ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- While Michigan football has a lot of issues in the pass game, perhaps the most surprising element of the offensive struggles has been the lack of a run game.
The Wolverines were already one of the top rushing outfits in the country and they got an offensive coordinator in Jason Beck who had the No. 2 rushing attack each of the past two seasons. However, a year after the maize and blue finished 14th, they're nationally rated 98th in the country through Week 6.
Beck spoke on Wednesday about the struggles in that element of the game, noting that he's not pleased with where the run game currently is, and he's hoping that now that the bye week is past, the Wolverines will be able to do more in terms of pounding the rock.
"I'm disappointed
in where it's at, and kind of started Week 1," Beck said. "That was something that was really surprising, with that Western Michigan game. We're looking at everything to tweak and adjust and fix and get better. There's definitely some things that we know, and we've kind of gotten away from, with just not having the personnel and the fit for different reasons. But yeah, we're absolutely looking at ways to tweak and adjust and be better. We kind of used to be a really dynamic rushing team, and we want to get back to that."
Michigan has long been more of a downhill running team, and it has the personnel adept at running north-south. Beck's offense is often predicated on having a strong perimeter run game, but it wasn't working when the Wolverines were trying to test the edges.
But Beck insists that the maize and blue have inserted more north-south runs against Iowa and Minnesota, it just hasn't quite come together in the way he's hoped to this point.
"Just with the amount of guys that had some experience up front and ball carriers, that has been stuff we've looked at to do," Beck said. "We're way more north-south than we've been, very little perimeter the last week or two, maybe a pin-pull thing. We kind of had an outside stretch thing get blown up on us against Minnesota with a missed deal. But we've kind of cut back on some of that perimeter because the early weeks, that was not great, just between personnel and blocking and whatever.
"But absolutely, yeah, look at things they've done. Some of our, even some of our past stuff we've done early in the season was, hey, that was something they did well last year. Let's keep building on it."
According to PFF, Michigan has run 59 times from off-tackle to the interior, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Outside of quarterback scrambles, the Wolverines have run 97 times outside of the tackles and tight ends (including the rhino position), for an average of 3.5 yards per carry.
But there is the element of the quarterback runs, which is put on Bryce Underwood to decide when to give and when to keep. Scrambling has been the most advantageous for the Wolverines, as Underwood (and Tommy Carr against UTEP) are averaging 9.3 yards in that respect.
Beck says that he will continue to have Underwood read the play and decide whether to give or keep, as that gives the Wolverines the best opportunity to get the run game going.
"Yeah, there's always a line on that," Beck said. "Anytime you can read somebody, you gain a hat. And now if you're messing up your reads or all that, there's problems. And that has not been an overwhelming issue of missed reads. There has been some stuff here and there.
"Overall, I thought Bryce has been really good in the reads. I thought he's been productive as a runner. The biggest issue those first few weeks was as a runner, times the ball would end up on the ground. And that seemed to be a major, major emphasis. But he's had a pretty nice, you know, physicality. And with real tight spots, he's come up big in terms of -- I think Iowa, I think first play of the game, we're starting on like the two-yard line. And you're digging out of that backfield position when you went to Bryce's run. And he had a nice physical six-yard, seven-yard run to help kick us out. I think on the next play he pulled one, went around the edge to get the first. And we were able to kind of flip the field position.
"So that's been a – he's been pretty solid there. There's always things to improve when you get better, you know, but not a major issue."
Fans will get another chance to see the Michigan run game in action on Saturday, when Penn Statecomes to The Big House.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Jason Beck explains what's gone wrong with Michigan's run game
