Ann Arbor — Michigan football opened camp on Wednesday, and as far as the first day of practice goes, this one was solid. According to the coordinators, there was a hint of what’s to come, though the team is most certainly far from a finished product.
This is Kyle Whittingham’s first season as Michigan head coach, and the staff, minus two holdovers from the previous group of assistants, also is preparing for a first season with the Wolverines. Both coordinators, Jason Beck on offense and Jay Hill on defense, have garnered plenty of attention and questions about what to expect on both sides of the ball this season.
Beck, who spent one season on Whittingham’s Utah staff last year as offensive coordinator, is tasked with building the offense around second-year quarterback Bryce Underwood. There is plenty of competition ahead for the starting spots on the offensive line and at receiver and tight end, but there are known talents like receiver Andrew Marsh and running backs Jordan Marshall, Savion Hiter and Bryson Kuzdzal.
“Right now, feel really good about the run game, the running backs, having the QB a part of that, the O-line being productive in there with the tight ends,” Beck said Wednesday. “So feel the run game’s strong. Now it’s a matter of taking steps forward in the other areas in the pass game.
“But still working to find our identity, kind of find our path and direction that we’ll be headed. But great first day. Really impressed with how the guys looked. You can tell they had a really good summer. Obviously, that’s a credit to the strength staff, but that’s also just a reflection of the kids, their buy-in, and their commitment to what we’re doing. Really impressed with just how they look, and good first day of practice.”
Beck, in one year at Utah, resuscitated an offense that was toward the bottom of the national rankings in 2024 and saw it skyrocket to No. 4 nationally, averaging 482.9 yards last year. The Utes were second in rushing nationally, averaging 266.3 yards per game.
Now, Beck is tasked with working the same kind of magic in Ann Arbor this year with a team that ranked 58th nationally in total offense (396.9 yards) and 14th in rushing (210.2 yards) but was ranked 105th in passing (186.8 yards). He called an offense last year suited to Utah quarterback Devon Dampier and is shaping Michigan’s offense around Underwood.
“I saw it firsthand all last year at Utah,” Whittingham said last week at Big Ten media days, referring to Beck’s success. “He took an offense that was anemic the year before, for lack of a better term, and turned it into a powerhouse. We were, I think, fourth in the nation in scoring, second in rushing, first in red-zone production. Category after category, he took us from almost the last spots in the nation up to the top 10. He’s a master of getting the most out of each player, putting players in positions to succeed, both schematically and what we line them up at.
“He’s a guy that I have a ton of faith in. He’s only been with me for a year, but I knew of Jason and watched him for seven years prior to that. We couldn’t have a better person running the offense. I know Bryce is very excited about it as well.”
Marshall, at Big Ten media days last week in Chicago, didn’t want to divulge too much about the offense but said he’s excited to see how things unfold this season.
“Explosive, while also tricky,” Marshall said of the offense. “I think there’s an element of surprise to our offense. And I’ll just leave it at that.”
It takes time for a team to develop an identity, but Beck knows what he wants Michigan to be offensively.
“We want to be physical,” Beck said. “We want to be really hard to defend. We want to be able to attack the opponent and gain advantages in what we’re doing. We have a unique ability to be able to do all kinds of personnel and formations and motions and play types while we do it at tempo. Most teams you got to huddle to communicate all these variables, but we have kind of a unique ability to do that at tempo, no huddle, because it’s harder to defend than if you kind of slow it down and do it that way. Everything we’re doing is just to be tough to defend, to gain advantages, to attack, to score points, to win.”
As far as the element of surprise Marshall referenced, Beck sort of shrugged that off.
“I’m not exactly sure what he’s referencing,” he said. “I’m have not been a big trick-play guy over the years. When I set up in the booth and the defensive guys are up there and they’ll be watching the other team line up, and they’re calling out the plays. I never want to be that guy on offense, that when they’re watching the team line up, they can call out what they’re doing. And so everything we’re doing is trying to hide that, disguise that, and make it hard to defend. Not so they see the formation and they can go, ‘Hey, counter to counter to the boundary,’ type of thing.”
What the Wolverines look like offensively hinges on Underwood’s play. They want him to play a bigger role in the run game, and during an interview with the Big Ten Network last week from media days, Whittingham said he didn’t mean having Underwood run 25 times or even 15. He’s looking at having him in on eight to as many as 12 designed runs that especially make him dangerous on third down.
But the Wolverines also have to have a potent pass game. Underwood and the receivers during spring practice said they’ve liked what they’ve seen. The receivers are expected to have more freedom in their routes.
“We’re working these routes, but based on what the coverage is, what the looks are, those routes need to adjust,” Beck said. “It can’t always be a static thing that you draw on paper, because otherwise the right call, the right coverage gives you a hard time on that play. You have to be able to work those routes to get open against different looks, different leverages.”
But having more freedom doesn’t mean the routes are disciplined or even planned.
“It’s not a free-for-all where they’re doing something unpredictable,” Beck said. “It’s, ’I’m running this route, and within that route I have leeway to get open,’ taking it higher, cutting it shorter, doing different things to get open, not letting something take it away from you.”
To build toward that aspect of the pass game, Beck said it’s about the quarterback, receivers, tight ends and the backs developing chemistry.
“It’s being on the same wavelength, connected, anticipating what each other’s doing,” he said. “It’s something we train at a really high level. Part of our walkthrough time and meeting time is having routes, giving looks, and based off those looks, how is this route adjusting? I don’t want to overplay it that it’s like every route there’s all this freedom because certain routes have to be super controlled. And you’ve got to know exactly what is happening there, where now this guy has more freedom to get open. But we put a lot of work into that chemistry.”
And that’s what Beck hopes pays off through camp and this season.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: OC Jason Beck wants toughness to be Michigan’s offensive personality
Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
