Michigan football's co-offensive coordinators address playcalling dynamic

Michigan football’s offense will have plenty of familiar faces in 2022, but an entirely new playcalling dynamic. Gone is Broyles Award winner Josh Gattis, replaced by a pair of co-offensive coordinators in offensive line coach Sherrone Moore and quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss.

Michigan chose the continuity route when Gattis left for Miami, elevating a pair of key pupils from last season’s staff. Both Moore and Weiss are considered rising stars in the profession. Now, they will be tasked with coordinating an offense with a plethora of talent at every position.

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“It’s a little bit different,” Moore told the media on Sunday afternoon. “But it’s been good and an easy transition. I tried as much as I could to be a part of that last year. It’s super collaborative, how we do things. It’s fun. Everybody bounces ideas off of each other. But it’s been good. It’s a little different and a little bit more, but it’s been great for me.”

Moore and Weiss will lead the charge and bounce ideas off of each other. Their developing relationship in their new set of job responsibilities will play a big part in what comes next for Michigan’s offense.

“It’s really a blessing for us to have,” Weiss said. “It’s another Jim Harbaugh stroke of genius, where he somehow found a way where he got two, where everybody else has one. I think we work really well together, and we’re very collaborative. Sherrone is a great resource for me, and I try to be a great resource for him. I think so far we’re really happy with where the offense is at and where we’re going. We have the same vision, all on one accord, and I think it’s exciting. I know I’m glad that he’s here with me; he’s a great coach. And hopefully, he would tell you the same thing.

Michigan searches for 2022 identity

Moore and Weiss, as well as Harbaugh and running backs coach/run game coordinator Mike Hart will combine to form the offensive identity. Even with two coordinators, everyone will have a say in the matter.

“We’ll be collaborative,” Moore said. “We have a method to how we are doing things. We’ve been pretty smooth so far. It’s just been rolling. The kids have really adjusted and everything’s been good.”

Michigan was a run-first offense last season that could pop a big play through the air or through trickery in 2021. They hope to pull off a similar dynamic, but there is still plenty to sort through in the leadup to the season.

“I think it just goes through fall camp and you figure it out,” Moore said. “As you go, you put the installs in. We’re only on day four of practice. So you don’t really know yet. We’ve only had pads on for two days. But you can kind of see things and how they develop, you don’t know. You don’t really know what’s going on as far as the identity of what it all is going to look like when the ball snapped in game one. So still trying to figure that out.

“I think it just it was just a rhythm [when we figured it out last year]. I think the kids just figured it out at some point maybe a bit later in camp or towards that. Or after we got those first three games, I think the guys figured out kind of who we were going to be and we just took it from there.”

The goals ahead

The goals are not that complicated for this Michigan football team. Harbaugh laid them out at Big Ten Media Days: Beat the rivals, win the Big Ten, win the national title.

Whatever shape that takes for the Wolverines from here, they are game for it.

“We got the teams that we want to beat,” Moore said. “And we know we want to be at the end of the day. But for us right now, we just want to focus on each day and not try to look too far ahead. Because when you start to do that, you start to forget the little details that you got to put in place. We’ve been trying to just harp on every little thing that we can.

“We know we can be as good as anybody, but we need to work to get there. It’s not going to be handed to us. We got to go take it. So we’ve been working every day to just get better.”