Michigan’s offense has hit the reset button.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Wolverines have parted ways with offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jason Beck. Beck had been in the same role for Utah in 2025 before following head coach Kyle Whittingham to Michigan.
The move comes after a stretch of stagnant results that finally pushed things over the edge. Michigan failed to top 21 points for the fifth time since Big Ten play began, and Saturday’s loss to Michigan State was the low point. The Wolverines didn’t put points on the board until after the two-minute timeout in the fourth quarter.
“It was very disappointing after we had played pretty effectively last week on offense,” Whittingham said after the game. “We had some production, some good production in a lot of areas last week.
And there’s nothing productive about this game. Zero.
It’s not one step back. It’s three steps back.
“Really, I can’t come up with one positive offensively in this game.”
Beck inherited an offense that had already underachieved relative to its talent the year before. Michigan finished 2025 just inside the top 50 in ESPN’s SP+ and averaged 27.5 points per game. Part of that was the usual learning curve with a freshman quarterback, but the ceiling still looked higher with five-star recruit Bryce Underwood leading the way.
Instead, the offense never found that gear under Beck. Underwood struggled badly in six starts in 2026, averaging just 154 yards and fewer than a touchdown per game as a passer. Once conference play began, he produced two scores against five turnovers, a brutal return for a quarterback with his profile.
A switch to freshman Tommy Carr gave Michigan a short burst of life, but it didn’t fix the bigger issues. Carr threw for 571 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions over three starts. He added some punch as a runner, scoring three times on designed runs and scrambles, but the offense still lacked consistency and any real identity.
With Beck out, Michigan now has to sort out who will call plays for the rest of the season. Whittingham hasn’t said who will take over, and he handled the quarterback change the same way the week after Carr replaced Underwood at halftime.
There are only two assistants on Whittingham’s staff with previous offensive coordinator experience. Fred Jackson held that job for Michigan in the mid-1990s and is now an assistant running backs coach. Mike Lynch was last an OC at Syracuse in 2019.
The more likely path is that Whittingham turns to one of his more experienced offensive assistants. Tony Alford, the offensive run-game coordinator and running backs coach, has more than 20 years of experience and has coached multiple position groups. Quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer Jr. and wide receivers coach Micah Simon are also possible options, though both are relatively early in their coaching careers, having started in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
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