At a point of the season in which the Oregon Ducks appear to have found themselves after enduring a tumultuous first two months, they're set to face off against a team potentially in even more disarray. The Michigan Wolverines will travel to Eugene with many unanswered questions still on the table, and we may not even know them until kickoff and after it on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PT.
After a 15-6 loss to the rival Michigan State Spartans in Week 10 in which the Wolverines' offense managed just 192 total yards and didn't score in the first 58:25 of the game, head coach Kyle Whittingham announced the firing of offensive coordinator Tim Beck. Offensive line coach Jim Harding is taking over as the interim offensive coordinator and will presumably
be the play-caller as well.
Additionally, in another twist, Whittingham has yet to name the starting quarterback that will trot out against Oregon.
Michigan has cycled through two quarterbacks in 2026, beginning with five-star Bryce Underwood before benching him after six starts and going with freshman Tommy Carr, the grandson of legendary Michigan head coach and College Football Hall of Famer Lloyd Carr. Considering the Wolverines are 126th out of 138 teams in college football with a paltry scoring average of 19.6 points per game, neither passer has had much success at all.
The uncertainty on top of uncertainty has created a tough spot for the Ducks. How are they supposed to know much of anything about the offense that is about to be across from them in less than a week?
"Yeah, it just makes you do a little bit of a deeper dive," Dan Lanning said during Monday's press conference. "Like I said, when you're trying to look to say, 'OK, what else could they pull out?' I think you know one thing you recognize about changes in college football is teams that have done that, experienced that recently, they've kind of had a resurgence on offense. I mean, whether it's a coaching change, there are several programs. I showed that to our players today. Here are programs that made changes at head coach or coordinator this season, and here's what the next week looked like or the next two weeks looked like. We've seen a lot of those teams have a lot of success."
Lanning didn't need to look further than his own locker room to show what a difference a new offensive coordinator and play-caller can have on an offense and a team as a whole. The Oregon offense has scored 30-plus points in back-to-back games under Jay Johnson after departed offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer hadn't done so since September. The Ducks have looked rejuvenated and hungry, a complete switch from the previous month of games.
With Harding taking over, there's likely an expectation that the running game will be a vocal point all week for the Wolverines. After all, Harding has coached the offensive line this season and under Whittingham at Utah from 2014-2025. He's unlikely to come in and implement a gameplan of throwing the ball all over the yard.
But then again, who knows? Though there are some educated guesses that can be made, Harding is a complete question mark heading into Saturday. One thing is for sure, though. Lanning will be expecting Michigan's best and, in return, have to have his defensive unit ready for anything and everything that the Wolverines pull out.
"We anticipate seeing their absolute best, and then we're going to have to chase ghosts a little bit and look for every answer that we might be able to find based on what might be different."
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: How Michigan's OC change impacts Oregon Ducks' gameplan
