Michigan football's remade offense playing catch-up to mighty defense: 'A lot of new players'

As Michigan football embarked on its run toward a national championship last September, Blake Corum offered a strong appraisal of the Wolverines.

“We’re a complete team,” the former star running back boasted after a rout of East Carolina in the season opener.

No glaring weaknesses existed, and the few discernible deficiencies were minor. There was zero doubt then that Michigan was built to win big. Corum came to that conclusion based on what he observed up close in practice. The internal competition was intense between a high-efficiency offense and a stingy defense. The two sides, each stacked with a slew of future NFL draft prospects, were so equal that 11-on-11 team periods behind closed doors would transform into all-out slugfests.

“It’s a battle every day,” head coach Sherrone Moore remarked last October. “We win one. They win one. We win one.”

It was high-level football, and Moore attributed the quality of practice sessions to the even distribution of experience among the first-teamers going at it.

"They've done it more," he said.

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Over time, they all improved, continuing a cycle of development. Look no further than defensive tackle Mason Graham, the rising junior who last September attributed his accelerated growth to the lessons he learned while going up against one of the country’s top offensive lines day after day.

“Iron sharpens iron,” former defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said last summer.

In the ensuing months, Minter saw the Wolverines transform into a juggernaut that steamrolled every opponent in its path. Michigan produced more than 35 points per game and surrendered just over 10 on average. The equivalent strength of its two main sectors was reflected in its +19 turnover margin, which led the nation.

But the balance within a team that had all the pieces necessary to score a lot and concede very little wasn’t sustainable. During an offseason when a transfer of power between Jim Harbaugh and Moore occurred, the Wolverines lost the symmetry that made them so dominant. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, a projected first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft, led a massive exodus from his side of the ball. Corum bid farewell. So too did Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson, U-M’s two most prolific wideouts. Following them out the door was Michigan’s top six linemen.

The accomplished, seasoned cast that propelled Michigan’s 2023 offense almost vanished entirely. Left behind were tight end Colston Loveland, running back Donovan Edwards and a small group of ancillary weapons who contributed 24% of U-M's output. According to ESPN, only two other Football Bowl Subdivision offenses brought back less production.

“You look out there and see it’s different,” Loveland said. “A lot of new players.”

“At every position almost,” receiver Tyler Morris echoed. “We’re still trying to figure a lot of stuff out.”

They are attempting to find those solutions while matching up against a defense that appears almost as fearsome and imposing as it did last fall when it surrendered the fewest points and yards per game in the FBS. Some of the pillars from that distinguished unit remain, including Graham, star interior lineman Kenneth Grant and standout cornerback Will Johnson. They were among six returnees who played more than 400 snaps last season. Together, they form a solid core that gives people inside the program confidence that this reassembled group will still have the capacity to stymie opponents following the departures of slot cornerback Mike Sainristil, linebacker Junior Colson, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and five other frontline contributors from the College Football Playoff.

“I think there are some talented players here. … at all three levels,” new defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said.

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From the sound of it, they have created problems for an offense still trying to find its footing as it works to identify the replacements for 10 of the 11 starters from the Wolverines’ epic overtime conquest of Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal.

According to Johnson, he and his defensive teammates have been “getting after” quarterback Alex Orji, the dual-threat quarterback who has generated the most buzz among the five candidates vying to succeed McCarthy.

“I feel at times it may be hard (for the offense),” edge defender Derrick Moore said. “But eventually they end up always having some type of answer to respond.”

Credit Orji and Edwards for that. They have encouraged the teammates on their side of the ball to show some fight and strike back. That kind of resilience will be needed when the Wolverines tackle a challenging schedule within the expanded Big Ten this fall, according to offensive line coach Grant Newsome. Newsome was adamant that in practice, just as in the games, the offense can’t succumb.

Rather, he said, it simply must “play better.”

“The challenge for us is there is no ‘woe is me’ or, ‘Hey, it’s all right, they’re really good.' It’s 'OK if we don’t move the ball in practice,’” he continued. “We’ve got to execute. It may be tough. But it’s going to be tough in November, too. So, we’re positive and uplifting. But there are expectations we are going to come out and move the ball and score points regardless of who the defense is. … It’s a younger group. But we still have playmakers all over the field, and offensive line-wise we still have a bunch of talent in the room.”

Whether they can consistently outmaneuver their own defense remains a question, however.

If they eventually get to that point, then the Wolverines may start to resemble the kind of “complete team” Corum described last fall.

After all, Morris said, “We feel like we’ve got the best defense in the country.”

And that unit, according to Derrick Moore, yearns to be challenged in Michigan’s Thunderdome along State Street.

“Being able to have them back-and-forth practices is just going to be able to make us better,” he said.

All anyone needs to do is look back at last season for evidence of that.

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's offense trying to catch up to its mighty defense