Tim Drevno resigned as the offensive coordinator at Michigan today.

To me, this is a bit of a shock. Don’t get me wrong, he has not done a very good job since he signed on when Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh. Drevno has been with Harbaugh at almost every stop he has been a head coach. But, his three offenses at Michigan have gotten progressively worse. Michigan’s offense was never the threat it could have been under Drevno and Harbaugh. Drevno’s best season was probably 2 years ago, but I think that had more to do with the experience and athletes they had as opposed to his play calling. He was very predictable as a play caller. My dad and I could call most things he was going to do before he did them. Opponents echoed this same sentiment. You knew on third and long that he was going to call a draw or screen. It was too easy to tell.

This past season with a ton of new, and inexperienced, but also very talented players, the offense really struggled, and Drevno was part of the problem. He never really trusted his QB, be it Wilton Speight, John O’Korn or Brandon Peters. He almost always gave way to the running backs on crucial downs. O’Korn got markedly worse under Drevno’s watch. Peters played fine, but his play book was very small. Hell, even Speight, before his injury, looked rough with all the new receivers.

I also was frustrated at his lack for picking a bell cow running back. Karan Higdon should have been the guy, with a little Chris Evans sprinkled in here and there. But no, he pushed guys like Ty Issac and Kareem Walker. Those guys are fine, but Higdon is far better. Drevno also totally went away from Khalid Hill, which drove me nuts.

The worst thing though, he did not have a single good call for third and long. As I stated before, he almost always ran a screen or draw. He was basically giving up the bank without a fight. He became a very frustrating coordinator for me to watch by the end of last season.

Where this move has me a bit confused, who will be the new play caller? Will it be Harbaugh? Will it be one of the many new assistants they’ve hired this offseason? I don’t know. I feel like Harbaugh already has a hand in what the offense does, so I’m sure that won’t change at all. But, who from the new staff could he possibly pick? The name that I’ve heard all day today is new receivers coach Jim McElewain.

I’m very conflicted about this. He was a very mediocre head coach at Florida, and the problem was the offense. Michigan was bad on offense last year, but Florida was much worse. He did an okay job at Colorado State, but never set the world on fire. Where he did excel was at Alabama as an offensive coordinator. That was what propelled him to be a head coach. So maybe, this will be the same, but I wouldn’t count on it. Where Michigan has big time talent on offense, Alabama gets the best of the best. They turned Lane Kiffin into a decent head coach. I just don’t know which McElwain Michigan will get. Will he be happy to be a coordinator, of is he just positioning himself to be a head coach again? I don’t know, and I’m a little scared to see. Maybe they will hire another person, a prominent person, to run their offense, but all of that will have to wait to see if Shea Patterson gets cleared to play.

Therein lies the biggest question. Did Drevno leave because Patterson won’t get cleared and he doesn’t want to deal with who is left behind? Or can he not work with Patterson because he is more of a dual threat guy and he’s used to pro style QB’s? Did he leave because of McElwain? Maybe.

This is all very confusing, and I hope Michigan and Harbaugh have a plan in place. Next season is a big season for everyone involved with the Michigan football program, and today’s news has other furthered my skepticism. We will see how this all plays out, but for now, I’m just scratching my head.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. May we recommend Ty as the new Wolverines Offensive Coordinator. He does have about 100 straight National titles with Michigan on NCAA Football for the X-Box. 

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