Michigan Football: Wolverines have more in mind at tight end

Josh Gattis has hinted at a lot of changes offensively for Michigan football and after talking to a tight end recruit, it seems that position isn’t immune.

Ever since the arrival of Josh Gattis as the offensive coordinator, Michigan football has generated a lot of excitement among recruits, especially skill guys at quarterback, running back and wide receiver.

And with the mantra of speed in space being put out there by Gattis and the Wolverines, how can you blame those recruits, some of which even went as far as to call Gattis a “football wizard.”

Well, it seems that excitement is also extending to tight ends, as Gattis met with Michigan football recruit Theo Johnson last weekend as part of the Wolverines Junior Day and after that conversation, according to the Michigan Insider ($), Johnson came away excited about the offense.

Gattis hinted at a bit of a different role for tight ends in his system and that has to be an exciting thing for a guy like Johnson, who is 6-foot-5, 235 pounds and dynamic. While Johnson is from Canada, his prospects are the recruiting trail are rising quickly and even though he’s a three-star at this point, he has tremendous upside.

Right now, Johnson is the No. 11 tight end in 2020 according to the 247 composite rankings. He is also 459th overall, yet in 247 sports own rankings for 2020, Johnson is ranked 391st and is the ninth-best tight end.

While Michigan football isn’t necessarily hurting at tight end, adding a guy like Johnson would be a huge get and he’s the kind of guy that would fit perfectly in the offensive system of Gattis, who wants to create mismatches and get athletes out in space one-on-one.

In a lot of ways, Michigan struggled to do that before and not only with backs and receivers, but tight ends too. Zach Gentry is the greatest example of that.

Gentry, who came to the Wolverines as a quarterback, but then switched to tight end after his redshirt freshman season, was one of the most gifted athletes on the roster and once he reaches the NFL, that will surely be on display.

Michigan Wolverines

It’s not like Gentry wasn’t productive, he caught 49 passes for 817 yards and four touchdowns the last two seasons, but with his physical gifts, it was far below what he was capable of and outside of some drops, most notably against Ohio State, it was due to a lack of opportunities.

Michigan football certainly used tight ends quite a bit last season, with two tight ends being a huge part of their base offense. Yet, Gentry and even Nick Eubanks, another move tight end, just weren’t given the opportunities they should have been, given their skills.

Eubanks, who is 6-foot-5 and runs well, finished 2018 with just eight receptions for 157 yards a touchdown, which was a 41-yard touchdown catch against Indiana. On top of that, he had five receptions of over 20 yards, including two against Northwestern.

But even with two, 6-foot-5 and taller tight ends, that can run, Michigan football failed to showcase them in the offense and that lack of creativity proved costly. It’s almost criminal how little Eubanks and Gentry were thrown the ball, especially on short pass attempts, as both have shown a knack for gettings yards after the catch.

Hopefully, with Gattis running the show, that will be rectified. Gentry is going to the NFL but Eubanks will be around along with Sean McKeon, Mustapha Muhammad, incoming freshman Erick All and redshirt Ben VanSumeren. Then, if you add Johnson to the mix for next year and suddenly, that group is scary good.

There is plenty of potential at tight end and it would be exciting to see Michigan try to create more mismatches by moving those guys around more. It seemed especially with Gentry, a lot of opportunities were missed.

On the bright side, from what Gattis told Johnson, an intriguing target for 2020 and others, that should be changing and if so, the days of wasting offensive talent in Ann Arbor might well be over.