Michigan’s offensive shake-up has Oregon paying attention, even if Dan Lanning isn’t expecting a total reinvention in one week.
After Michigan’s ugly loss to Michigan State, the Wolverines fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck and handed the offense to offensive line coach Jim Harding on an interim basis. That kind of move can create uncertainty for a defense, and Lanning said Monday that it forces his staff to dig a little deeper.
“It just makes you do a little bit of a deeper dive. . . I think one thing you recognize about changes in college football is that teams that have (changed coordinators) recently have kind of had a resurgence on offense,” Lanning told reporters on Monday.
He added that Oregon showed its players examples of other teams that made similar changes this season and then responded the following week or two.
“Whether it’s a coaching change, there are several programs that have done that. I showed that to our players today.
Here are programs that made changes at head coach or coordinator this season, and here’s what the next week looked like or the next two weeks looked like. We’ve seen a lot of those teams have a lot of success.”
Still, there’s only so much Michigan can change on short notice. The Wolverines have leaned heavily on slow-developing outside run plays and the “rhino” package all season, and those concepts have become such a staple that overhauling them now would mean trimming a big chunk of the playbook.
There’s also the quarterback question. Bryce Underwood was benched because of his struggles and his inability to really click with Beck’s system.
With Harding now in charge, and Kyle Whittingham saying after the Michigan State game that the staff had considered going back to Underwood, it’s fair to wonder whether Michigan will turn back to him or split snaps with Tommy Carr. Lanning said Oregon sees some overlap either way.
“There are some things that are similar and then some things that are different. Obviously, more recently, I think if you look at it, it’s about who’s been protecting the ball better,” Lanning said.
“But when you look at the quarterbacks, there are some similar pieces to what they both do. Just some small variances and differences.”
The timing is awkward for Michigan, which heads into Autzen Stadium coming off its worst loss of the season and with an offense that managed only six points against Michigan State. The Wolverines were shut out by one of the Big Ten’s worst defenses until the final minutes, and now they face a 6-3 Oregon team that has started to find its footing again.
The Ducks were supposed to be in the national title mix at the start of the season, but a loss to Oklahoma State and a series of injuries and off-field issues have slowed them down. Even so, Dan Lanning’s group has won two straight, beating Northwestern and Ohio State, and now gets a chance to keep rolling.
Oregon’s defense sits in the middle of the national pack, but this is the kind of game where the Ducks will want to look sharp. They close the year with three games that appear manageable - Michigan, Michigan State and Washington - and a strong showing against a struggling Michigan offense would only add to the momentum from last week’s win over Ohio State.
Lanning knows other teams have sparked quick turnarounds after coordinator changes this season. Whether Michigan can do that now, this late in the year, is another matter entirely.
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