Michigan football offense reset: ESPN reports Jason Beck hire

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Michigan football is entering a new era, with a new regime, following both the embarrassment and struggles of the Sherrone Moore era. Kyle Whittingham had bought the house on December 26, but was handed the keys around 7 p.m. EST on New Year's Eve. Now it's time for the former Utah head coach to furnish the house.

For the longest time — even during the stellar College Football Playoff and national championship run — the Wolverines have struggled to put together a high-flying offense. From 2021-23, the offense complemented the defense in what was deemed 'the boa constrictor.' It squeezed teams to death, and while the elite run game and solid pass game was mostly good, it had to play a certain way, otherwise, things would fall apart — namely when it had to come from behind.

But even before that, the offense never really had a sense of cohesion. The hope, now, is that will change.

Thus far, there's only been one staff hire for the maize and blue, a retention of running backs coach Tony Alford. There have been rumored hires, and now it appears that one is about to come to fruition. According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Utah offensive coordinator Jason Beck has informed the team he does intend to join his old boss' staff and become the new Michigan Wolverines offensive coordinator.

Beck is a former BYU quarterback, and he got his start in coaching with the Cougars as a graduate assistant. After one year in Provo, he finished out his post-graduate career with a season at LSU under Les Miles in 2008. He then spent three years as Weber State's quarterbacks coach, one year as the OC at a Canadian college, Simon Fraser, and then returned to coach quarterbacks at his alma mater for three years. He then spent five years as Virginia's quarterbacks coach. In 2022, he took the same job at Syracuse, but was promoted in 2023 to the Orange's offensive coordinator. They didn't improve year over year from 2022-23, but he moved to New Mexico the following year, where he improved the Lobos from 45th in total offense to fourth.

But most impressively, Utah had the No. 115 offense in 2024, and in Beck's sole season in Salt Lake City, the Utes boasted the No. 4 offense, with 2,816 yards passing and 3,462 yards rushing in 13 games. He's served as the quarterbacks coach while still being the offensive coordinator at his previous three stops.

Michigan, on the other hand, has had a bit of a revolving door at offensive coordinator. In 2021, it still was deploying Josh Gattis, who was hired in 2019. He left following the 2021 season for the Miami post, and Jim Harbaugh had promoted Sherrone Moore and Matt Weiss to co-offensive coordinators. In the ensuing offseason, Weiss was fired amid an FBI investigation into computer access crimes. Moore was promoted to be the sole OC in 2023 and then was promoted to head coach with Jim Harbaugh's departure for the NFL. He then promoted Kirk Campbell to offensive coordinator after he had served as the quarterbacks coach. That lasted one year, and he was fired two days after Michigan's win over Ohio State. Moore made a splash hire, bringing in Chip Lindsey from North Carolina, but even Lindsey didn't fully work out, though he did greatly improve the offense from Campbell's tenure.

Beck is 45 years old, so he's still quite a young presence. He hasn't had a long tenure as an OC, but it's clear he has the ability to run the football and use that to produce a high-flying offense. In his final game leading the Utes offense, Utah managed 535 yards of total offense, with quarterback Devon Dampier throwing for 310 yards and rushing for 148 against a stingy Nebraska defense, which currently boasts the No. 3 passing defense.

Whittingham appeared on ESPN College GameDay and confirmed that Beck will be joining the Wolverines to lead that side of the ball.

"That's huge for us, and Jason did such a great job for us this past season," Whittingham said. "And we were, what? fifth in the nation in total, all the way in fourth in scoring, second rushing offense. So he's a guy that's moved the football and scored points everywhere he's been, and it's going to be a big plus for us having him here in Ann Arbor, and as well as a bunch of the other guys that were on the staff at Utah are going to come with him."

Beyond Beck, there are other rumored hires that Whittingham has made or is eyeing. Those include BYU's Jay Hill as defensive coordinator, retaining Kerry Coombs as special teams coach, and others. He told ESPN during Wednesday's game that he intends to have 90% of his staff in place by the weekend.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: ESPN: Michigan football hires Jason Beck as Kyle Whittingham’s OC

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