Get ready for Michigan football to air it out, Harbaugh says

Michigan football offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore hinted at it earlier this spring.

Last week, when head coach Jim Harbaugh spoke to reporters at a high school sports showcase in Detroit, he flat out said it: Michigan will pass more this season.

It shouldn’t be hard to do — U-M had runs (including sacks, under NCAA rules) on 61.85% (600 of 970 snaps) of its plays in 2022. That was the fourth-highest rate among Power Five teams — behind only Oregon State (61.94%), Arkansas (62.88%) and Minnesota (67.4%) — but it should be effective.

“When it’s all said and done at the end of the season, it’ll be pretty darn close to 50-50 with the amount of times we throw it and the amount of times we run it,” Harbaugh said. “I think it makes us more of a harder offense to stop when we’re really focused that all those (touches) will get dispersed.

“‘Everybody eats,’ as the young people say, is the plan that we’re formulating.”

Michigan has one major reason it wants to get the ball in the air more: quarterback J.J. McCarthy. In his first season as a starter in 2022, the then-sophomore was named second-team All Big Ten.

He completed 64.6% of his passes (208for-322) and set top-10 single-season marks for Michigan with 2,719 yards passing (eighth) and 22 touchdowns (tied for sixth).

But most importantly, McCarthy delivered wins. He became just the third quarterback in program history to win 12 games in a season as he led the Wolverines to their second straight Big Ten title and College Football Playoff berth.

“He’s got the willingness to do anything for anyone on the team,” Harbaugh said. “Because of that, coaches and teammates will follow him anywhere.”

While letting McCarthy take more of the reigns makes sense for several reasons, it’s still surprising U-M appears committed to tweaking its offensive attack. That’s mostly because Harbaugh’s “smash mouth” approach has had tremendous success.

Michigan finished among the nation’s top 15 in rushing in the nation each of the past two seasons, largely thanks to the nation’s best offensive line, which won back-to-back Joe Moore Awards. U-M also returns perhaps the best running back duo in the country, in Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. The Wolverines will be focused on keeping them healthy and on the field all season.

“Between Donovan and Blake, haven’t settled on the exact number, but it’s going to be maybe nine or 10 (touches) each,” Harbaugh said. “Because I don’t want to wear them out, either.”

Corum is returning from knee surgery, but expects to be 100% by the start of the season. If he is, it will likely be a problem for opposing defenses — he ran 247 times for 1,463 yards and 18 touchdowns a season ago when he was named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award (given annually to the nation’s top running back.

When he wasn’t running through backfields, Edwards was. The West Bloomfield alumnus ran 140 times for 991 yards (7.1 yards per carry) and seven scores, which included 520 yards and three touchdowns in the final three games of the season.

Edwards also has 38 receptions for 465 yards and three scores through the first two seasons of his career.

“He’s definitely somebody that we gotta get the ball to, he’s gotta eat,” Harbaugh said. “Makes us better. Makes us more dangerous.”

By limiting the work for his two tailbacks, it will not only will it keep their bodies closer to 100% as the season goes on, but it will allow the rest of U-M’s athletes to get involved in the offense.

“It’s important that our playmakers get touches and we’ve got a lot of them, so really want to manage that on a game-by-game basis,” Harbaugh said. “Cornelius Johnson, he’s got to get six touches a game. Roman Wilson, Colston Loveland — somewhere between six and eight.

“You’ll see some of the young receivers will emerge too. … There will be another back in there that gets some touches in there as well.”

Although Michigan’s offense was far from broken last season, it isn’t surprising U-M is mulling some fixes — the Wolverines still haven’t reached their primary goal. Beating Ohio State is fun, but after two straight wins, it’s just a step.

Likewise, Big Ten titles are fun, but they too are just part of the larger process.

The 2023 season is about a national championship, and this is how Michigan’s offensive minds think it can get there.

“It’s about winning,” Moore said earlier this spring. “Whatever we got to do to win, that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re not going to value the opinions of people that don’t understand what we’re doing. We’re gonna do whatever it takes to win. So whatever that is, in that game, if it’s throw, pass, we’re going to do.

“That’s the vision and built it around our players.”