Michigan Football: What’s next for Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines

The Wolverines suffered a somewhat shocking loss at the hands of TCU, so what are the next steps for Michigan football?

So, that didn’t go how we wanted it to. Michigan football didn’t look like they were ready to play the Horned Frogs, and TCU executed nearly perfectly.

Michigan had some bad luck on the officiating side, but the officials never should’ve been in the position to decide that game. TCU outplayed and out-coached Michigan.

It’s clear that the program still is not where we want it to be. While we’ve made phenomenal strides and have had two consecutive seasons that will be remembered forever, there is still progress to be made.

In this article, I’m going to give my thoughts about the future of the program (mostly next year). I’m going to analyze changes that I think need to be made, along with some positivity. Remember, the Wolverines did have a historically great season. Without further ado, let’s discuss some changes that need to be made.

Offensive playcalling

This is hands down the most obvious issue within the program in my opinion. With good playcalling, Michigan wins by double digits.

The entire season, I thought that we weren’t running the ball with JJ because we wanted to save his runs for the more important games. Well, turns out I was wrong.

JJ is the biggest weapon on offense, and the staff seemingly doesn’t know that he can run the ball. The first designed run for JJ came in the third quarter when the score was 34-16. Why did we wait that long? When JJ ran a designed run into the endzone against Ohio State, my confidence in the program was sky-high. It seemed like we were finally utilizing our quarterback. So why did we go away from that?

When you’re down near the goal line in a key situation, you put the ball in your best player’s hands and let him go to work. There was no reason to run the Philly Special on fourth and goal from the two. That’s where you run a Run-Pass option with JJ. Taking the ball out of his hands and trying to get cute cost the Wolverines seven points and tons of momentum.

After Roman Wilson’s touchdown was reversed (awful call), the Wolverines had first and goal from about a foot away. Even if Blake Corum were healthy, you do not hand the ball off in that situation. That gives the defense time to blow up the play, and that’s where goal-line stops come from.

You run four straight QB sneaks in that situation, and if you get stopped then hats off to the defense. There is no reason at all to not QB sneak that. Especially when the man you hand the ball to has only recently become a running back.

Now, I have all the respect in the world for Kalel Mullings. It’s clear that he is all about the team. But he should not get the ball in that situation. The only person on the field that should get the ball is JJ.

Honestly, all of my complaints are about our inability to run the ball with our more-than-capable quarterback. We cannot run the same play with Edwards going right up the middle every time and expect to have continued success. JJ needs to be able to pull some of those and run it himself.

I don’t know if any of those were actually read options and if JJ just didn’t want to keep it, but there were countless times where him keeping the ball would’ve resulted in a HUGE gain. The offense is so much more predictable when JJ doesn’t keep some of those balls.

Something has to change over the offseason. I don’t know if that means the Wolverines should hire an elite offensive coordinator or just change around the roles within the program, but the playcalling was atrocious and predictable all season long.

My success rate for calling out the plays before the snap had to have been close to 75%. Everybody always knew when a run up the middle was coming, or when a pass play was coming. Changes must be made if this team wants to win a national championship.