Chip Lindsey reveals how Michigan football sells its offense to recruits

The Wolverines have a few things they do to sell their offense to recruits.

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Despite the struggles Michigan had on the offensive side of the ball last season -- having the 131st-ranked passing attack -- the Wolverines still managed to bring in the No. 6 recruiting class in the country, headlined by No. 1 player Bryce Underwood.

The Wolverines have gotten better, overall, offensively this season. Clearly, having a phenom behind center will help things, but Underwood is still prone to making freshman mistakes. Six games in and Michigan has the 95th-ranked passing attack, averaging 201 yards through the air.

Michigan has seen some younger guys make plays this season, most notably the emergence of four-star freshman Andrew Marsh. But with the Wolverines' offense still going through some growing pains with first-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, how does Michigan sell its offense to recruits?

Improvement and relationship building

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On Wednesday, during a press conference, Lindsey told reporters that building relationships with recruits is the key. But as long as they know the Wolverines are striving to improve in the critical areas, such as third-down conversions, along with laying out a long-term plan -- Michigan can succeed on the recruiting trail.

"I think when you look at what we’re trying to do offensively, is create explosive plays each and every week," Lindsey said. "We’ve done some of that. We’ve done a better job with those in a lot of respect. But, you know, from a recruit standpoint, I think building relationships and showing kind of how we’re going to develop those guys really is the important thing. But from our standpoint offensively, third downs is the big thing for us. We have to improve in those areas.

"And that’s all the way around from protection to catching the ball to making the right throw to knowing their coverage. So it’s just, something that, obviously, the other night, I think we had ten drives maybe and only nine third downs. And we weren’t good on third downs.

"And we had two long play drives that we didn’t get any points because we turned it over or we took a sack. So those situational things are probably the biggest focus for us on offense. The recruits or the guys that we talk to, when they come to visit, we lay out a plan. This is what we’re going to look like. This is what we want you to do here when you’re here and all that. But at the end of the day, really focused on trying to improve offensively each and every week in some critical areas."

As of now, Michigan has the No. 10 class in the 2026 cycle with a pair of five-stars committed. RB Savion Hiter and edge Carter Meadows are the two players who headline the Wolverines' class thus far.

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