A lot of people are offering up opinions about what is wrong with Michigan football. One who Wolverine fans tend to trust is Jake Butt.
Butt is an analyst for the Big Ten Network. He played for Jim Harbaugh. He loves Michigan, but he isn't afraid to offer tough criticism.
Recently, The Athletic asked Butt about what was ailing the Michigan football offense. He wasn't the only person asked. Plenty of fans and pundits have also been offering their opinions about what needs to happen, or what is ailing the Wolverines offensively.
Make no mistake, the defense is playing at a championship level. The offense doesn't even have an identity according to Butt, which is a huge indictment of Kyle Whittingham's coaching staff.
“They don’t have an offensive identity,” Butt said to The Athletic. “They’re going in each week saying, ‘How can I protect my quarterback?’ Rather than saying, ‘What do we do best?’ Their best run plays are Bryce read-options. In my opinion, Jordan Marshall is at his best as a downhill runner. I don’t understand his base run being him in Wildcat and doing fake jet sweeps with Bryce.”
Butt talked about Chip Lindsey, the offensive coordinator, who did a much better job than people gave him credit for. Bryce Underwood didn't run often. Butt told the Athletic it's because of the quarteback's inability to make reads.
“Last year, I give credit to (offensive coordinator) Chip Lindsey. We’d asked Sherrone, why aren’t you running Bryce more? But we’re seeing that Bryce doesn’t consistently make good reads anywhere, not even on read-option. Last year, Michigan decided they were gonna run downhill with their running backs. And get into play-action off of that, using the tight ends — who have been nonexistent this season.”
What does this mean for Michigan's offense moving forward?
The Michigan football coaching staff saw a team that was rushing for 210 yards per game and 5.8 yards per attempt, with a built-in identity, and went away from it. That's what is hard to fathom.
Butt said the blocking schemes "make no sense," especially with the way Michigan football is leaving so many players unblocked at the line of scrimmage. Butt also thinks Tommy Carr should play.
Others want to blame Jason Beck. There seems to be a consensus that he's not doing a great job, regardless of what you think about Underwood. The thing about Carr is that he can read a defense. He doesn't have an elite arm, but he throws it better, and runs it better than I expected.
That was spring ball, though.
Underwood deserves the chance to right the ship. Beck does, too. If Michigan football has to bring Underwood along more slowly than expected, then it should invest in the downhill running game.
Let everyone else on the offense do what they do best, or risk throwing away the entire season, which is already on the brink.
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