'Self Analysis', Other Areas Michigan Football Must Address During Crucial Bye Week

Kyle Whittingham spoke about what the goals are for the Wolverines this week.

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Michigan is on its bye week and the Wolverines have plenty of soul-searching to do, along with trying to find answers. The maize and blue have dropped their last two games. Michigan dominated Iowa statistically but lost in heartbreaking fashion, and then Michigan was thoroughly dominated by Minnesota in its first road game of the year.

Following the loss to Minnesota, head coach Kyle Whittingham said there might have to be some 'tough decisions' made. He said he would sit down with Jason Beck and the entire offense to try and figure out the Wolverines' offensive woes.

Appearing on 'Inside Michigan Football', Whittingham spoke to Jon Jansen about the bye week evaluation.

“Yeah, well, first of all, self-analysis, what do we do best, you know, what is our, through five games, what's been our strength," said Whittiingham. "Where do we need to gravitate? What do we need to gravitate towards schematically?

"Personnel wise, you know, who have been our best players through those five games, and are we getting those best players on the field often enough and enough reps? Defensively, you know, there's been a lot of good things on defense. It really is, you know, we're playing at a high level and putting up really good numbers.”

Defense helping the offense

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Finding the right personnel for the Michigan offense is paramount, and moving around the scheme to better fit that personnel is even more important. But as far as the Wolverines' bye-week plan for their defense — there isn't anything drastic needed.

Michigan has the No. 6 total defense in the country and the Wolverines forced two turnovers this past weekend against Minnesota. Linebacker Nathaniel Staehling took a pick-six to the house, and Smith Snowden landed an interception.

Whittingham hopes to see his defense continue to force more turnovers to help his offense.

“We did take the ball away, you know, we had a score and set up a score with the defense," Whittingham said about his defense. "That pick by Staehling was a really nice play by him. And then we actually set up the one touchdown we did get offensively was on a short field due to the Smith-Snowden interception.

"So there's a lot of positive things going on on defense. We're not sure there's a lot of corrections or adjustments that need to be made. We just need to keep doing what we're doing and start to take the ball away at a higher rate like we did last game. And that will help the offense as well when we get them more short field situations."

Figuring out how to operate the offense

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Jason Beck has had a successful offense in each of the last two seasons, especially when it came to running the football. Beck's offenses had the No. 2 ranked rushing attack, but Michigan has struggled to gain consistency on the ground.

There is a clear scheme-to-personnel fit in Ann Arbor. Whittingham noted that they've strayed too far from a downhill attack and that's how Michigan will run the ball better.

Heading into Week 7 against Penn State, it's clear the Wolverines have a lot to figure out, and possibly, a scheme change is in order.

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