One of the things we’ve been advocating for in terms of the Michigan football offense has been the Wolverines doing something that they’d previously done.
Utilizing Donovan Edwards in the pass game.
In his freshman year, Edwards went off in the penultimate regular season game against Maryland, with 10 catches for 170 yards. The next year, all of the talk of the offseason was how Edwards was perhaps the team’s best receiver. He showed that early, but he struggled with injuries, and thus he was used primarily as a running back.
Now, Michigan is in dire need of receivers to step up outside of tight end Colston Loveland. So our ears perked up on Wednesday when running backs coach Tony Alford said this comparing Edwards and Kalel Mullings’ skill sets:
“I think Donovan is more of a guy that you can put out in space and do some things as far as running routes,” Alford said. “I think some of the more rugged, tougher yard stuff, probably more attributed to things that Kalel might be more suited for in certain situations. But the whole objective, again, is to make sure that we’re trying to develop guys that are three-down players, that they can play every single down. And, again, some guys are a little bit more better at this or that than others. The key, again, is to put the best 11 guys on the field for that particular situation. But they do, they have a little bit different skill sets. Both of them are high-end skill set guys, but they both do have some different skill sets, obviously.”
Michigan absolutely needs to utilize Edwards more in the passing game as it works to improve that sector of the offense. We’ve seen glimpses from some of the receivers, but Edwards has more production than all of the receivers (except C.J. Charleston, who transferred in from Youngstown State) combined. Yes, it still needs him to be productive in the ground game, but if the Wolverines really do intend to put players in the best position to succeed, then Edwards needs much more than the nine catches he’s had through six games thus far.