ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Michigan football offense has struggled tremendously in 2024 and now, seven games in, it’s at the point where the coaching staff is looking to slow things down and simplify the point of attack.
The run game often works, but the pass game is abysmal, among the worst in the nation at No. 129 out of 134 teams. Under no circumstances did anyone think that after losing quarterback J.J. McCarthy, running back Blake Corum, and both starting receivers that the pass game would take a step forward. But the fact that it’s fallen completely off a cliff indicates that the Wolverines were either over-confident or are simply under-delivering.
Now that the coaches are working to pare things down, junior wide receiver Tyler Morris says that he can tell that the offense is being stripped down for parts, essentially, but regardless, it’s still on the quarterbacks and receivers to execute when called upon.
“I mean, yeah, I’ve seen it. But, you know, I think with whatever game plan it is, simplified or not, we got to be ready to go execute,” Morris said. “So, I mean, I think it does make things easier, just try to do things that are easy for us, make it hard for them. So, regardless of what play is called, we got to go out and execute.”
The biggest part for Michigan isn’t just that the offense isn’t working, it’s more that it’s working throughout the week, but come Saturdays, nothing works.
The Wolverines scored just seven points, coming out of a bye week, the lowest amount scored since Michigan lost 31-0 at Notre Dame in 2014 — pre-Jim Harbaugh. Morris is exasperated, given that during practice, the offense drives the field — something that even defensive players were saying during fall camp. Now, the defense has had its struggles, but it’s still technically upper-tier at No. 34 in terms of total defense and 50th in scoring defense, allowing 22.1 points per game.
So, for Morris, it’s surprising to see how much worse the offense performs when it’s actually facing someone in a different uniform, because it doesn’t look so bad during the week in preparation.
“Yes, at times I do, because there’s times when practice where we look real good and we just got to apply more to the game,” Morris said. “Where we’re messing up small details that we were good with all week in practice. So I think it just comes with calming down a little bit during the games and just going out and executing. That’s really all I see, because we have more than enough time during the week to get things right, and there’s just — yeah, there’s been times where we’ve executed all week, and then there’s just been something out there in the game.”
For Morris himself, this season has been a wash. Expected to be the leading receiver and having received all kinds of praise this offseason as the primary option in the pass game, he’s had just eight catches for 73 yards and one touchdown. While he may be outpacing last year in terms of catches, he’s far behind on yards — and this is without Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson playing outside of him.
Though the season hasn’t gone how he’s liked personally or as a whole, Morris is keeping the faith that the maize and blue can break through their struggles offensively.
“It’s been frustrating. Like I said before, we haven’t had the season that we’ve been expecting. So, yeah, it’s been frustrating,” Morris said. “But we can’t change it. It’s not like we can change anything, as far as how that goes. So every week, we’re coming out just ready for whoever’s going to be out there, and we’re going to play to the best of our ability.”