ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- There's been a fair share of consternation surrounding the Michigan football offense, and rightfully so. The Wolverines are 124th in total offense and 101st in scoring offense, a year after Jason Beck had the No. 4 total and scoring offense in the country at Utah.
A lot is going wrong, but there have been particular discussions among the populace about the deployment of the 'rhino' position, or sixth lineman. Out of 299 offensive snaps, the rhino (split between Manuel Beigel and Avery Gach) has been in for a little more than half with 165 snaps. Beigel, who played in the first three games, has 84 snaps while Gach (who has appeared in all five games) has 81 snaps under his belt.
On Wednesday, offensive coordinator Jason Beck
was asked about the narratives (and consternation) surrounding the rhino position, and he noted that the Wolverines have actually seen those players grade out rather well.
"When you look at it, obviously we had Manu (Beigel) in the first three games. He was out for a couple weeks, and Avery filled in, and so we cut back a little bit," Beck said. "And I'd say we haven't been, even with Manu early on, we weren't exactly sure what we'd get because he never played. So we haven't been heavy, heavy in the rhino stuff. But each game we come out of it, that thing's performed at a pretty good level. I mean, they're winning blocks, they're getting knocked back, they're creating stuff in the run game, and the protection's been solid with those guys.
"I don't know if you care what PFF thinks at all. You look at PFF, they're like one of our highest-graded people. And so I would say that's not real accurate information. I would say, yes, everything sucks, so maybe it's the rhino's fault. But, you know -- and we look at that like anything else. How do we adjust, tweak, get away from, whatever it may be? I don't mean to say, hey, they're playing at the highest level in the world, but that's not a major problem. They're actually getting a lot of positive things done."
PFF has Beigel as the second-best offensive player, with an 87.8 grade (quarterback Tommy Carr is first with just 11 snaps -- all against UTEP in garbage time), though it should be noted that he has a more limited sample size. Gach has a 67 grade, ninth on the team. But neither has particularly high pass blocking grades, as Beigel has a 69 while Gach is 57.9.
WolverinesWire asked Beck about the cost-benefit of having the rhino in compared to a tight end, who could block, chip, or go off and run a route. He insists that the best plays that the maize and blue have had to this point have come when the rhino has been in and when there have been three wide receivers.
"Most of the time you're keeping somebody in protection unless you're getting all five guys out," Beck said. "So that's about the only thing. We're across the board, we're getting all five guys out. But you've got your sixth man, your seventh man, you have all those things.
"So one vantage point, you go, man, they might be flying down on the run because the rhino's in there. The flip side of that is, well, that should help you in your play-action pass game if they're flying down on the run or you're naked. So we've been doing this thing -- and shoot, Michigan's been doing the extra alignment for quite a while in their own right, you know. But we've been doing this thing for a while, so we kind of know how to manage all those things and have complements for all those things. You know, if you look at the yards per play and efficiency, our No. 1 thing right now, No. 1 personnel groups are rhino and three wideouts. So that's our most yards per play efficiency that we have going on from that standpoint."
Fans will get to see if Michigan has figured out some of its issues offensively on Saturday when Penn State comes to town. Kickoff is at 3:36 p.m. EDT, and the game will be broadcast on CBS.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Jason Beck pushes back on criticism of Michigan's 'rhino' package
