Michigan Football: Josh Gattis calls QB competition a three-way battle

Michigan football is expected to have a heated quarterback battle this fall and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis talked about that and more with local media.

Josh Gattis brought a lot of excitement to the Michigan football program in his first year as offensive coordinator and heading into year two, with more pieces that seem to fit his system, as well as a year of play-calling experience under his belt, expectations are still high.

Gattis will have plenty of pieces to work with despite four starters on the offensive line getting drafted, as well as Donovan Peoples-Jones. Michigan also lost quarterback Shea Patterson and will have to find a new starter.

For the last two years, Dylan McCaffrey has been the backup to Patterson and saw some spot duty, as did Joe Milton — the two favorites to win the job. Yet, in one of Gattis’ more significant comments to the local media in a Zoom meeting Thursday, he said not to count out redshirt freshman Cole McNamara, a four-star recruit from the 2019 class.

McNamara probably understands the offense as well as either McCaffrey or Milton do and Gattis is right in the sense that it’s tough to evaluate players until they are actually on the field.

You can also bet that Gattis has a starter in mind. He and Harbaugh, as well as others, have surely had some of those discussions. There’s a reason McCaffrey was the backup last year, so unless Milton improves or stands out, you’d have to figure Michigan will go with the status quo.

McNamara’s development is still important though. If McCaffrey or Milton leave after this season, it would be nice to have another quality arm on the roster. QB depth is valuable and McNamara can help provide more of it.

Another key thing Gattis said via Anthony Broome of Maize and Brew is that the OC considers Michigan football to have three returning starters on the offensive line.

Most expect Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes to start at the tackle spots, while many also have anticipated Andrew Stueber starting at guard.

This just reinforces that idea. Gattis also mentioned Chris Evans and told the local media that he could see a Giles Jackson-type role after Evans worked with the team during bowl practices.

None of those things are particularly earth-shattering. You expect coaches to say things like “it’s an open competition,” I mean how many times has Harbaugh said that about the quarterback job.

Gattis sounded a little like Harbaugh in that soundbite, which probably makes sense because you can bet Harbaugh will have a big say when a decision is finally made.