The Michigan football offense — let’s face it — has been subpar this year, to say the least. But on Saturday against Northwestern, the Wolverines got a respite from their ills, with the offense suddenly rounding back into form.
It couldn’t have come too soon with Ohio State coming up this Saturday.
While Michigan is best when it can run the football, other teams have tried to take away the run and force the Wolverines’ cadre of quarterbacks to try to pass. That didn’t work for the maize and blue for much of the season, so offensive Kirk Campbell started to pass more to run rather than run to pass. It didn’t work against Indiana, but it did against the Wildcats.
Campbell shared on the Inside Michigan Football radio show that that was a concerted effort, and while it didn’t pay off against the Hoosiers, it did against Northwestern.
“I think that’s a game-by-game situation,” Campbell said. “Obviously, this year we went in the season thinking we’re gonna run to set the pass. The past two weeks, you can see against Indiana and against Northwestern, I came out and throw it a little bit more early trying to open up the run. So I think this is gonna be a game-by-game and we’ll see how that plays out this week.”
It’s one thing to do that against Northwestern, it’s another thing to do it against Ohio State. While Texas was the best pass defense Michigan has seen yet, the Buckeyes are not far behind at No. 4 in the country. Some of that has to do with the men in the back end, but also those up front who excel creating pressure on the quarterback to force uncomfortable throws.
“They’re really good up front, especially on the edges,” Campbell said. “33 and 44 are guys we know very well. Really talented, big, long, athletic guys. They’re stout in the middle. Some guys that we played for a while. Their corners are aggressive. As we know, No. 1 has the most PIs in the country, and 10, we know very well.
“And then the safeties — Caleb Downs coming from Alabama — really, really talented player. And the linebacker crew, guys we played last year, some guys moved around, so we know them well. They’re big and athletic, but we’re gonna — we’re up for the task, and we’re gonna try to try to knock them off the ball.”
So, back to the first point: Michigan wants to run to pass but lately passed to run. What will it be able to do against Ohio State? Campbell notes that the Wolverines have a pretty good idea of what the Buckeyes want to do and likewise have a good idea of how to attack them.
“In ’22, they were really, really aggressive. Last year, they were really back,” Campbell said. “This year, they’re back to the middle. They’re not as aggressive, not as calm. So they’re trying to get kind of a little bit more aggressive dynamic, but not as much as they were in 22 where they could let up the huge play.
“Going to the game plan, we’ve studied them 365 days a year, we watch them. The GAs, the analysts always break them down, so we have a good feel of what they’re going to do and how they want to do it. So we meticulously put plays in the game plan throughout the season to try to play off them for when we play them. So it’s gonna be part of what we do, part of what they don’t think we can do, and what we’re gonna be able to execute really well that we’ve had in our back pocket for a while.”
The Game will take place on Saturday at noon EST in Columbus and will be broadcast on Fox.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kirk Campbell seems to have a plan for Michigan football offense vs. Ohio State
