Josh Gattis’ personnel driven offense can help Michigan attack defenses in a variety of ways

In a Michigan Football video, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis described how his group will see time on the field.

“We’re a personnel driven offense, we’re going to find a way to get our best players on the ball. We’re not gonna be just isolated to keeping certain players on the field,” Gattis said. “That was one of the challenges this spring, I really told the offense ‘we will be personnel driven’. So when our best players present themselves to us, we’ll find ways to get them involved in our offense.”

This is real simple, yet real refreshing at the same time. If the tight ends are playing well, we may be seeing more two tight end sets on a given week. If the receivers are shredding secondaries, we may see more four wide-out sets. If the running game is dominating, the running backs will get more carries.

This is meritocracy at its finest, in theory. The best players will see the field, how they perform in practice will shape and dictate who sees the field when and what packages may be used.

What Gattis is doing is not always the norm in the coaching ranks, and I applaud him for his willingness to try different things instead of having a depth chart and scheme completely set in stone. The Michigan offense could look quite different week to week in how they attack opposing defenses.

The message is simple from Gattis: If players earn snaps, they’ll be getting more of them.