Jason Beck Talks About a Wrinkle in His Offense, is Michigan Built for It?

What’s better than five offensive linemen? How about six?

Michigan football is working during fall camp to try and find their best five to get on the field for the majority of their offensive snaps. That’s normal practice for this point of the offseason.

There is, however, a wrinkle in new offensive coordinator Jason Beck’s scheme that would make Bo Schembechler smile.

Rhino Package

Putting more than five offensive linemen on the field is not a new practice. In fact, putting a sixth offensive lineman on the field as a de-facto tight end was one of the trends that started to make its way through the NFL a season ago.

Beck is well-versed in using six offensive linemen as a way to try and make the best use of the personnel he has at his disposal. Michigan is not entirely new to this concept. The 2023 national championship team, for example, did not call it the rhino package, but Trente Jones would make an appearance sporadically when their usual starting five was healthy and on the field.

The most famous example, of course, was during the Penn State game in November of 2023 where Michigan ran the ball 32 consecutive times to close out a 24-15 victory.

That helped keep Jones sharp for later in the year when he was pressed into duty as the right tackle when Zak Zinter went down for the year with a leg injury.

Beck can use his personnel similarly at Michigan, and has experience doing so in the past, and the package name was inspired by the player it was created for.

“You know, the past couple of years, so this, the Rhino thing, it's something that went back to my time at Virginia. When we were at Syracuse, the kid that did it for us, his name was Chris Elmore. But his nickname was Rhino,” Beck said.

Jan 8, 2024; Houston, TX, USA; Michigan Wolverines offensive lineman Evan Link (71) against the Washington Huskies during the 2024 College Football Playoff national championship game at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

“And he was so dominant at it that we just started naming it the Rhino ever since then. But it's been like a big D-lineman or an O-lineman. And we're just looking for physicality.”

As the name of the package, and the formation itself would suggest, there is one clear goal when putting six big guys on the field, and it plays right into Michigan’s identity.

“Physicality in the run game. Pass protection, you know, in complement to that. But it's about being physical to run the football,” Beck said.

“And then hold up in pass protection. Because, you know, you can't be there out there and you're running it. You have to be able to throw the ball when the Rhino's out there too.”

That last line is a key to avoiding predictability. Obviously when there is an extra offensive lineman on the field, there has to be one less skill player on the field, but that doesn’t mean a team can exclusively run the ball out of that set, otherwise they become predictable.

So how often will they use it? As much as they need to.

“It was like 400 snaps or 500 snaps. So we know what we're doing and how we can utilize it if that's going to be a weapon. At Utah, our sixth O-lineman was better than a lot of our five-skill guys, so that's why we had him out there quite a bit,” Beck said.

Built for it?

The offensive staff is not going to do things just to say they did. The goal is to win, and in order to do that this staff wants to put its players in the best positions possible.

So is Michigan built for a potential rhino package?

The answer is a resounding yes. There are questions at receiver and tight end that could lend itself to using more offensive lineman as a way to get their best 11 players on the field.

Early indications in camp are that Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan are the top options at wide receiver. Beyond that, there are question marks. The same is true at tight end where there are questions as to who will be on the field and when.

On the offensive line, the question is what their best combination is. Jake Guarnera, Andrew Sprague, Blake Frazier, Evan Link, and Andrew Babalola look to be in line to start in some capacity. Nate Efobi is facing a big year as well, but could factor in as a physical presence to be Michigan’s rhino.

Some questions about this package will be answered for how Michigan ends up lining up on the offensive line.

Either way, between Babalola, Link, and Efobi, Michigan has plenty of candidates to put another wrinkle in their run game.

In two seasons under Jason Beck, Devon Dampier ran the ball 155 times and 146 times, respectively. His passing efficiency also improved from Year 1 to Year 2.

What's Beck going to do for Bryce Underwood at #Michigan?

STORY: https://t.co/LUFA1woahm pic.twitter.com/TxrjRL8kAX
— Trent Knoop (@TrentKnoop) August 6, 2026

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