Michigan football offense missing one key ingredient after 2024 spring game showcase

Kirk Campbell sounded like a man who won.

Technically, he did, guiding his Maize squad to a 17-7 victory over the Blue team in the Michigan football spring game on Saturday. But it wasn’t just the thrill of victory that seemed to influence his sunny mood; it was also what the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator witnessed over 48 minutes of action.

He caught a glimpse of running back Donovan Edwards surging through holes and gobbling chunks of yards. He watched Colston Loveland move around the formation, catching passes and showing the versatility that makes him, what Campbell argues, the “best tight end in the country.” He spotted receiver Frederick Moore grab a shallow cross, turn rapidly up a seam and outrace the defense on a dazzling 48-yard touchdown reception. He saw Davis Warren, one of the five quarterbacks vying to replace J.J. McCarthy, stand in the pocket and deliver multiple accurate, downfield passes highlighted by a 42-yard strike to wideout Kendrick Bell in the end zone.

All of it left Campbell impressed and ready to stamp his seal of approval.

“I think we’re going to be an extremely explosive offense,” he boasted.

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Those were bold words coming out of an intrasquad scrimmage where it was hard to make any definitive conclusions, given that each of the participating teams were a mishmash of starters and reserves, the quarterbacks wore no-contact jerseys, the offensive lines were missing key players and the defense wasn’t playing with the aggressive bent that its new caretaker, Wink Martindale, is expected to show this fall.

Campbell’s assertion was even more audacious considering the Wolverines just bid farewell to 10 starters on his side of the ball, including McCarthy, star running back Blake Corum and the five men who blocked for them. The exodus of talent in January following Michigan’s national championship was substantial and raised serious questions about whether it has enough firepower to compete for another title this season.

Last year, the Wolverines were among the most efficient offensive teams, ranking fifth in the nation with 3.41 points per drive. They also managed to consistently keep possession, holding the ball for an average of 32 minutes, 14 seconds per game, the 16th-longest in the country. The sustainability of the offense had a profoundly positive effect on the Wolverines’ No. 1 defense, which faced only 60.1 plays per game — the lowest among Power Five teams.

With so much time between series, Martindale’s predecessor, Jesse Minter, was able to make necessary adjustments while the players under him kept their stamina at peak levels. It’s no wonder then that that Michigan allowed the fewest yards and points per game in the Football Bowl Subdivision last year.

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As quarterback Alex Orji said, “We know how to play off each other.”

The Wolverines’ success could depend on their ability to preserve that winning formula of complementary football, which will require a level of consistency from Campbell’s offense that wasn’t readily apparent Saturday. In a game where the Maize and Blue teams had the ball a combined total of 14 times, the number of scoring drives — four — equaled the amount of possessions that resulted in a turnover on downs. Orji, the presumed frontrunner in the competition to succeed McCarthy, struggled to effectively move the ball through the air, doing nothing to erase the suspicions about his accuracy that surfaced after U-M granted him only one pass in 25 snaps over the past two seasons. On Saturday, while averaging just 5.7 yards per attempt on 18 throws, he had several bad misfires, or as Campbell put it, “a couple today he’d probably like back.”

His first pass, a dump-off to H-back Max Bredeson, was wide. He later threw behind receiver Tyler Morris on a crossing route, sailed the ball over tight end Marlin Klein’s head and missed wideout Peyton O’Leary along the sideline. By the end, Orji had been outshined by Warren, a former walk-on who completed 6 of 9 pass attempts for 136 yards and two touchdowns.

“Everything comes with reps,” said Orji. “Just getting comfortable working on the short, intermediate to deep (throws).”

With Campbell pooh-poohing any suggestion Michigan would seek another quarterback in the transfer portal, Orji’s development as a passer may determine the trajectory of the offense. After all, compared to the rest of his competition on the roster, he has the most intriguing athletic traits, which he showed off with an 18-yard touchdown scramble on the first possession of the game.

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By posing a threat with his maneuverability outside the pocket, Orji provides balance to the ground attack, allowing Edwards greater room to operate between the tackles.

As Edwards said, Orji forces the opposing defense to “stay true and committed.”

“Whatever running back is in the game, it allows them to take stress off just because of Alex’s capability,” Edwards added.

McCarthy created the same effect when he used his legs. At times, his designed rush attempts powered the Wolverines and added another dimension to a ground-and-pound offense that was the heart and soul of Jim Harbaugh’s program. Harbaugh’s successor, Sherrone Moore, doesn’t plan to deviate from that rugged style, which he sums up with one word: "Smash."

As Campbell said, “That’s not going to change: Our DNA. ... We’re gonna be a downhill, physical run football team.”

He later doubled down on that point, adding, “We’re still going to be aggressive with the same mold. But we have players that are more explosive than we had in the past.”

That’s a brazen claim, when considering the amount of high-end talent that just departed. Yet there were flashes Saturday that suggested Campbell’s assertion may not be totally outlandish. The question is whether those tantalizing glimpses will add up to anything meaningful in the aggregate. Michigan’s 2023 offense was a well-oiled machine that was reliably functional from down to down, series to series, quarter to quarter and game to game. That’s the standard of consistency Campbell must meet, no matter what his unit's “explosive” potential may be.

Based on how the spring game went, he has some work to do if he wants to reach that lofty benchmark and sustain his winning feeling.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.

Next up: Bulldogs

Matchup: Michigan (15-0 in 2023) vs. Fresno State (9-4 in 2023), season opener.

Kickoff: Aug. 31, time TBA; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.

TV/radio: TV TBA; WXYT-FM (97.1).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan offense missing one key ingredient after spring game showcase