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