Michigan Football: 5 questions facing the Wolverines after spring ball

Will Gattis and his speed-in-space offense deliver?

Right now, it’s easy to be excited about the offense. Heck, it was easy to be excited about the offense last season, all the way up until the Ohio State game that is.

That’s when it all came crashing down. It was that loss that also seemed to spur the massive change made by Harbaugh, one that will have a huge impact on his legacy as Michigan football head coach.

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If the offense is great and the Wolverines beat Ohio State next season or even the year after, it will be a genius move. If things don’t change, it will be again all for not. As always, success will be measured by beating the Buckeyes and like it or not, Gattis was brought on to help Michigan do exactly that.

The Wolverines generally have enough talent to bully teams like Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin and the like. They will lose some games, but UM teams like last year and in 2016, with a decent quarterback, just have too much talent. When it comes to putting guys in the NFL, Michigan and Ohio State are the two elite programs in the Big Ten and it’s not close.

Harbaugh has done a great job of getting Michigan back among the top 2-3 teams in the conference. UM has contended in the Big Ten East in three of four seasons and won 10 games. It even had a shot at the playoff, a realistic shot in 2016 and 2018 only to fall just short.

But still, it hasn’t been good enough and fair or not, the offense is to blame. Harbaugh was running more of an old-school system with about four guys having a say in the play calls. No wonder the play clock was always at nearly at zero.

Now, it’s all on Gattis. For the sake of the young coach and more for the sake of Harbaugh, Gattis better be the savior Michigan football fans want and expect him to be. Otherwise, the losses to Ohio State will keep piling up — as will the pressure on Harbaugh, who has a team better positioned than ever in 2019 to beat Ohio State and win the Big Ten.

This feels like it should be the year for Michigan football, but will it?