Attended the game last night, just finished rewatching it this morning and wanted to share my thoughts. I don’t want this to come across as if I know better than the Michigan staff, but as a former college player (WR) fresh out of college I think I can provide a unique perspective:

It’s fair to be underwhelmed by the offensive performance, I won’t fault you for that. There’s been a lot of finger pointing at Warren, OL, Donovan, etc.. and on the surface level, also more than fair. What I was least impressed with was, Kirk Campbell. My complaints below:

Kirk gave Iowa a run for their money in terms of calling one of the most uncreative and vanilla games. The lack of creativity to get Tyler Morris and Semaj Morgan involved was shocking. Jet sweeps, touch passes, orbits (where the WR goes behind the QB in motion)… nothing. If you’re gonna go with Warren, you absolutely have to get playmakers in the open field. With all due respect, the most used man in motion was Max Bredeson who is the least of the defenses worry when hes split out… Great player for what he does, but let’s be real, him lining up outside the numbers is a prank. I have zero problems with motioning him from within the tackles for blocking schemes, however.

How have we not figured out how to use Edwards yet? If I have to watch him slam himself inbetween the guards again next week I’m going to lose it. We used him and Mullings as if they were identical backs. No crap Mullings looked better, because all we did was run inside. Donovan needs primarily outside zones, off tackles, sweeps, stretches and schemed routes in the passing game. He’s an elite weapon and this offense NEEDS him. Throw him screens, get him matched up against LB’s, for the love of god it’s not that difficult to do.

Orji’s pass on the run was bad, no other to twist it. I refuse to believe that’s standard for him, but I think it does speak to the “inconsistency” we heard of. In his defense, when the playcalling caters to him running inside zone options, whipping out a random pass on a whim and then not giving him another chance isn’t totally fair to him. I would really like to see him get more passing opportunities before I close the book on him. His running ability is some of the best I’ve seen at the college level. For an offense who is in desperate need of playmakers, a dual threat QB can solve a lot of those problems. I’m interested to see how they use him going forward (I hope it’s more creative).

Long story short, players have to make plays. But our OC needs to put them in positions to be successful in terms of catering to their skills. Don't be stubborn with your philosophy, there’s a happy medium. Curious if anyone else was overly frustrated with the playcalling. For sakes of being optimistic, I’m going to say the staff didn’t want to open it up and ease the guys in / not showing Texas everything we got up our sleeves with all the unique skill traits our guys have.

"I feel like going into the season, me and Dono always viewed it as kind of a team thing."

Instead of worrying about who is "RB1," Kalel Mullings said he and Donovan Edwards have been focusing how they can get the job done together in the Michigan backfield.

Story on how that played out in Week 1 against Fresno State and why the Wolverines will continue to use both of their skillsets against defenses as the season moves forward:

On Inside Michigan Football. He acknowledged the tight timing re Texas to get better lol but said most all the mistakes he saw are easily corrected. Said film review with the coaches will bring the ah ha moments. Footwork and other issues, game speed for some of the guys. He expects improvement next week (will it be enough? 🤔 I’m an optimist!). Showed some good blocking by Donovan and Colston. Lots of defensive highlights and Mullings highlights obviously. Happy with the improvement as the game went on. Commented you can’t have run every time with Orji (but what a great fake on that one run) and on the need for the WRs to step up. I love Jansenvision!

Wow - awful second week...I guess that would be us too typically playing Central Michigan or Connecticut. I'm anxious to see App State play Clempsum...love to see that upset happen and Dabo get the boot (I heard his buyout is close to $60 million this year and next so probably won't happen unless they have a billionaire alum).