Joel Klatt: Michigan's Offense Has 'Identity Issue,' But Bryce Underwood Not to Blame

These are not Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines. And if Sherrone Moore isn't careful, he might end up like David Shaw.

Michigan's offense looked anemic for the vast majority of its 24-13 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday, putting up just 288 yards of total offense and converting on just 3 of 14 third-down attempts. As Michigan struggled to move the ball for practically the entire night, FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt believes that the integration of new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey's spread style offense is struggling to fit well with the ground and pound game that the Wolverines used to great success from 2021-23.

"The No. 1 concern for me is that I sense they have a bit of an identity issue," Klatt said on his podcast, "The Joel Klatt Show." "That’s a problem because Michigan has built their program on identity, who they are and the way they play in their philosophy has been foremost. It hasn’t been leading with talent, even though they had a really talented team win the national championship. It has been leading with identity and philosophy, namely this physical, run it well, play great defense, win the line of scrimmage identity.

"That was an identity that fell short on Saturday night."

On the surface, you might say that Michigan ran the ball decently against Oklahoma. It had 146 rushing yards on 32 carries, giving 4.6 yards per carry. However, if you take away Justice Haynes' 75-yard touchdown run to start the second half, which was a clear outlier, Michigan ran for just 71 yards on 31 carries, good for only 2.3 yards per carry.

But as Klatt questioned the fit between Lindsey's finesse spread-style offense and the physical nature the program played with in recent years, he also wondered if the talent is there for the Wolverines to succeed in the run game. While Klatt is a fan of Haynes, he thinks that the wide receivers aren't talented enough to spread the defense, saying Michigan was essentially inviting Oklahoma to play down low because of that, and that the offensive line isn't as good as it was in previous years.

"The identity issues leave a lot of question marks surrounding the program and where you go from here, specifically on the offense side," Klatt said. "Maybe they don’t have the offensive line that we think they have. I do not think the offensive line played well. I watched the coaches tape of the Michigan offense against Oklahoma and there were a lot of glaring mistakes from the offensive line. That’s clearly not the offensive line that they had in 2022, 2023 and certainly last year in 2024.

"They don’t have the running backs or receivers that they had in those years. They’re not bad at running back, and I think there were some glimmers of hope — namely the long run coming out of halftime — I think it’s more of a concern on the outside. The talent on the outside is there, the details on the outside are not there."

One area of Michigan's offense Klatt isn't concerned with, though, is Bryce Underwood. The freshman quarterback struggled in his first road start, completing 9 of 24 passes for 142 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. He also wasn't impactful in the running game, putting up -1 rushing yards as he was sacked once.

Despite Underwood's lousy stat line, Klatt saw enough from the five-star recruit in Saturday's game that make him optimistic about his future.

"If you just look at his stat sheet, and a lot of people are going to look at his stat sheet and say 'Bryce Underwood didn't play well, he's not this or that.' That's not the case," Klatt said. "I actually thought Bryce Underwood played better than his stat line. The film suggests that.

"That doesn't mean he played perfect. There's a ton of room for improvement for Bryce Underwood, namely his pocket awareness, his ability to change speeds on his throws. When you have a young quarterback that has that type of physical ability and stature, a lot of times, they throw a fastball on every throw. Playing quarterback, you have to have pitch selection."

Klatt added that he thought Underwood "threw fastballs" on throws that should have been layered or with more touch down the field. Still, he thinks those are small tweaks for a quarterback who has reason to give Wolverines fans some hope.

"I'm not concerned about Bryce Underwood. In fact, in a lot of ways, I thought he was their best offensive player on the field," Klatt said. "As a true freshman, that's pretty remarkable. He gave me very early vibes of some of the better quarterbacks I've seen in college football, where I'm like, 'OK, I see it.'

"As he gets better, Bryce Underwood is as advertised, regardless of stat line."

Even if Underwood is a strong quarterback, Klatt wants Moore to remember what brought success to Ann Arbor following COVID and warned him about falling into the same trap that Harbaugh's previous college successor fell into.

"They’re going to have to find their way of how they’re going to be," Klatt said. "To be great on offense, you have to major in a philosophy. You have to major in an identity. I think there’s a tug of war with which identity is going to rule out at Michigan.

"I’ll give a word of warning, and I know Michigan fans are going to shudder at this and I know that David Shaw had good success after Jim Harbaugh, but if you really study what went on there, it slowly deteriorated from a physicality standpoint on the offensive line to the point where late in David Shaw's tenure at Stanford, they were a totally finesse pass-oriented team.

"This is the second season since Jim Harbaugh left for the NFL, and the question for me is, can you retain that physical nature up front? That's going to be the question moving forward."

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