Zack Marshall Credits Strength Staff as Michigan Football Reaches Unprecedented Physical Peak

Zack Marshall, who was around for the Ben Herbert 2023 season, had an interesting quote about the strength staff.

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In the last few years of Jim Harbaugh, Michigan was known as having the top strength and conditioning staff under Ben Herbert's guidance. It was so good that Harbaugh wanted to nominate Herbert for the Broyles Award, which goes to the top assistant coach in the nation — he was that important to Michigan's success.

Following the 2023 national title, fans were worried and analysts were skeptical of the Wolverines entering 2024 with a brand new staff. Not only did Sherrone Moore take over as Michigan's head coach, but Herbert left with Harbaugh and it was Justin Tress who took over as the S&C coach. Tress worked under Herbert, but it clearly wasn't the same.

Fast forward two years and Kyle Whittingham brought Doug Elisaia over from Utah, who was there for 21 seasons, as Michigan's new S&C coach. And it sounds like it's been a hit.

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Appearing on In the Trenches with Jon Jansen, tight end Zack Marshall — who was around for Michigan's 2023 national title — said the Wolverines are in their best physical standpoint, and they are the strongest, fastest, and most conditioned he's ever seen.

"From a physical standpoint, we're the strongest, fastest and most conditioned than we've ever been," Marshall told Jansen. "Hats off to the strength and conditioning staff. They've done an incredible job with us already, right? We came in, we had deficiencies. There's no doubt about it. Now, were we uniquely strong in other areas? Of course, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, right? Like our old staff versus our new staff.

"But being able to kind of encapsulate all of the good that we've gotten. Take the old training with the new training. Because a lot of the way that it's been the last three years, it's. It's been so similar that if you told someone, okay, but I learned this from them, there would be no correction. Now. It's, well, I think that's great, but we've been doing this for a long time. We've seen this happen, right? So we have so much breadth of knowledge to be able to improve and have improved that we can make that kind of run."

How Michigan can go on another run

It's an interesting statement from Marshall, and if it's true, then Michigan will be a force to be reckoned with in the Big Ten — even with a daunting schedule. In 2023, the Wolverines weren't just better than everyone else, Michigan was physical and could knock the opposition off the line of scrimmage.

But Jason Beck will bring a new wrinkle to the Big Ten — nobody has seen Michigan run this style of offense. There will be more empty sets and 11 personnel, and opponents don't have much scouting on the new-look Wolverines.

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"Now, from a football perspective, no one's going to know what we're doing, which is pretty fun, right? Like, a Jason Beck offense in the Big Ten isn't something you're very expected to see," said Marshall. "And, I mean, obviously we can't sit here and say, yeah, we're going to win every single game, blah, blah, blah. We want to. We're going to work our butts off to go do that, but to be able to have something new, right? We're not running the same duo concept that we've ran.

"We're not running the same. It's. It all blocks up different, but it's. It's the same, but it's still. It's. But it's coached different. So we're working to different people. And that, like, nuance and newness of it is going to mess with other people's defenses."

And it's not just the offense that's different. Jay Hill is coming over as the new defensive coordinator after taking BYU to new heights. He runs a complicated defense, but one that will mix coverages and make things harder on the opposing offense.

"Now our defense is also so different here now," said Marshall. "I mean, we used to work, play so much quarters and so much. I mean, so much blitz with Wink, you can. You can probably pick that up, right? Like, yeah, the differences are so unique, but are going to be executed so well that this is the year of any year to go do it."

Fans will get to see what the new coaching staff is all about when Michigan takes the field in Week 1 against Western Michigan.