5 Things we learned from Michigan Football’s loss to Penn State

Josh Gattis hasn’t worked out

If Harbaugh does return and right now, that still seems more likely to happen than not, he needs to do something different on offense because this whole speed-in-space thing isn’t working.

In fact, it’s probably fair to say its been an abysmal failure.

This is part of how Ohio State broke Jim Harbaugh. Following that 2018 game, the game that Michigan went in thinking it could ground and pound its way to victory only to get blown out, really seemed to change his thinking.

He tried to revamp his system and hired Gattis, who had no prior play-calling experience, to install a true spread system, one that was supposed to help Michigan football catch up with the big boys. Instead, it has set the Wolverines farther back, because now, this team has no clue what its identity is.

When Harbaugh arrived, his offense wasn’t fancy but it was effective. Michigan ran the football, controlled the clock and played good defense. It was a simple formula but it worked.

Was it too conservative? Maybe. But Wisconsin is probably too conservative too and I can tell you I’d rather be Wisconsin or Iowa than Michigan right now or Nebraska another program that tried to go all in on the spread.

There are a lot of curious things happening with play calls and more than that, who plays.

Like why did it take until the fourth quarter to take a shot to A.J. Henning? He’s clearly faster and more explosive than Mike Sainristil, yet over and over again, Sainristil was targeted. Same goes for Hassan Haskins who rushed for over 100 yards but didn’t get enough touches.

Gattis just feels in over his head and while I don’t relish the idea of another offensive system, this relationship just isn’t working.