Last week’s 35-7 win over UNLV was a glimpse into the diverse and evolving identity of Michigan football at this junction of its current regime.
For a program that has seen the conversation routinely dominated by their strident and galvanizing head coach, the changing of the guard at quarterback and making their name in the trenches with smash mouth football – it’s sometimes easy to glance over the methodical and principled approach that has taken the Wolverines from nerve-racking dread against their heated rivals in Ohio and deflating losses to in-state powers like MSU, to the newly crowned powerbrokers of the Big Ten.
With one game left in his program-imposed three-game suspension, the absence of head coach Jim Harbaugh has granted the fans and viewing public a unique chance to see the other leaders of Michigan’s coaching staff speak to what a special group of players and staff the university has collected to make them a consensus Top 5 team in the nation.
Harbaugh Nightmares
In a somewhat ironic twist, it would be Wolverines special teams coordinator – and Jim’s eldest son, Jay Harbaugh, acting as head coach for the first half with UNLV.
While he spoke positively about the well-oiled machine that his father has built the team into, and the privilege of working with players at such a high level, perhaps no player earned more glowing praise than quarterback JJ McCarthy, who Harbaugh acknowledged was giving him nightmares leading into the season. When asked about the improved ball-placement the Wolverines starting QB has demonstrated early, Harbaugh shared his thoughts.
“Yeah, I was on the wrong end of that for a lot of spring ball and training camp – being with the defensive backs,” he said. “He throws a high enough volume of balls throughout a practice where you’re like ‘Man, we were in really good position. There’s nothing else you could have done there.’
“So we sort of saw this coming from the way he and the receivers were getting in synch in the preseason. Yeah, it’s been great to see so far.”
Acting as interim head coach in the second half against UNLV, Mike Hart became the first African American head coach for the Wolverines. (Tony Patroske/The Pit Media)
Hart makes program history
Acting as the head coach in the second half of the UNLV game, Wolverines running backs coach Mike Hart made history as the program’s first African-American head coach.
“It’s a great honor,” said Hart. “I had a chance to play for Tony Dungy. Had a chance to play for Jim Caldwell. We have an Athletic Director in Warde Manuel, who I’ve had a close relationship with since he’s been here. I’ve just had a lot of great head coaches who were African-American who let me know that it’s a possibility – it can happen.
“Hopefully we see more African American head coaches in college football. We need more. So hopefully I’ll be one of those one day. I will be one of those one day. So really, it’s just a great honor. This is my university. I played here. This place changed my life. So to have the opportunity to say I was the first African American head coach here is huge.”
Run game falling short
If there’s one area where fans might be questioning a dip in production from last season, it comes in the way of Michigan’s running game. While it may be delivering far from paltry production through the first two outings, the Wolverines haven’t been able to establish the field-flipping rushing attack that regularly materialized in the past few years.
But, as the leader of that unit, Hart feels confident that it’s just a matter of cleaning up little things about making ‘one more block.’
“I think it’s a growth – we’re growing every week,” he said. “I just keep telling them that we’re one block away. We’re one missed tackle away. Whether it’s a receiver getting a block on the safety. Whether it’s a backside cutoff on the D-line. Whether it’s a linebacker we didn’t get all the way up to. Or it’s the back making the wrong cut. We’re leaving a lot of yards on the field, but I think we’re in the correct play calls, and I think guys are blocking really hard. They’re moving guys. We just gotta put it all together, and we will.”
50/50 approach
When asked about the program’s long history of establishing the run, and whether McCarthy’s game and how opposing sides are playing them is affecting the look of the offense in the present, Hart spoke to where the team sees itself striking a balance.
“I think it’s our goal to be 50/50 (run/pass) every game, and we’re gonna do what works,” Hart said. “It makes it easier when JJ can throw that far down the field and make explosive plays. Obviously, we want explosive plays. So I think the development you see is the development of JJ, of the receivers – being on the same bandwidth. And having confidence. JJ is a confident kid right now. He knows where to go with the ball.”
Michigan might still be figuring out just how far this version of their star QB can take them, but if the team can make these small adjustments in the trenches to rediscover the run game that made them a force both in the McNamara era and last year – things could get very interesting for the Ann Arbor faithful and this 2023 unit.
Michigan will host Bowling Green at 7:40pm this Saturday at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
