Michigan football: Jim Harbaugh details play calling duties, more
The Michigan football offense returned to Jim Harbaugh’s roots and identity last year, a run-heavy approach that played to the team’s strengths. There are so many weapons this year that Harbaugh and Co. will have to decide which route to take with the play calls … and he has a lot of coaches involved.
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Offensive line coach Sherrone Moore returns, and he’ll have more input in his second year as co-coordinator. Mike Hart is the run game coordinator as the running backs coach, Matt Weiss will be more involved as co-coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Harbaugh, of course, is all over it, too.
Harbaugh even cited newly promoted Grant Newsome as someone who should help.
All of this comes after last year’s co-coordinator, Josh Gattis, left for a similar position at Miami.
“Yeah, I didn’t see it coming,” Harbaugh admitted. “But, now we’re rolling … I just think we rolled. You’re quite familiar with [tight ends coach] Grant Newsome. As a coach, a person, a player — he’s just checked every single box since the day he walked on campus, both as a player …
“You know the story of his serious knee injury [against Wisconsin in 2016]. The way he worked to rehab that and when that door closed on playing, he turned to be a student-coach, which he was phenomenal at. He was promoted to graduate assistant, where he was phenomenal there. Assistant coach, full-time assistant coach, [now] coaching the tight ends … he’ll be phenomenal there.”
Helping make the transition from Gattis “seamless,” Harbaugh added.
But that’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and even new receivers coach Ronald Bellamy got a mention.
“[It will be] just completely collaborative with the entire offensive staff and the two coordinators,” the Michigan coach said. They’re collaborating on the offense.
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“You want to know who’s calling the plays? That’s going to be determined … in a collaborative way.”
Michigan flavor on staff pleases Harbaugh
Several of the assistants now are former Michigan players, and Harbaugh planned it that way. Bellamy, Newsome and Hart, of course, all played for the Wolverines, and Harbaugh, of course, was the Michigan quarterback in the mid-1980s.
“It’s good,” Harbaugh said. “It’s something I think you probably noticed a little bit last year, too, right? With Mike Hart and Ron Bellamy and Doug Mallory [as a defensive analyst]. It’s been good. It’s worked, so we’ll keep that going.”
He made it a point of emphasis a year ago, he added, because it “kind of reflected more of who I was,” Harbaugh said.
“I love Michigan. I love everything it does for our players,” he said. “It’s our university, and just more people that have that love-love feeling about Michigan and the program as opposed to the love-hate. There are people who love to hate us and hate to love us. So, just more people that love-love us.”
