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In a tumultuous offseason for Michigan football, the complexion of the team has completely changed.
Not only has there been a bevy of transfers, but more than half of the coaching staff has been replaced, with the bulk coming on the defensive side of the ball. The final addition to the team was Matt Weiss, who oversaw the Baltimore Ravens’ rushing attack, one that accumulated over 3,000 yards on the ground each of the last two seasons. Only four times in NFL history has a team reached such a benchmark, with Weiss overseeing two of those years.
At Michigan, Weiss will be working with the quarterbacks, a position he also worked with in Baltimore in 2016-17. So, what led him to Ann Arbor after spending more than a decade in the NFL? He shared more with Jon Jansen on the ‘In the Trenches’ podcast.
“It was kind of an on and off discussion for awhile, and it’s something that I (had been looking for) before a spot came open, as you alluded to,” “It was obviously hard to leave a great organization, a great team, a great coach – a team that, in my heart I believe, has a chance to win a Super Bowl next year. At the same time, it’s the University of Michigan, it’s Jim Harbaugh. Michigan wins, Jim wins – both things are historically proven. I feel like I have a chance to do something special here.
“Also, I think anytime in life – whether it’s in your life or in your life professionally – it’s always good to get outside your comfort zone, challenge yourself, do something different. I’ve been in Baltimore a long time. 12 years, if you can believe that. It was kind of just an on-and-off conversation with Jim. John – he’s definitely understanding of it. He wants Michigan to be great, too. He didn’t want me to go, but at the same time, he could see an opportunity could be there for me and felt like helping Jim was a good thing, too. It all worked out for everybody involved.”
Looking at his accolades with the run game, what was Weiss’ experience with the Baltimore offense?
Weiss says that he was an integral part of reenvisioning the Ravens attack on that side of the ball and that that should help at Michigan when it comes to getting the best out of the players currently on the roster.
“Baltimore is a great example of what you have to do for an offense to be successful,” Weiss said. “A lot of people forget this pretty easily, but a lot of people didn’t think you could run that style of offense in the NFL and be successful. And maybe there’s still people who don’t. When we drafted Lamar and he eventually became a starter, the challenge that John posed to the offensive coaches – and it’s a great example of his leadership – he was like, ‘Hey, I want you guys to build an offense that you’re gonna take with you for the rest of your lives. An offense that people are gonna know as the Baltimore Ravens offense,’ you know, just like how people know the West Coast offense or anything else. It was built from the ground up with offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was also with Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco and has experience with quarterback runs and everything just kinda grew from there. Lamar is an amazing talent, generational type of player. But everything was built around his skill set. It’s a great example of how you build and offense. You build it to the players that you have and the things that you can do.
“We call that the ‘black swan.’ Everyone knows the black swan period is something that’s out there, nobody can imagine it happening, kinda like the pandemic. Before it happened, nobody could have imagined all the stuff that happened in the last year would happen. You’d think somebody was crazy if they told you what 2020 was gonna be like. But then after it happened, you look back and go, ‘Oh yeah, I can see how that happened.’ That’s like the rushing offense that we built, right? People said nobody could rush for 3,000 yards, like you said. And then you do it with a quarterback-driven run system, and people go, ‘Of course they did that. They run quarterback-driven runs with Lamar Jackson.’ Yeah, it was awesome to be a part of.”
That said, while Weiss comes aboard as one of the most experienced young coaches on the staff, he’s not taking over, nor is he the one designing the offense.
That distinction still belongs to offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, who Weiss praised heavily in the discussion. He feels like it will still be a boon to have him on staff as he can bring different ideas, while still learning what this Michigan offense intends to do.
“It’s definitely Josh’s offense – I’m here learning his system,” “Which is great for me, because it’s totally foreign to me. I’m learning a lot of new stuff. At the same time, I think Jim is a visionary leader. Part of the reason he wanted me here is he wanted diversity. People think of diversity, you want diversity of background and race, all those things, which is great and we have year and is really valuable. But you also want diversity of thought. That’s really important in any successful team.
“Right now, I’m really trying to master this offense, and I’ll really try to contribute ideas where I can. But I’m here to coach in this offense. Josh has been great, he’s a great coach. I’ve learned things from him that I didn’t even know existed. You see a lot of the stuff translate on the field, in terms of the way he coaches footwork with receivers, in terms of the RPOs, obviously. I love the way he emphasizes physicality and perimeter blocking. With me, coming from the defensive side of the ball, it’s something not enough offensive coaches do at times. You’ve got Sherrone, too, as co-offensive coordinator. He’s a really talented coach. He’s the type of coach I could see coaching successfully in pro football or college football, because he has a style where he builds relationships with the guys. And the guys really respect him. Just a talented, really intelligent guy who is probably gonna be a head coach one day, too. Just enjoying the opportunity to learn from those guys.”
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