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Michigan football changed things up significantly this offseason, with a complete defensive staff revamp and a few changes on the offensive side of the ball. No matter which way you stretch it, in 2021, the team will feature something of a new look, not only with a complete defensive overhaul but some new pieces leading the charge offensively.
One of the changes that Jim Harbaugh made was dismissing quarterbacks coach Ben McDaniels in favor of former Balitmore Ravens running backs coach Matt Weiss, who has extensive experience working on both sides of the ball at several different positions.
Weiss appeared on the ‘In the Trenches’ podcast with Jon Jansen and shared his vision for the room, especially in an age where if you don’t win the starting job, there’s a high likelihood that you could be out the door via transfer.
“You want healthy competition,” Weiss said. “You want guys, obviously they’re gonna compete, but you want them to support each other. There’s gonna be enough people outside that room or outside this building that’s obviously trying to tear them down, and it’s really important that the people around them are supportive. I know you know from the best offensive line rooms you’ve been in, you want the other guy to succeed, genuinely. And that goes a long way to how people perform. It’s something that we definitely had in the running back room in Baltimore with a bunch of guys sharing the carries, which you alluded to. Just something that you work hard to build, whether it’s getting the guys to go out to dinner every week or the running backs in Baltimore take a trip together every year, they vacation together, which is pretty unique. Just encouraging that type of stuff to make that bond strong. There’s enough for everybody. A rising tide raises all ships. It’s not a zero-sum game. Our cups can overrunneth. You look at the history here at Michigan with multiple great quarterbacks being in the room, obviously, that’s well-documented. Hopefully, they’ll get to the point where they all feel that way and we can have the best of both worlds.”
One of the things that Weiss shared was why he’s particularly drawn to the quarterback position. Having switched to offense after several years on defense in Baltimore, Weiss says that the unique thing about quarterback is that they’re the last ones to adjust, and they can change the game on every play, because they’re not playing a reactive brand of football like some other positions must.
“I think the other part of the draw is the quarterback has the chalk last,” Weiss said. “That’s one of the unique things about football, there’s so many awesome things about football that are better than any other sport, but if you’re playing defense, it really is reactive. You gotta be able to adjust any formation, you have to be able to adjust a reroute, you’ve gotta be able to fit any run, you don’t really know what the offense is gonna present. You’ve got to react. You play offensive line, as you know, it’s reactive in that way, too, in a lot of ways. You’ve gotta be able to block any front, you’ve got to be able to pick up any blitz. And you’ve gotta react to whatever the defense presents. But quarterback gives you that opportunity as a coach, you hold the chalk last. Your players can adjust in a drop or change the protection or even an audible of where you wanna go with the ball. It’s an opportunity to teach those things and have the chalk last. That’s one of the things that’s really fun about football, the strategic element of it.”
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From there, Weiss broke down what he saw from each of his signal-callers in spring ball. Here’s what he had to say about each: