Despite returning only one starter from last season, the Wolverines have plenty to like on the offensive side of the ball entering 2024.
Zach Shaw
The Michigan football team kicks off its season in just over one week. On August 31, the ninth-ranked Wolverines will open their 2024 season against Fresno State (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC), as they try to repeat as national champions and capture a fourth straight Big Ten title.
To do that, Michigan is going to need some major breakthroughs on the offensive side of the ball. Though the Wolverines have a number of key defensive players back from last fall, only one offensive starter returns from last season. That doesn't mean Michigan's offense can't move the ball this fall, though, as the Wolverines have plenty to like on the offensive side of the ball.
Below, we break down those things, looking at the biggest strengths of each offensive position group. In case you missed it, we also looked at the defense's biggest strengths last week.
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Offensive line: Size and experience
It's well-documented that Michigan's offensive line lost its top six contributors from last season, who combined for 200 starts in their careers and exactly 4,200 snaps last season. This year's group has two former multi-year starters at other programs, but ultimately has started just nine combined games for the maize and blue.
But make no mistake, this is still an offensive line capable of reloading, with more than enough size and experience to make up for a lack of career starts.
Looking at the starting five we project in our depth chart below, they average 6-foot-5.4 inches, and weigh an average of 318.8 pounds. The second group averages 6-foot-4.8 inches and 314.6 pounds. The other seven scholarship offensive linemen, including five incoming freshmen, average 6-foot-6.3 inches and 307.4 pounds.
Credit Sherrone Moore's recruiting over the years and Michigan's strength and conditioning program; that's a physically imposing group that won't get pushed around by opposing defenses.
The top half of the line also isn't as inexperienced as "replacing six starters" might make them sound. Josh Priebe (29 career starts at Northwestern) and Myles Hinton (16 starts at Stanford, five at Michigan) have 50 combined starts as fifth-year seniors, and Giovanni El-Hadi, Greg Crippen, Jeffrey Persi, Raheem Anderson, Andrew Gentry, Tristan Bounds and Dominick Giudice are all 21, 22 or 23 years old with at last three full collegiate seasons under their belt.
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So while they had to wait their turn to emerge as starters, they have spent a lot of time adjusting their bodies to the college game, learning Michigan's system and blocking schemes and learning how to work and communicate with each other.
Size and experience matter along the offensive line, and Michigan's "new-look" offensive line actually has quite a bit of it.
Tight end: Colston Loveland
We're not exactly going out on a limb here, as he's Michigan's only returning offensive starter, but no one on the Wolverines' offense is a safer bet for stardom this fall than Loveland.
As a sophom*ore, Loveland ranked ninth among tight ends in college football last fall with 45 receptions on 62 targets, finished fifth with 649 receiving yards and added four touchdowns.
He recorded a reception in all 15 of Michigan's games, and had at least three receptions and 30 receiving yards in 10 games. His best showings were arguably at Michigan State (four receptions, four targets, four first downs, 79 yards, two touchdowns) and against Ohio State (five receptions, five targets, five first downs, 88 yards).
In all, Loveland recorded 26 first downs and five touchdowns on 62 targets, tallied 233 yards after the catch and had five dropped passes. Of 53 tight ends with at least 40 targets, Loveland finished eighth with a Pro Football Focus receiving grade of 80.5.
Heading into his junior year, Loveland has landed on many preseason All-American lists, and has been projected to be a first-round 2025 NFL Draft pick by 247Sports, CBS Sports, PFF, The Athletic, FOX Sports, Sports Illustrated and, really, everyone.
Between last year and next spring, Loveland is hoping to become Michigan's first All-American tight end and Mackey Award winner since Jake Butt. With great size, speed, hands, ball skills, consistency and route-running ability, Loveland is viewed as a preseason All-American, and paces Michigan's crop of pass-catchers entering fall camp.
Even beyond the preseason accolades, Loveland is the kind of tight end who can truly be a No. 1 receiving option. He's consistent, efficient and can make plays in a number of ways. That's especially valuable this fall, as Michigan has an inexperienced wide receiver room, and at least some uncertainty in its quarterback room compared to last year.
That Loveland can create separation, doesn't drop passes, can make plays on 50-50 balls and can generate yardage after the catch can make him a security blanket for the Wolverines' passing game. Perhaps those reading this sentence couldn't complete a pass in a collegiate football game, but I would like their odds a lot more with Loveland running a route.
Michigan might play its No. 2, No. 3 and even No. 4 tight ends plenty this fall, but may have the best No. 1 tight end in the country. That's a great starting point for not only the room, but the Wolverines' offense.
Wide receiver: After-catch ability
It would be fair to argue that Michigan's receiver room is one in transition right now. The Wolverines lost two starters to the NFL, and three reserves to the transfer portal this offseason, and went through spring practices with only five scholarship players this spring before adding two transfers and two true freshmen to the group.
But weaknesses aside, Michigan has some serious after-catch ability in the room, and that should make a difference throughout the season.
That starts, in our eyes, with Semaj Morgan, who averaged 7.1 yards after the catch per reception last season. That ranked him second among 54 Big Ten pass-catchers with at least 20 targets. The freshman forced eight missed tackles and recorded 12 first downs on 22 receptions, despite an average depth of targets of only 3.7 yards downfield, according to PFF.
The rest of the room doesn't have the same stats to back up this claim, but it isn't hard to see the after-catch wiggle. Tyler Morris showed it tip-toeing down the sideline with 34 yards after the catch in his Rose Bowl touchdown against Alabama. Fredrick Moore was touted out of high school for his shiftiness and start-stop ability. CJ Charleston actually averaged 7.2 yards after the catch per reception last year for Youngstown State, so more than Morgan. Just type "Amorion Walker 3-done drill" into a search engine for a glimpse of what Walker can bring in terms of agility and shiftiness.
Michigan would love some of its receivers to emerge as consistent downfield, deep-ball threats, able to shrug off defenders and make jump-ball plays. But if the Wolverines need to fire off quick passes and ask their receivers to break some ankles and make some plays, Michigan has the personnel for that.
Running back: Bruising defenders
Over the last three years, the Michigan football team has built its identity around bruising run game, unafraid to bulldoze its way past the line of scrimmage. Blake Corum, maybe the best in Michigan history at that, is gone, but the Wolverines have plenty of running backs in their room who can pack a punch with their carries.
The name that comes to mind first on this is Kalel Mullings. The 6-foot-2, 233-pound former linebacker is entering his second full season as a Michigan running back, and is coming off a nice year as the Wolverines' No. 3 back. He finished the 2023 season with 36 carries for 222 yards and one touchdown in 13 games. He led all Michigan players who had at least 15 carries with 6.3 yards per carry, and recorded 149 of those yards after contact.
In fact, of 189 Power-Five running backs with at least 30 carries last fall, he ranked 11th with 4.14 yards after contact per carry. In 36 carries, he broke 10 tackles, recorded 17 first downs and scored a touchdown, and did so with only two carries of 15 yards or more. So yeah, he's a bruiser.
So too is Benjamin Hall, a 5-foot-11, 235-pound rising sophom*ore. Hall didn't play much last season (15 carries, 69 yards), but has drawn comparisons from teammates and coaches to Hassan Haskins as a runner, and Blake Corum in the weight room.
Jordan Marshall, who we discuss more below, is another back who could be a sincere threat running through tacklers. Though just a freshman, the 5-foot-11, 210-pound Marshall is already built like a college running back, and took on a heavy workload at Cincinnati's Bishop Moeller, exceeding 6,000 scrimmage yards and 80 touchdowns in three seasons.
Add in that Donovan Edwards has added about five pounds to his frame, that Tavierre Dunlap is 6-foot and 229 pounds, and this is a room with a lot of backs who can succeed running up the middle.
Quarterback: Maturity
It's a little cliche, and maybe backhanded, to look at a quarterback room without an experienced starter or former top-100 recruit and say the room's biggest strengths are maturity and leadership. But anyone you ask who has seen how Michigan's quarterbacks interact with coaches, teammates or each other will note this stands out as a major, meaningful positive.
Throughout the offseason, sources have indicated to 247Sports that this is one of the "healthiest" quarterback battles they have seen. They credited JJ McCarthy for setting an example of genuine support and care for the room as a leader, and said that has continued after McCarthy's departure.
"The guy who's out there is just a product of the room," Davis Warren said in April. "It was the same thing last year with J.J.. We were all doing our best to push him, teach him, and learn from him. It's just a sum of all the guys that we have."
Added Alex Orji: "I think that it's been awesome. Especially learning from the other guys in the room. That's a really underrated part of having a QB family. … Talking to the guys and just getting different stuff from them, it's like whoever goes out on Saturdays is the summation of the whole room put together. … It's not anything that (has to do with being) scared of competition. We invite competition. We thrive off competition. We also thrive off the family aspect."
From the outside, it probably doesn't hurt that no one in the room has a reason to feel entitled to a starting job. Jack Tuttle has spent six years as a backup quarterback; Davis Warren was a walk-on recruit; Alex Orji and Jayden Denegal were ranked outside the top 400 of the 2022 recruiting rankings; Jadyn Davis is a true freshman.
None of them were the assumed successor a year ago, so there's a little more mutual respect and camaraderie in the room than a typical room. They all have chips on their shoulders, and have been through the same anonymous grind as an unheralded backup. No matter who starts, who gets a fill-in drive or who comes in due to injury, the room has proven to be more cohesive and supportive than most.
It has also, according to those same sources, led to a maturity about the room that has Michigan feeling confident. Especially Orji, Warren and Tuttle, who all come off in press conferences like vocal, veteran leaders. That leads to a room that the rest of the team trusts and responds to, more so than even prior starting quarterbacks.
It's hard to tell what Michigan's season will look like, but the odds seem high that the Wolverines will be faced with gut-check moments throughout a difficult regular season. Michigan can hang its hat on its quarterbacks having the emotional and mental preparedness to withstand the storm.
