News and Views: Michigan backup quarterback battle, red zone offense, more

Michigan is 4-0 heading into its first road game, a contest at Nebraska Saturday, but still has questions to answer. The Wolverines aren’t clicking on all cylinders offensively, but they’re still 13^th in the country at 7 yards per play and seem to be improving running the ball. 

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Against Rutgers Saturday, the Michigan offense put up 200 yards rushing and 200 passing, a balance the coaches are looking for. The best drive was a 94-yarder with the Wolverines trailing 7-0 and the Scarlet Knights carrying all the momentum. It started at their own 6 and included some beautifully scripted plays. 

“Really, the biggest piece was the execution by the kids,” Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore said. “They did a really good job on that drive. It was all the way down from the 5-yard line to a touchdown, so those guys did an excellent job of executing the plays that were called and I felt the staff did a great job of things we had to organize and fix. It was just fun to watch the execution happen on the field, just as it is in practice.”

It included a third and two pass out of the backfield to Donovan Edwards for 30-plus, followed by a trick play 30-plus yard flea flicker to Michigan sophomore tight end Colton Loveland. But unlike recent past coordinators who seemed to throw out series of plays with no rhyme or reason, Moore used one play to set up the next and move the ball down the field. 

“I was told a long time ago that a good coordinator has an offense that tells a story,” Moore said. “You always try to do that in certain ways. That’s about all I’ll get into on that.”

But it’s working, and it will work better once the running game gets going. Michigan junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy has great success out of play action, for example, which obviously depends on being able to run the ball. You also need playmakers, though, and the Wolverines seem to have found another one, because …

Michigan freshman Semaj Morgan is becoming a weapon in the passing game

The Michigan coaches showed a lot of confidence in him on a key, second and 10 play early on U-M’s second drive. McCarthy had thrown wide on first down and the Wolverines needed a solid gain to avoid third and long. An inside screen to Morgan was the answer. Morgan is now challenging sophomore Tyler Morris for No. 3 receiver, and he’s only going to get better. 

“He’s always been a super confident kid,” Moore said. “The maturity you could see grow really in training camp over the summer, when you had some time with the guys. 

“But he’s always been a playmaker coming in high school to now. He’s done a great job just then to now, but he’s done a great job just from a standpoint … off the field is really where he’s grown the most. Meeting more, being in the building more, attacking the film room. Those are the things you can really see and accentuate, which went over into the field.”

His third down, back shoulder touchdown through pass interference was one of the best contested catches by a Michigan receiver in recent memory. 

“The things he did in the game are the things he did in fall training camp,” Moore said. “So, no surprise when he went in there and made those plays.”

He’s not big — shiftier than long and strong — so it’s not like the Wolverines will be tossing fades to him in the red zone. But the way the offensive line is moving the ball down there brings us to … 

The Michigan line is getting great push inside the 10

Fans love creativity down by the goal line, but the easiest path anywhere is a straight line. If you line up and know you can get some push, you do it until they stop it. That’s what’s been happening inside the 5 recently. 

“I think it’s just the mentality of who the kids are and who we want to be,” Moore said of the Michigan line. “There’s a point where we know we’re running it and you have to stop us. That’s the mentality that we take.

“Sometimes, I think you can overthink it [editor’s note: cough ‘Philly special’ cough]. With our guys, you don’t need to. With the mentality that we have, and the way Blake [Corum] is running the football, sometimes you need to attack and get downhill.”

But it does require a back conducive to that, as well … like Corum with his huge thighs. It doesn’t work as well with Edwards, for example — we saw that earlier in the year — so we expect them to continue to play to their strengths down there. That should include Corum in the backfield. 

Other news and views: 

Michigan grad student Jack Tuttle is emerging as the backup quarterback

No disrespect to him, but we were rooting for one of young guys for obvious reason — they’re the potential future, and the sooner it clicks for them, the better. Michigan junior Davis Warren seems to have regressed after looking solid last year, and neither Jayden Denegal nor Alex Orji have stepped up. 

Tuttle has played a lot of football, but it’s clear Michigan football’s chances at championships require keeping McCarthy healthy. We knew that going in, but it seems even more apparent now. 

Weather in Lincoln this weekend calls for 93 degrees in wind

Michigan has played some hot games in the past — 1995 vs. Virginia at home is one of the hottest we’ve sat through, but at UCLA in 2001 was much worse — so the Wolverines will prepare accordingly. 

“We hydrate,” Moore said. “Mentally, our guys are prepared for things to happen … the big guys are always the biggest adjustments because they don’t like being hot anyways, but they’ll get over it. Once it’s game time, the adrenaline and all that happens, the weather doesn’t matter at that point.”

But it can. At UCLA, they had issues with cramping and had to bring out the IVs. Moore is confident the Michigan trainers will be ready, too.

“Hydration is a huge piece of it. I know [nutritionist] Abigail [O’Connor]—our guys are always hydrated anyway,” he said. “They’re over-hydrated regardless of what the weather is because you can cramp in cold weather. Those guys do a really good job with that, and we’ll just be pushing that even more.”