Dual Michigan offensive coordinators get vote of confidence from Cade McNamara
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Michigan football returns the bulk of its offensive personnel, both on the field and off. But there will still be changes in 2022.
Josh Gattis inexplicably departed for the Miami OC job this offseason, and instead of bringing in a new name, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh elevated quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss to the co-offensive coordinator position while offensive line coach Sherrone Moore retained that title. No longer was Moore essentially an underling to Gattis as a coordinator, now he and Weiss are set to share the duties of overseeing the entire offense this fall.
Naturally, there are questions as to what that will look like when the season arrives, but quarterback Cade McNamara likes what he’s seen from the duo thus far, having gone through spring ball. From what he can tell, the coordinator-by-committee situation has worked and will work once it’s time to officially put the pads on.
“Really, there’s so much more to being an offensive coordinator than just calling plays. And I think Coach Harbaugh is doing a really good job of balancing the two and those two are being very unselfish,” McNamara said. “They’re really two great individuals. And it’s pretty obvious to the team, how much they care about their new roles as well. I’m just really excited to continue growing my relationship with both of them.”
It’s not the first time Harbaugh has deployed multiple coordinators on offense. While Tim Drevno had the official offensive coordinator title from 2015-17, the pass game coordinators (Jedd Fisch in 2015-16 and Pep Hamilton in 2017) had what appeared to be equal footing when it came to calling and running the offense. So, this tactic is not new, to Harbaugh or the program.
Sherrone Moore got his feet wet a little with the co-coordinator role in 2021, but Matt Weiss’ elevation is a new development in his career. The former Baltimore Ravens run game coordinator certainly has bona fides and offensive prowess, but we’ll learn a lot more once we actually see him in action this fall.
Of course, as McNamara’s position coach last year, he has a pretty good idea of what Weiss brings to the table, noting that he’s been quite beneficial in terms of getting the passers ready, not just for the college game week-to-week, but their potential future at the pro-level.
“I think Coach Weiss is very, I mean, he’s extremely smart. I think any situational awareness, Coach Weiss is very comfortable. In any scenario that we get put in, in a football game, what he brings to the table as far as drawing up plays for certain looks, I think he’s very comfortable,” McNamara said. “He’s seen a lot. He’s seen what that looks like, from the NFL perspective, and he’s able to take that knowledge and give it to us. And, he’s taught me so much as to even what I can expect at the next level. And, he’s really good dude. And I know he’s got a lot of respect, not just from me, but from Coach Harbaugh, and the rest of the guys, so just really looking forward to this season with him.”
What’s more, McNamara says that Weiss is congenial and not at all domineering.
The biggest aspect is that he wants his signal callers to understand why the game works as it does rather than putting band-aids on flesh wounds, so to speak.
“He’s very serious, but at the same time, you can joke around with him,” McNamara said. “Coach Weiss is really laid back, you can share some very personal things with him and I know a lot of us appreciate that. And when it comes to on the field, he’s very aware of — maybe he did not play quarterback, but he understands what it takes to play quarterback as far as the movement, as far as throwing, he really takes in consideration our natural feel of the game.
“And watching film, if you move into pocket a certain way, as to maybe just saying, like, ‘Maybe you didn’t have to do that,’ or, maybe less criticism, it’s more of a conversation — ‘Why did this happen?’ and how can we do better from this certain play or situation that we faced.”
As far as who will be calling plays and when, there’s no clear indicator as to how that will work. Perhaps we’ll get a decent idea once the season arrives, but — given that it was never clear in Harbaugh’s first three years in Ann Arbor — perhaps not.
And if the offense works as it did in 2015 and 2016, it won’t really matter what we know.
