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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Josh Gattis knows a little something about wide receivers.
The former safety at the college and pro-levels got his start in coaching overseeing the wideouts, and has used his talents at working with the position group to propel him first to Alabama’s co-offensive coordinator before coming to Ann Arbor to oversee the entire offense.
While fans salivated at the potential last year, perhaps they were a year too early. Even as star WR Nico Collins ponders his future and remains away from the team as he mulls an NFL decision, Gattis — who’s coached Chris Godwin, KJ Hamler, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, Jaylen Waddle and Devonta Smith — says that his current group is among the best of the best.
“I feel great where we are,” Gattis said. “I don’t wanna jinx us by any means, but where we are in that receiver room right now I think it is impressive. It’s one of the most impressive rooms I’ve been around in overall depth and skill standpoint. And I didn’t feel this way last year. I didn’t feel this way. I thought there was room for growth and development when I got here. Now, we obviously have got to be able to turn this potential into production and be able to display it on Saturdays and not just over here at Schembechler Hall.”
Giles Jackson
When you think of Michigan’s receivers without Collins, the first that comes to mind is second-year wideout Giles Jackson, who is the embodiment of Gattis’ ‘speed in space’ philosophy.
It took a minute for Jackson to get going, and it seemed like he was never going to get there. While the plan was initially to get him involved early, he struggled. But once he caught on, he took off. And Gattis is excited to see where he goes in 2020.
“Giles obviously displayed a unique ability as a touch player last year,” “Whether it was it kick returns, whether it was specific touch plays. When we talk about being the difference in this virtual world now, Giles came in last year as a true freshman, and really didn’t get a chance to grasp the offense until about Week Five. Early in the season, I had a lot of doubts about Giles. Put Giles on scout team early in our season because it took him a little bit of time to learn it, but I didn’t think he was going to make the impact on our team at that point last year until about Week Five. And then, from Week Five on, it was about how many ways a game he could touch the ball, because he had such an ability to be an explosive player.
“Now this offseason is about how we can make him a complete receiver, which he’s really accepted the role and accepted the responsibility. He’s made some really unique, big time plays (in practice). He’s probably coming off his best practice ever here, yesterday. I couldn’t tell you how many catches he had, but it was a high number. But it’s all about becoming a complete receiver. He was a high school running back, he’s obviously fast, he’s obviously great with the ball in the hands. But it’s about how can you create separation as a route runner? And a lot of the things that we did last year was find quick ways to put the ball in his hands, now we’re finding all kinds of ways to put the ball in his hands.
“I’m really excited about Giles. He brings a skillset to our team of an explosive nature – a number of different guys do in that room. Most importantly, they’ve been able to bring leadership and really create an environment where it’s competitive for those receivers.”
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