Michigan Football: 3 reasons for confidence against Michigan State

Michigan made a big-time hire, MSU reshuffled

Say what you will about Jim Harbaugh but he wants to do big things at Michigan football and his willingness to hand over the offense to Josh Gattis is proof of that. It’s not about ego, just winning.

Harbaugh realized his offensive system and that of Pep Hamilton wasn’t getting the most of his players. The Wolverines were running the ball too much and throwing to guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and others far too little.

That will change with Gattis and it’s going to make Michigan football an entirely different animal. UM has as much offensive talent as any team in the Big Ten and with Gattis calling the plays, this offense could be truly elite. Bruce Feldman called him Harbaugh biggest recruit at Michigan.

Much like Harbaugh, Dantonio knew he needed to make changes to his staff. The Spartans finished 7-6 a year ago and were 126th in the nation when it came to scoring offense.

Yet, instead of making big changes, Dantonio just moved guys around, making his quarterbacks coach Brad Salem the new play-caller. Dave Warner and Jim Bollman, the co-offensive coordinators, were demoted to QB’s coach and OL respectively.

I guess an argument can be made for continuity. Michigan State does return a bunch of starters on both sides of the ball and their quarterback. Yet, he struggled mightily and so did the entire Michigan State offense. So is maintaining much of the status quo really going to change things?

In three years as Michigan DC, Don Brown’s defenses have allowed just 14.6 points a game to Michigan State and it’s hard to see the Spartans scoring much more than that. In the past, MSU might have been able to win a low-scoring affair, but now, with Gattis, that won’t be so easy.

And when you look at Harbaugh, Brown and Gattis and compare them to their MSU counterparts, it’s hard not to give Michigan football the edge again.