What the Spring Game Told Us About Jason Beck's New Michigan Offense

The Maize team ended up beating the Blue team in Michigan's Spring Game earlier today by a score of 7-6. The first quarter was a 'thud' where they just wrapped up, but the 2nd-4th quarters were full on tackle. Bryce Underwood and a lot of the starters played in just the first quarter before giving way to the 2's and 3's for the rest of the game. This was the first look at the Kyle Whittigham era, and fans got a chance to see what the two new schemes would look like for both the offense and the defense.

On offense, Jason Beck is bringing his option and motion based spread offense to Ann Arbor. In terms of play-calling, they kept it very vanilla in this Michigan Spring Game, but there were still some indicators of what this offense will look like this coming season for the Wolverines. Let's dive more into how Jason Beck's new offense looked in the Michigan Spring Game below.

Option runs

The first takeaway I had was how almost all of the run plays they ran in this game had some sort of option attached to it. Whether it was an RPO or a straight read-option, Michigan's QB's are given different options on nearly every single run play. It's a difficult thing for a defense to stop because no matter which way they play it, they can still be made wrong if the QB makes the right read.

There has been some of this in Michigan's offenses of the last few years but they were more or less used as a changeup to give the defense a different look, but in Jason Becks new offense it will be a staple and a featured aspect of this new run game.

Short-intermediate area passing

Obviously they were just being vanilla with the play calling on offense, but I thought you could really see the emphasis for Michigan's new offense to exploit the defense in the short-intermediate areas of the field with the passing game. They were frequently trying to put defenders in conflict in the short-intermediate areas of the field, and I thought they did a good job of getting their more elusive wide receivers with the ball in space.

Both Jaime Ffrench Jr. and Salesi Moa had a couple nice yards after catch opportunities where the scheme got them a chance to be 1 on 1 in the open field with a defender. Both of them showed some elusiveness in this game as well and that's a good sign of what might be a big part of the offense this fall.

They still want to pound the rock

The more tings change, the more they stay the same. Despite all the new looks and changes Jason Beck will bring to this offense, it's still clear that they plan to feature the running game as the main calling card of this offense. Both Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter got multiple carries in this game early on, and it was clear that they are two of the best 11 players on offense. We might even see quite a few 2-back looks for Michigan's offense this fall just because those two RB's are both so good.

I also thought Michigan's offensive line showed some promise in the run game. They have things to clean up in pass protection, but overall I thought the OL did a nice job of getting to the second level of the defense when it came to run blocking. They haven't always done that in the last couple years and even though it was only a Spring Game, I thought they showed some promise there and signs for hope for how good that unit can be this fall.

Overall there wasn't a lot of big plays or chunk yardage for Michigan's offense in the Spring Game, but it was nice to see some of the basics of what Jason Beck's new Michigan offense will look like this fall. With the option runs, emphasis on the short-intermediate area passing game, and the running game still being the featured aspect of the offense, this Spring Game gave Michigan fans a good look at what Jason Beck's new Michigan offense will look like this coming season.

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