With Jason Beck out as Michigan’s offensive coordinator, Kyle Whittingham has turned to a familiar face in offensive line coach Jim Harding to lead the Wolverines’ offense for the remainder of the regular season. But how much experience does Harding actually have running an offense?
Michigan football is making a significant change to its coaching staff following Saturday night’s embarrassing 15-6 loss to Michigan State, with head coach Kyle Whittingham announcing Sunday that Beck has been relieved
of his duties, effective immediately. Harding will take over as interim offensive coordinator while Whittingham conducts a national search for a permanent replacement.
“The results have not matched our desired outcome, and I felt that a change in leadership was required for our offense,” Whittingham said in a statement. “We need to put our offensive players and the entire team in the best possible position to be successful.”
The decision comes after another disastrous offensive performance in which Michigan managed just 192 total yards against the Spartans, committed four turnovers and failed to score until the final two minutes of regulation.
Unfortunately, Saturday’s performance was hardly an isolated incident. Through nine games, the Wolverines rank 132nd nationally in total offense, 126th in scoring offense and 125th in passing offense. What was supposed to be a promising first season under Beck has instead turned into one of the most disappointing offensive campaigns in recent Michigan history.
Now, with three regular-season games remaining, Whittingham is hoping Harding can provide some much-needed stability.
What OC experience does Harding have?
Although Harding has previously held offensive coordinator titles, his experience actually calling plays on game day is considerably more limited. He served as co-offensive coordinator at Wyoming in 2013 and Utah in 2015-16. However, Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen handled play-calling duties in 2013, while Aaron Roderick was responsible for calling plays during Harding’s two seasons as Utah’s co-offensive coordinator.
Harding also has one season of head coaching experience, leading Troy Athens High School in Michigan to a 2-7 record in 2008. He doubled as the team’s defensive coordinator that season.
Can Harding turn the offense around?
While Harding’s play calling experience remains a question mark, he has built a strong reputation for developing offensive linemen and establishing productive rushing attacks. During his 12 seasons at Utah, Harding helped send 13 offensive linemen to the NFL, including a few first-round picks in Garrett Bolles, Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu. His offensive lines also helped produce eight 1,000-yard rushers during that span.
Unfortunately, that success hasn’t translated to Michigan this season. The Wolverines allowed five sacks and managed just 54 rushing yards against Michigan State, earning a dismal 40.0 pass-blocking grade and a 50.9 run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. With Michigan’s offensive line already struggling under his direction, Harding now faces the considerably bigger challenge of turning around an entire offense that has struggled to do anything.
His familiarity with Whittingham should help ease the transition, but Harding has little time to make adjustments. Michigan travels to Oregon this weekend before closing the regular season against UCLA and at Ohio State.
With Whittingham planning a search for Beck’s permanent replacement, Harding’s immediate priority will be finding a way to generate some production over the final three games. Whether he can accomplish that without any documented experience as a primary collegiate play caller remains to be seen.
