The Michigan Wolverines fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck on Sunday, as the offense continued to play poorly over the weekend and only put up six points and 178 total yards of offense in the 15-6 loss to MSU.
This upcoming offseason, head coach Kyle Whittingham will be tasked with hiring a new offensive coordinator. He spoke to the media on Monday about what he’s looking for in his next offensive coordinator.
“A proven play caller with a track record of success,” Whittingham said. “It would be
great if they had Michigan or Midwest ties, and know the landscape and the conference. Also an excellent leader. That’s always at the top of the list.”
Michigan could be an attractive job for offensive coordinators across the country, and Whittingham is going to target someone that is a proven play caller and is a quality leader. It doesn’t sound like the next offensive coordinator necessarily has to have a connection to Michigan or the Big Ten, but it sounds like it would be a bonus if they were. Still, the most important quality is an experienced play caller with prior success.
Beck had multiple years of experience calling plays, but he is still relatively young and wasn’t exactly proven quite yet. Whittingham will likely go after someone that comes with more experience and has called plays for more than a few years.
“It was a tough tough call but it’s part of the process,” Whittingham said. “My job is to make decisions I believe are in the best interest of the program, no matter how difficult it is. I owe it to the program to do what’s best for the program.”
It’s certainly very difficult to make any predictions at this point in time, but when Whittingham detailed what he’s looking for in the search for a new offensive coordinator, two names popped into my head: current Northwestern offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.
Kelly and Denbrock both fit Whittingham’s description to a tee. It would likely be hard to lure them away from their current respective positions or other opportunities they could be offered this offseason, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to try.
Denbrock is a Michigan native that has coached for nearly four decades, including being an offensive coordinator at Cincinnati, LSU, and now, Notre Dame. It’s unclear if he would leave Notre Dame for another coordinator job, but he does fit Whittingham’s vision.
Meanwhile, Kelly is one of the nation’s premier offensive coordinators, with successful stints at Ohio State and Oregon before turning around Northwestern’s offense this year. Could Whittingham convince him to make a move to Ann Arbor?
It’s not a certainty that Whittingham, himself, will even return next year, but if he does, the offensive coordinator hire will make or break his tenure at Michigan. Beck was a failure in Ann Arbor, so Whittingham’s next hire has to be a home run.
