Jim Harbaugh's Plan For Offensive Staff
Just a couple months after winning the Broyles Award, Michigan's offensive coordinator Josh Gattis is heading to Miami to take the same position with the Hurricanes. That means that Jim Harbaugh now has to find someone else to run his offense — a unit that could be the most talented to date during Harbaugh's tenure.
According to someone connected to the program, Harbaugh is going to keep Sherrone Moore in his current role as the offensive line coach with co-offensive coordinator duties. The plan is to pair Moore with Matt Weiss, who coached quarterbacks last year. Weiss will be recognized as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator. Weiss has been billed as an extremely smart guy with a strong background in analytics and data-driven decision making. It's been reported that it was actually Weiss that helped Harbaugh prepare for his interview with the Minnesota Vikings.
In addition to Moore and Weiss being co-offensive coordinators, Mike Hart is expected to be the run game coordinator. Different programs use run game and pass game coordinators in different ways, so it's hard to predict exactly what Hart will do in that role, but it seems like he'll be heavily involved in game planning with Moore specifically, and could even have some play calling duties on game day, obviously in running situations. Whatever his specific role is, this promotion might be enough to keep him in Ann Arbor for a while, as he's been mentioned as another potential departure from Harbaugh's staff.
Not only will there be a few cooks in the kitchen, Harbaugh is expected to be more personally involved in the offensive play calling. In 2021, it was Gattis' show. Harbaugh definitely made sure that Gattis understood to establish the run and lean on the team's strength, but it was Gattis dialing up plays and getting the offense into a rhythm. Harbaugh rarely even stepped into Gattis' offensive meeting room this past year. In 2022, that will change as Harbaugh will run things more like he did in 2016-17 where there were multiple coordinators involved as a part of his master plan.
One other expected change will be safeties coach Ron Bellamy moving over to the offensive side of the ball to coach wide receivers. Bellamy was initially hired to coach the wide receivers but was moved to the safety room just days after being hired. Bellamy obviously played wide receiver at Michigan and briefly in the NFL, so he should settle into his new role very quickly and smoothly.
