The Michigan Wolverines got another win for their 2024 season, but it was far from convincing.
Both sides of the ball looked out of sorts and poorly coached for the Wolverines.
Offensively, Michigan barely moved the ball on a poor Minnesota defense. The Wolverines were out-gained by the Gophers and barely broke just 250 yards of offense on the day.
Michigan's offense looked stale and ineffective, relying on Kalel Mullings to once again bail them out of tough spots. Mullings once again broke 100 yards on the ground, rushing for two touchdowns as well.
Related: Kalel Mullings' big game propels Michigan Wolverines to win over USC Trojans, puts name on NFL Draft radars
The Wolverines can't boast a robust passing offense with their quarterback situation, but they hardly even try to help Orji out with the reads. Any sort of third and medium or long was just some sort of dressed up 4 verts concept. Orji's interception came on that concept just a drive or two after they ran the same thing.
Later in the game, with Michigan looking to close the game out, the Wolverines come out in shotgun and nearly fumble the game away just a scant few minutes after the controversial onside kick (more on that later).
Even on their field goal drive to make the game 27-17, Michigan had some atrocious clock management that gave Minnesota time to make it close. There was no reason to throw as much as they did and it led to Minnesota having potentially over a minute more time on the clock than they would have with a normal drive.
Defensively, Michigan kept trying the same concepts and Minnesota kept hitting them. They repeatedly spot-dropped and Max Brosmer kept recognizing it and hit his target routinely. They can't play Tampa, despite insisting on it in the red zone. They even tried Cover 0 on a few plays that went poorly.
Their technique on that side of the ball looks so out of sorts. Nothing worked except for straight-up Cover 1, where Michigan's guys out-talented Minnesota's players.
This defense has no identity beyond hoping their pass rush gets home. That has to change moving forward.
The controversial onside kick provided perhaps the best example of this. Michigan looked like they hadn't even practiced fielding an onside kick, and were a referee's decision away from giving Minnesota the ability to at least tie the game at 27.
The big sell of this coaching staff was continuity and keeping Michigan's well-coached, fundamentally sound, and physical play afloat. So far, none of that has happened.
There just seems to be so little attention to detail with this staff that will likely end up biting them moving forward against better competition.
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