Run the ball: Michigan looking to keep it on the ground more to establish a 'rhythm'
Michigan Wolverines football ran the ball only 23 times in a 31-12 blowout loss to Texas, marking the program’s fewest rushing attempts in a game since November 2022 at Rutgers. “Smash” is head coach Sherrone Moore‘s mantra, and he wants to get back to the ground game moving forward.
“The thing we talked about on offense,” Moore said after watching the film and conducting meetings since the loss, “is we gotta run the ball more. We gotta run the ball more efficiently and do things to help us move the chains and get the ball in the end zone, which we’re not doing enough.”
Michigan picked up just 4 first downs on the ground and 13 overall against Texas. The Wolverines put up 284 total yards, including only 80 on the ground. They also lost the time of possession battle in the first half, 19:06 to 10:54.
When Michigan did keep it on the ground, it found a bit of success. The three Wolverines’ running backs who saw time all averaged over 4 yards per carry, led by senior Donovan Edwards at 5.1. Edwards ran 8 times for 41 yards.
Michigan was in four third-down-and-short situations (4 yards or less), going 1-for-4 on those opportunities. The Wolverines didn’t pick up a single third-down conversion on the ground and went 3-of-12 overall.
Getting behind hurts, of course. Texas jumped on Michigan, with scores that put the Longhorns up 7-0, 14-3, 17-3 and 24-3 all before halftime. That makes it tough to stick to the run game, but Moore did note that he wants the identity of the offense to include a high level of physicality.
“We’ve got to be more consistent running the football,” Moore said. “And when you get games like that versus really good teams, if you get behind and it becomes a throw game, that doesn’t put us in the best position to win. That’s never been a formula for us to be successful.
“So we’ve got to do a better job of establishing that and play action and run action and stuff off of it, which we will. I’m just ready for us to get to work with that.”
Michigan is known for its run game, but it appeared to abandon it due to lack of success early in a set of downs, with the team averaging 3.8 yards per first-down rush (10 for 38 yards).
Moore believes Michigan has to stay persistent with it, because the Wolverines can get into a groove and become more consistent as the game goes on, and also open up the aerial attack. Play-action throws have been somewhat effective but used few and far between. Senior quarterback Davis Warren has attempted only 9 play-action passes through two games, going 7-of-9 for 61 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
“From a rhythm standpoint and who we are and what we’ve done and how we’re built, and I think we’ve got some really good running backs,” Moore said of why he wants Michigan to run more. “So you’ve got to use those guys.
“And it’ll help us to help the play action, help the run action, help set everything up. So for us, that’ll be an emphasis, as it always is.
“Obviously, not trying to run the ball 32 times in a row, but if it comes to that, it comes to that. It’s just to keep us balanced, to make sure that we can open up the lanes for the passing game.”
