Head coach Sherrone Moore announced on Tuesday that he relieved offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell from his duties. Campbell was in his first year as offensive coordinator after being co-offensive coordinator in 2023.
Hit the jump for more.
This was expected by anyone and everyone, and some might be surprised it didn't happen earlier. Michigan scored its fewest points per game (22.3) since Brady Hoke's final year in 2014, when the Wolverines averaged 20.9 points.
Here are Michigan's final regular season offensive rankings:
#64 in yards per carry (4.43)
#69 in rushing yards per game (160.67)
#111 in points per game (22.3)
#121 in passing touchdowns (11)
#122 in yards per play (4.85)
#128 in passer rating (111.25)
#128 in total offense (294.3)
#130 in passing yards per game (133.6)
#132 in passing yards per attempt (5.5)
A fall back to Earth from 2023 was expected, considering Michigan lost its top six offensive linemen, a couple drafted receivers, a drafted tight end, a first round quarterback, a program record-breaking running back who got drafted, etc. The only starter Michigan returned from the national championship season was tight end Colston Loveland, and he missed one-third of the year due to injury.
However, Michigan did have an experienced offensive line (except for a redshirt freshman right tackle who beat out a couple veteran tackles), two solid players at running back, and a solid tight end room. He also had a 6'3", 235 lb. athletic freak at quarterback, but nobody on the staff could figure out how to effectively use him.
Was it going to be great? No.
Should it have been better than #128 in total offense? Absolutely.
Personally, I think Campbell can be a solid coach if he finds himself in the right position. He did some very creative things on offense, and he schemed up more open receivers than what most fans saw - the quarterbacks just weren't good enough or protected enough to see them. Some of the stuff Michigan did over the past couple years with flea flickers, motions, end arounds, etc. was stuff I've literally never seen before. I don't think Campbell did a good job of preparing Alex Orji to be a starting quarterback in 2024, so I wouldn't hire him if the goal is to institute a QB run game.
Where does Michigan go from here? Well, first-year tight ends coach Steve Casula - who has offensive coordinator experience elsewhere - will take over play calling duties for the bowl game, and I think Casula should return in 2025 as tight ends coach. Names being bandied about for the permanent replacement include former Mississippi State and Florida head coach Dan Mullen; Tulane offensive coordinator Joe Craddock; and Toledo head coach Jason Candle.
When your "strength" isn't very good, it should be no surprise everything else stinks
ReplyDeleteNo idea who will come in, and wouldn't be surprised if the name isn't being mentioned. Fingers crossed
Imagine the average had Michigan not scored 50 against Northwestern. By my calculation, if they'd scored half that amount -- which is more to Michigan's norm -- the average would be 20.2, which is worse than Hoke's 2014 year.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know when Sherrone Moore took back the reins of the offense.
The offense stinks this season. Of course Campbell has to go. But I think we have much bigger problem to solve on offense. This season, the offense seems to have lost its identity. Under Harbaugh, we are run first team and the team was very creative in the run game. Even though the opponents know we are going to run the ball, we are still able to gain positive yardage. The creativity on the running game seems gone. Regardless of who we hire as OC, Moore needs to set the direction of the offense. If we want to run the "Harbaugh" offense, perhaps we should hire someone like Mike Hart rather than a QB coach like Campbell.
ReplyDeleteWe can and should do better than Hart for OC. They need somebody proven, IMO.
DeleteMike Hart was allowed to depart because he and Sherrone Moore did not see eye-to-eye on some things (according to some pieces I've put together). Hart isn't going to come back as the OC. No chance.
DeleteI liked some of the things I saw against OSU last week, particularly the outside zone runs, which Michigan had not really shown.
Okay Thunder ... you have the opportunity (in this hypothetical) to construct your "ideal" offensive system for Michigan at this time, given expected personnel.
ReplyDeleteWhat offensive attributes do you seek, and in what priority order?
Final question ... if you're Sherrone Moore, do you settle on an offensive system (or identity), and then seek the OC that best fits that? Or do you find the best OC available, then morph your offensive system/identity around the man?
Need an OL coach too; the job was too big for newsome
ReplyDeleteThe portal should address other areas (QB, WR, OL ... RB?)
There's a lot more to being an OC than putting some cool plays into the playbook. I think Campbell showed some creativity for sure, but he is clearly way out of his depth in running an offense.
ReplyDeleteYou can try to make excuses that a bad OL hampered the run game and bad QBs hampered the pass game, so Campbell was stuck throwing stuff at the wall. But that doesn't really hold up for me -- a lot of teams do a lot more with a lot less talent, experience, and continuity.
As a QB coach he got credit for developing JJ but unclear how much that was Campbell and how much was JJ or Harbaugh or Moore. A bigger issue became clear in 2024 as the developmental failings with Orji (3rd year in the program) and Warren (4th year in the program) were made apparent.
Sometimes a firing is one guy taking the hit for a collective failing, but it's not hard to tie back a lot of what went wrong on the offensive side of the ball this year directly to Campbell as the QB coach and then OC. It was very bad.
I hope for Campbell's sake he learns some lessons from 2024 and goes on to grow and develop from here. At 38 years old, he has a lot of career in front of him.