Expect the unexpected' with Michigan football's new offense

Ann Arbor — There are plenty of unknowns heading into Michigan’s season in part because of the new staff under the direction of head coach Kyle Whittingham, who took the job late last December after 21 seasons at Utah.

The players have been with this group for the last eight months through spring practice, offseason training and, now, a week into preseason camp. What is Jay Hill’s defense going to look like? What is Jason Beck’s offense going to feature? The Wolverines say they have adapted well to the injection of discipline and a heightened conditioning program, and suggest, reading between the lines, that pundits may be sleeping on them.

What seems acknowledged by most nationally is Michigan’s very challenging schedule that gets a wake-up call in Week 2 at Michigan Stadium against highly respected Oklahoma. There's a home game against defending national champion Indiana and road games at Oregon and Ohio State, all considered among the top prospects to challenge for a national title.

Heading into this season, the microscope is on returning starting quarterback Bryce Underwood, entering his second season, and how he operates Beck’s offense. Jordan Marshall, the Wolverines’ returning leading rusher, has said the offense will have an element of surprise, but, of course, he did not care to expand on that. Tight end Zack Marshall, speaking with reporters last Friday, didn’t hesitate when describing the offense.

“Lightning in a bottle,” Zack Marshall said. “I mean, it's out of nowhere. You're not going to know where the ball is. It's one of the beautiful things. A lot of misdirection. It's a lot of things built to have answers for anything. A lot of pull-press throws. If I was going to use one term, it'd just be like, expect the unexpected. We will make sure that the right people will touch the ball in the most unusual ways, and it's going to be really good.”

Center Jake Guarnera doesn’t get the best overall view of the offense because of the view from his position, but he sees the results.

“I think (Marshall) summed it up perfectly,” Guarnera said. “I think we got a lot of playmakers on offense, and I'm excited to see what some of those guys can do at the running back and receiver position.”

Whittingham said during Big Ten media days that Michigan could have one of the best running back rooms in the country. Jordan Marshall is back and joined by freshman five-star Savion Hiter. Bryson Kuzdzal also returns and brings considerable experience. The receiver room has options now to complement Andrew Marsh. JJ Buchanan was an important addition from the portal, and freshman Travis Johnson has been turning heads early in camp.

The key to running this offense will be Underwood, and from all accounts, the sophomore has entered camp vastly improved. Underwood was voted a spring practice captain, and Jordan Marshall, during Big Ten media days, said that at some point during his career, he can see Underwood being in the Heisman Trophy conversation.

“He just handles it. He handles our offense,” Marshall said of Underwood. “We rallied around him. We believe in him. He's a guy who's going to break down every practice because not only do we believe in him, coaches believe in him, and we know that, at the end of the day, he's our ace.

“He's the most talented person on this team. I mean, I would love to say it's me. It's not. There's a lot of guys on this team that are super talented. Bryce is the most talented of all, and at the end of the day, we get him playing to the level we know he can — he's been playing at that level — we're ready to go win big games because of that guy.”

Marsh, who said he wants to be Michigan’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Jeremy Gallon in 2013, is in Underwood’s class and said he has seen Underwood's maturity and comfortability grow.

“I would say just his ability to stand in the pocket and kind of deliver some more of those harder throws, and even his awareness to pull it down and take it off and run (have improved),” Marsh said. “I think that's something that we're definitely utilizing this season.”

The players certainly see what their teammates are doing in practice and understand what this new coaching staff is installing and teaching that the public isn’t privy to. If they say the offense is going to be tricky and challenging to defend, their word has to be accepted until the games are actually played. For now, an informal poll of Big Ten media project Michigan to finish fifth in the conference. The Wolverines don’t seem to care.

"So what? Now what, you know what I mean?" Marshall said. "We expect us to be the best. So that's all that matters is what's in this building, the 200-something fingerprints that can actually get in this door. Those are the ones that we care about.

"Whatever the media says or however we're portrayed on Twitter, no one cares. The 200 people that we care (about their) opinions are here, and those opinions are that we're going to be a really dang good team this year."

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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: 'Expect the unexpected' with Michigan football's new offense

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