OFF &

SPORTSTUESDAY

First look at Gattis’ offense offers mixed bag

Two Michigan offensive staffers 
paced briskly back and forth from 
the sideline to the edge of the field. 
There were hand motions and wild 
gesticulations, some yelling and al-
ternative forms of communication. 
Behind him, another dutiful staffer 
held signs — a Nike swoosh coating 
one side. From the press box, Josh 
Gattis looked on, stoic, conducting 
his orchestra from a perch.
Moments later, senior quarterback 
Shea Patterson handed the ball to 
sophomore running back Christian 
Turner. A gain of two yards. Then 
onto the next play.
Gattis was hired to be Michigan’s 
offensive coordinator exactly 
234 days ago. Much of the time 
since has been spent speculating 
as to what his offense might look 
like. There were expectations of 

improvement from a unit that 
plainly needed overhauling. There 
were well-publicized promises of 
“speed in space”. There were rave 
reviews from those in and around 
the program.
Saturday, finally, it was all there for 
the public to see in the Wolverines’ 
40-21 season-opening win over 
Middle Tennessee State.
The early returns? Some good, 
some bad and plenty to digest.
“Lot of good things,” said Mich-
igan coach Jim Harbaugh. “Still, 
we know, we’ve seen in practice 
that we can operate cleaner. That’s 
what we’re all going to strive for 
this week in practice. As I said 
at first, this is a new offense. I 
thought for a first time out, it was 
good. Could it be better? Yeah, 
sure. And that’s what we’ll be 
striving for.”
The night began, though, with a 
thud back to reality. On the Wol-
verines’ first play from scrimmage, 

Patterson scooted for 11 yards, be-
fore fumbling the ball away. MTSU 
recovered and scored a touchdown 
three plays later.
“Obviously didn’t get off to a great 
start,” Patterson said. “I gotta take 
care of the football. A win’s a win, 
but I think everybody in that locker 
room knows that we didn’t live up 
to our standard.”
Overall, though, the statistics bear 
an overwhelmingly positive per-
formance. The offense totaled 453 
yards, with 220 coming through 
the air and 233 on the ground. 
Eight different players carried the 
ball on runs and nine different 
receivers caught a pass. The speed 
was there. At times, the space 
came, too.
Patterson followed up his initial 
miscue up with five consecutive 
scoring drives, including a 36-yard 
strike to junior receiver Tarik 
Black. Black featured heavily on 
the next series, too, serving as the 

vessel for two consecutive run-
pass options (RPOs) — looks that 
are integral to Gattis’ offense. That 
possession ended with a 28-yard 
touchdown catch by Nico Collins 
on a picture-perfect post route. 
That led to a gaudy first half for 
Patterson, who was 16-for-25 for 
197 yards and three touchdowns in 
the opening frame.
Gattis took his entire treasure trove 
and threw it out there. At times, it 
hummed. Others left more to be 
desired.
“I mentioned to someone earlier, 
I don’t know how many different 
plays we ran in the game, but it was 
a lot,” Harbaugh said. “A lot of the 
offense that we’ve been practicing 
we ran. It was all facets of it — 
play-action pass, drop-back, the 
RPOs, inside zones, outside zones. 
It was a good amount of offense 
that got called tonight.”
All of this, fan hysteria aside, 
should be expected from such a 

drastic offensive overhaul in its 
debut. Flipping the switch from 
a run-first, pro-style offense to a 
modern, spread scheme will come 
with its share of growing pains. 
After the game, Harbaugh lament-
ed some of the penalties and 
miscommunication that clouded 
Saturday’s performance. Michi-
gan completed just one of its first 
eight passes in the second half, and 
had just 23 passing yards after the 
break. The two-quarterback looks 
and newfangled option sets often 
appeared disjointed or ill-con-
ceived.
But the framework is there. And 
any struggles, Patterson crucially 
deduced after the game, does not 
stem from any identity crisis.
“Overall, pretty darn good for the 
first time seeing a new offense,” 
Harbaugh said. “It’s come so far 
from where it was in the spring to 
now. Keep trying to build on it.”

Max Marcovitch
Managing Sports Editor

MICHIGAN 40 MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE 21

Alec Cohen & Alexandria Pompei / Daily Design by Jack Silberman

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 3, 2019

