn’t soon, this offense will keep falling short of expectations.