The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2026 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY JOHN BORTON J ason Beck guided one of the top of- fensive units in the nation last year at Utah, only one season after do- ing the same at New Mexico. Now he's looking to mastermind a huge rise in Michigan's offensive fortunes over last season. Beck sat down with The Wolver- ine for an exclusive look into where U-M is headed under new head coach Kyle Whittingham. T h e Wo l v e r i n e : Yo u s a i d t h i s spring you want to adjust the of- fense to what your personnel does well. At this point, can you identify some of those areas? Jason Beck: "We were missing some people in spring that we'll get back, or new players that we'll see. But in terms of personnel, the running back room is strong. The ability to play with two-back schemes will be something we look to do, to get those guys involved. The tight end group is a good, trustworthy group, so I could see us being in 12 personnel, getting multiple tight ends out there. We do a unique thing where we play a sixth O-lineman as a tight end. We'll have him as an eligible member. So, some of that 12 could be what we call 'Big 12' — it's a big tight end, with that lineman. "The receiver group right now, with [sophomore Andrew] Marsh and [soph- o m o re] J J B u c h a n a n , t h ey 're rea l ly strong players. JJ has the ability to make contested catches, plays big. The rest of the group is new and young, but we're optimistic. We'll see what emerges from [sophomore transfer] Jaime Ffrench, [freshman] Salesi Moa, [freshman] Tra- vis Johnson. [Junior Channing] Goodwin was out. He played quite a bit last year, but he was out all spring. We'll see what he does. Then [senior] Kendrick Bell — those guys are jockeying to see who can be that next receiver to be with JJ and Marsh. "Overall, our running game has been good. The pass game is, what can we do efficiently? What can we do to try to get big plays? The pass protection, just in terms of holding up protecting, we've got a lot of work cut out that way in terms of finding our identity and find- ing our strengths." The Wolverine: You went through a very similar scenario a year ago, going from New Mexico to Utah. Can you identify some similarities in this remaking of Michigan's offensive schemes? Beck: "Michigan, Utah, New Mexico, Syracuse. The last five years, this is my fourth time doing that. So, we know that process of coming in with a whole new of- fense, and a whole new approach to what was done before. There are things they did well here. It's not like, hey, everything's terrible. There are things they did well that we will keep doing. For instance, the O- line really blocked outside zone well last year. They did that a few different ways that were really productive last year. A lot of those guys are back, so let's keep doing something they've done well. "We're used to that — coming in, new offense, new everything, fresh start for everybody, identify the talent and put the pieces together. We have a good idea from spring, but it will change from right now until the end of fall camp. It will change Week 1, Week 2, Week 3. There will be tweaks, adjustments when you hit the live bullets. It's always an evolving process." The Wolverine: You experienced great success a year ago, with Utah ranked high in the national statis- tics. Could something similar hap- pen here, or is it way too early to tell? Beck: "It's way down the road. One thing that enabled that last year was re- ally good O-line play. We had an excellent O-line at Utah, and really good quarter- back play. The running back group was good, solid, and the receiver group was very limited. We didn't know what we OFFENSE Q&A GEARING UP Q&A With Offensive Coordinator Jason Beck