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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When Josh Gattis was hired as Michigan’s new offensive coordinator in early 2019, he debuted the term ‘speed in space’ which elicited a lot of excitement among the fanbase. But once the season hit, there were some who were disappointed in what they were seeing.
So many anticipated seeing receivers schemed open and running wild, and while that actually did happen quite frequently, the offense wasn’t nearly as potent nor explosive as the hype suggested it could be.
But, it was there. Look no further than Ronnie Bell, who led all Big Ten receivers in yards after catch with 9.9 yards (minimum 50 targets). That put him ahead of JD Spielman, Whop Philyor and K.J. Hamler. Nico Collins was No. 8 in that metric, and minimum targets aside, Giles Jackson was No. 18, Mike Sainristil was No. 27 — just behind star Minnesota WR Rashod Bateman — and Donovan Peoples-Jones was No. 37 (tenth, if adjusted for 50 minimum targets).
Now Michigan has the opportunity to be more potent in Gattis’ second year. It loses Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black and likely Nico Collins, but it adds speedsters such as A.J. Henning and Roman Wilson into the fold. Jackson and Sainristil enter their second season as well, which should spell not only more playing time, but more expertise with both the playbook as well as on the field.
On Thursday, Sainristil shared who’s the fastest in the group and noted that a true freshman has been contending with the veterans.
“Honestly, if you line up our receiver corps, you go: me, Ronnie, Giles, A.J., Roman, C.J., Schoenle, McCurry, Jake Thaw, Rolapp, — Matt Harrison, Torey – the top five for sure is me, Roman, A.J., Giles, I’ll put Ronnie in there,” Sainristil said. “But I think Roman will come out with it. That guy flies for sure. He just flies.”
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That’s excellent news in terms of options. As they say, you can’t cover them all.
Sainristil intimates that it will be something of a matchup nightmare given all of the speedy options that the Wolverines have. And given the depth at the position, they can throw them at defenders in waves, ultimately creating something of an advantage as defensive backs get tired out.
“I just think it creates a better rotation, because now you can run a deep route – you can go from having two guys run the deep route and then sub another one of us in and then just give us the ball in space,” Sainristil said. “We’ll just be going up against a DB that was in that was covering two different guys for two deep routes. Now he’s tired and we have fresh legs and keep cycling. I think that really helps us out a lot.”
But what Michigan now lacks is size. With Collins wavering on a return, the Wolverines have but six likely contributors at 6-feet or higher: Nate Schoenle, Jake McCurry, Ronnie Bell, A.J. Henning and Cornelius Johnson — with the latter being the tallest at 6-foot-3.
So who will be the deep threat? How will Michigan adapt?
Sainristil says it will come down to more to technique than it will size advantage, as the maize and blue receivers work to create separation from defensive backs in other ways.
“Honestly it could be any of us,” Sainristil said. “We’re doing a great job right now learning how to create separation with routes. That separation comes from small details, small techniques that Coach Gattis works on – like leaning a guy at the top of your route, creating shoulder separation, nudging off a guy. One term he uses is called ‘punching the package’ – it’s a small detail. Sometimes it’s very small that it could go unnoticed, but if you know what you’re doing and you’re doing it the right way, it’ll really help.
“Yeah, it would be great to have the size back, but when you have a lot of people that are fundamentally sound and work on their technique, details – it equals out.”
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