Michigan announced on Thursday afternoon that Alabama co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Josh Gattis has been named the offensive coordinator. Earlier in the day, he was reported to be headed to Maryland for their OC job. Alabama quarterbacks coach Dan Enos is reportedly being elevated to offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide.
This is a weird development, because the last we heard, Pep Hamilton (QB coach) and Ed Warinner (OL coach) were both planning to stay on Michigan’s staff, and Harbaugh was supposedly keeping offensive analyst Ben McDaniel on as wide receivers coach. Into town blows Gattis, who would seemingly make McDaniel superfluous, along with usurping some supposed responsibilities from Hamilton and Warinner. On top of all that, it was reported prior to Michigan’s announcement that Gattis was headed to Maryland. Which one of those guys is on his way out of town? I’m sure we’ll find out shortly.
I can’t help thinking this is a positive development for Michigan, because Gattis (34 years old) is a young coach, a very good recruiter, and someone who’s not averse to tempo. He also has a great track record of developing wide receivers, including All-Americans Jerry Jeudy (Alabama), Jordan Matthews (Vanderbilt), and Jordan White (Western Michigan), plus All-Big Ten guys Daesean Hamilton and Chris Godwin (Penn State). Basically, the worst he has done is coach Hamilton and Godwin at PSU, two guys who are in the midst of carving out solid NFL careers with the Broncos and Buccaneers, respectively.
Here’s what the staff looks like now:
HC: Jim Harbaugh
OC/WR: Jim McElwain Ben McDaniel Josh Gattis
QB: Pep Hamilton?
TE: Sherrone Moore
OL: Ed Warinner?
RB: Jay Harbaugh
DL: Greg Mattison
DC/LB: Don Brown
Viper/OLB: Al Washington
CB: Mike Zordich
S: Chris Partridge
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I like the hire because he’s young, with a rep for recruiting
I do wonder: has he ever called plays before? Or was it all Locksley at Bama?
Can/will he replace our play calling by committee approach? Let’s hope so!
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Sounds like Pep is getting the Drevno treatment. He was a lot better than Drev IMO, presiding over a significant improvement in overall offense from 2016 to 2018 – in both overall offense and pass game.
Who will be the QB coach now? JH?
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I assume we’ll have a new QB coach. It sounds to me like McDaniel is out, so Gattis would seemingly replace McDaniel, and if Hamilton is out, somebody would presumably be coming in to coach QBs.
I agree that Hamilton is better than Drevno.
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Decent change McDaniels coaches QBs now. With Harbaugh help.
Or Harbaugh can be more hands on there and let McDaniels stick at WR with Gattis helping at WR but focusing on OC duties.
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Who saw this coming? In all the articles I’d read about potential candidates, the name “Josh Gattis” never surfaced.
I want to be optimistic about this: that is, that this signals a significant change on the offensive side of the ball. I find it hard to believe Harbaugh can survey the college football landscape (and the NFL as well) and not see which way the wind is blowing. He’s stubborn, but I can’t believe he’s *that* stubborn.
I’m happy this wasn’t a “a friend from the NFL who was let go by his team” type of hire.
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Nobody saw this coming, because nobody thought we had an offensive coaching position open.
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No more Stanford reruns. No more NFL or HC flunkies.
Around JH, Brown, Warriner, and Zordich they’re grabbing a bunch of young guys who can recruit.
GMatt is a big loss and Pep is WAY better than he’s getting credit for, but going with young up-and-comers who can recruit is the right response.
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I don’t know about WAY better. How many former teams would take him back?
Should he be the single point of blame for our offense? No, JH owns this, and deserves the credit & blame
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Team effort. Team credit. The 2018 O is Michigan’s best since 2010.
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That made me throw up in my mouth a little
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2012 not 2010. Denard was good.
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Wasn’t dRob injured most of 2012? He was fun to watch – as a runner
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Before somebody argues how great the ’15 offense finished the season – let’s remember that Florida didn’t bother showing up that year (perhaps knowing M would return the favor in a few years).
OSU games were similar duds on O.
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And it’s still a long way from being championship caliber. Unbridled optimism over a new coach is a classic symptom of 9-3ism. I have no doubt that starting in spring, the offensive players will be gushing about how innovative the new guy is, how he has changed everything, etc., etc. How many times have we heard that?
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Are 10-2ist’s allowed to hope for improvement from Top 25 to Top 15 or so? When there are 5 starters returning on the OL, an all-conference senior QB, and 3 very good junior WRs.
Not enough bridle?
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I don’t like the question mark next to Warinner. I think he’s a solid coach and hope he stays. Not to mention if he leaves it would be the 4th oline coach in 4 years for the team (Drevno, Drevno/Frey, Warinner, ??).
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The other thing about Gattis that could be helpful is he hasn’t just been at programs that are more spread/dynamic then UM has been the last couple of years but he’s been at programs when they’ve been making the change from a more NFL prototype offense to a more spread (for lack of a better word) college offense: PSU when they brought in Morehead and Bama last year.
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