The new-coordinator picture in college football is starting to separate into two piles fast: the staffs that have hit the ground running, and the ones already leaving their head coaches with more questions than answers.
At the top of the list of success stories is Northwestern, where Kelly has leaned into a throwback identity and made it work in a big way. The Wildcats battered Penn State on Friday night with a wing T attack that looked straight out of another era and still produced modern damage: 413 rushing yards, their most in a home game in 26 years and the most nationally against a power-conference opponent this season.
Northwestern ran the ball over and over, used motion and misdirection to keep the Nittany Lions off balance, and threw it only 14 times. It followed a much different kind of grind seven days earlier, when the Wildcats had to lean heavily on quarterback Aidan Chiles and the passing game against Indiana before falling 29-23 after pushing the reigning champions deep into the fourth quarter.
Northwestern is 3-1, and the schedule ahead suggests a strong finish to the stretch. The Wildcats should be 6-1 when they travel to face the team Kelly led to the 2010 national championship game, Oregon.
Texas also belongs in the “working” column, and the defense has been the engine. The Longhorns have forced five takeaways while allowing only four touchdown drives.
Opponents have scored touchdowns on just 27% of their red-zone trips against Texas, and Muschamp unleashed a heavy dose of pressure on Tennessee freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon last game, producing 10 sacks, including 5.5 from edge rusher Colin Simmons. Since the fourth-quarter shutout of Ohio State, the Texas defense has been giving up only 2.6 points and 46 yards per quarter over its last nine.
That sets up a tricky spot for Oklahoma’s shaky offense in Dallas on Saturday.
Utah has kept rolling too, even with Kyle Whittingham taking Jason Beck with him to Michigan. Beck’s replacement, McGiven, has kept the Utes humming.
In their first season under Morgan Scalley, they are 4-0 and have topped 30 points, 400 total yards and six yards per play in every game. Devon Dampier looks like the same quarterback he was last year in Beck’s offense, only with less rushing so far.
Wayshawn Parker broke out in the win at Iowa State, posting career highs with 174 rushing yards and 239 yards from scrimmage.
Missouri has gotten a boost from Lindsey as well, even with the offense dealing with major personnel turbulence. Lindsey has made seven different stops over the last decade, and his first months in Columbia were followed by a gunshot injury to the Tigers’ best offensive player, running back Ahmad Hardy, who still has not played this season.
Lindsey has had to sort through transfer quarterback Austin Simmons and several new receivers, but the results have been strong. Missouri leads the SEC in league games in total offense at 487 yards, and the Tigers blasted Florida for 560 yards and 8.48 yards per play in Saturday’s blowout.
UCLA is another instant fit. Chesney brought the same playbook and several of the same players from James Madison, and the Bruins have stayed on script all the way to a 4-0 start.
They are averaging 44.8 points per game. Kennedy is the main coordinator, but Smith deserves credit too for his role as offensive line coach and run-game coordinator.
UCLA leads the nation in yards per carry at 6.95 and rushing touchdowns per game at 4.5, and the Bruins have been especially punishing in the fourth quarter, averaging 125 rushing yards in that period alone.
Not every new setup is going nearly as smoothly.
Michigan’s offense remains stuck in the mud. The Wolverines have now gone four of their first five games without reaching 20 points, something that had not happened since 1965.
That team finished 4-6 despite a strong defense, and the current version has a familiar feel. Five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood has been roughly the same passer he was last year as a freshman, which means pretty pedestrian by the standard Michigan hoped for.
His performance in the loss to Minnesota was especially rough: 101 passing yards, 121 total offense and two interceptions. That may not be Beck’s fault, but he is the one likely to absorb most of the criticism.
Clemson’s offensive reset has been a dud so far. In classic Dabo Swinney retrograde fashion, he brought back the coordinator he had from 2011 to ’14 in an effort to modernize the attack.
The result has been the opposite of what he wanted: Clemson is last in the ACC in total offense and total touchdowns, and one of those touchdowns came on a punt return. The passing game has been especially lifeless, with the Tigers sitting at the bottom of the country in passing touchdown rate with two scores on 153 pass attempts.
Texas A&M has shown flashes, but the offense still swings wildly from one week to the next. The Aggies put up a balanced 401-yard effort against Arkansas, but that came after a stretch that included just seven points in the first three quarters against Kentucky, no offensive touchdowns against LSU and a close game with Arizona State before two defensive touchdowns in the fourth quarter opened it up. Marcel Reed still has not thrown the ball well, though he has been more effective as a runner lately.
USC remains a moving target, which is exactly the problem. Lincoln Riley has a reputation for making opposing coordinators look bad, and at times he has lived up to that billing.
But there have also been nights when the Trojans could not stop Louisiana or Rutgers, let alone Oregon or even a random Washington tight end. Against Washington, the defense had a rough moment when poor tackling led to a 42-yard touchdown from tight end Decker DeGraaf.
Still, with the season on the line, USC settled in, forced a fumble-return touchdown and shut Washington out over the final 28 minutes. That at least gives the Trojans something to build on.
Louisville’s issues are more straightforward. No team has allowed more passing plays of 30 yards or longer this season than the Cardinals, who have given up 13.
Four of those have gone for 60 or more, and the back end of the defense has been open far too often. Those breakdowns are a huge reason Louisville sits at 2-3, with the defensive leaks undoing its own big-play offense.
And then there is California, where Tosh Lupoi might have flunked his first attempt at staff construction.
In Other News...
Michigan Offense Is Taking Heat From One Of Their Own
After Michigans loss to Minnesota, one of the programs own took aim at what he saw from the offense. Jake Butt, the former Wolverines tight end who now works as a Big Ten analyst, described the performance as poor and said the unit lacked effort, a blunt assessment that landed hard for a team already searching for answers.
The criticism comes with Michigan still sitting near the bottom of the national rankings in total offense and rushing yards through five games, a jarring place for a program built on physical play and run-game identity. Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham also weighed in, saying Michigan has to make tough decisions and real adjustments to get moving, including the possibility of a quarterback change, as the pressure to fix the offense keeps building. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan May Have Just Shown The Only Way To Stop The Slide
The red zone trip that led to Jordan Marshalls touchdown was one of the few clean moments Michigan had in a 20-14 loss to Minnesota, and it stood out because it looked like the kind of sequence the offense has been searching for all season. After a series of successful plays, the Wolverines finished the possession with the kind of execution that has too often been missing when drives get tight and the field shrinks.
For a team still trying to stop the slide, that single trip offered a small but useful reminder of what works. Michigan did not get many chances near the goal line, but when it finally did, the drive suggested there is at least a blueprint there, even if the larger picture around it remains discouraging. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Offense Has Become A Bigger Problem Than Fans Feared
Michigans latest setback in Minneapolis was about more than just another loss. The 20-14 defeat to Minnesota dropped the Wolverines to 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, and it came with the kind of offensive frustration that can linger long after the final whistle. The ground game never really got going, the quarterback play was uneven, and the tight end production never gave the offense the dependable middle of the field presence it needed.
Pro Football Focus grades backed up what the eye test suggested, with wide receiver JJ Buchanan, center Jake Guarnera and right tackle Blake Frazier emerging as the top offensive performers. Beyond them, though, the chart was thin, and Zack Marshalls low grade at tight end reflected how few answers Michigan had in the passing game and around the line of scrimmage. For a team already staring at an 0-2 Big Ten start, the bigger concern now is whether theres a fix here or just a longer search for one. [Read more 🡒]