ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It may be difficult to envision Michigan football taking a step forward on offense given that J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, the two primary starting wide receivers, and the entire offensive line all moved on to the NFL — and that doesn’t even include head coach Jim Harbaugh also leaving for the pros. But as with anything new, there’s an area of opportunity here.
The expectation for the Wolverines is that they’ll be defensive-minded and potentially (though almost certainly) dominant on that side of the ball, but the offense makes a lot of people question just how good it might be. Understandably so, as there’s no obvious starting quarterback, the offensive line is in flux, running back Donovan Edwards — who was special in 2022 — had a down year last year, and there is very little production at the wide receiver position. But the new offensive coordinator, Kirk Campbell, may be taking over that position for the first time in Ann Arbor, but he’s been around the block, having been an OC for Old Dominion and was under Joe Moorhead during his impressive tenure at Penn State.
So, before you can even get into the what, you have to get into the why and how. And for Campbell, it’s about setting an identity based on the little things.
“The identity that I want is to make sure we’re a fundamentally sound unit who prides themselves on details and precision,” Campbell said. “Alignment, assignment, execution.”
It stands to reason that just about any time that executes, on either side of the ball, has a better-than-average chance of winning. However, it also takes talent and experience to execute. And though any ‘returning experience‘ list won’t likely have a lot of Wolverines — especially on offense — Campbell pushes back on that notion.
Asked how Michigan can score 30-plus points a game in 2024, Campbell noted just how many players have requisite experience, along with big playmaking ability. If the offense can find the apex of experience, playmaking, and execution, it will be hard to stop.
“We have a lot of guys coming back who have had a lot of playing time,” Campbell said. “I just hit on Tyler Morris — if you don’t consider him a starter you better consider Semaj Morgan a starter. If we’re playing 11 personnel, they’re playing in it. If we put a fullback in the game, Max Bredeson started. Then we add Josh Priebe — yeah, he didn’t start here but he started at Northwestern. Myles Hinton started the season. We have a lot of guys with experience so that gives you a lot of confidence there.
“The players we have in the room are so explosive and dynamic. We talk about Colston Loveland, his ability to be explosive and the other guys I hit on. Excited to see who steps up to be the explosive outside receiver. We’ve got a lot of talent in the receiver room, the tight end room, the running back room with Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards, as we know. I couldn’t be any more confident in the ability in those guys.”
Michigan is currently working through the early stages of fall camp with the season opener set for August 31.