Latest Michigan football experiment could foreshadow disastrous news for the Wolverines’ offense ahead of College Football Playoff push
A peculiar move from the Wolverines raises suspicions on the heels of the Jordan Marshall injury
It has been a frustrating season for the Michigan Wolverines. They keep winning by the skin of their teeth against the bottom feeders in the Big Ten, but none of it has felt good in a few weeks. Still, they’ve put themselves in position to make a push for the College Football Playoff with just two weeks left in the regular season.
However, injuries have been a problem that have limited them on both sides of the ball all season long, and disaster could have hit against Northwestern. While head coach Sherrone Moore is taking his usual dismissive approach with injuries, a curious experiment was revealed on Tuesday that could spell trouble for Michigan’s offense.
Speaking with media on Tuesday, co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Steve Casula revealed that fullback/tight end Max Bredeson is taking snaps at running back this week. Casula defended this by calling Bredeson “one of a kind” and more about “what we have in him” and “not what they don’t have”. However, on the heels of an injury to backup running back Jordan Marshall, this messaging seems fairly suspicious.
Could Jordan Marshall be out for longer than anticipated?
Listen, I’m all for Bredeson getting more involved on offense. I think he’s a great teammate and a unique player offensively, and coming up with more ways to get him the ball is a great idea. However, I am fairly skeptical that this sudden experiment of a graduate senior with two weeks left in the season is entirely a coincidence with their injuries at running back, no matter what lip service the coaching staff says about “what they don’t have”.
Starting running back Justice Haynes is already out for the rest of the season. Backup Jordan Marshall received a steep workload in his absence, and it proved to perhaps be too much with his injury late against Northwestern.
After their win over Northwestern, Sherrone Moore quipped that Marshall would be fine “with an ice pack and a masseuse”. Now, just a scant few days after that quote, the Wolverines are moving their fullback over to running back to “see what he can do”. That timing feels fairly suspicious to me. Bredeson has been on campus with most of this staff for five years now, I think they know what he can and can’t do by this point.
To me, the Bredeson experiment points to Jordan Marshall being out for longer than they originally thought or definitely not fine “with an ice pack and a masseuse”. Both of which are another arrow in the quiver to point at Sherrone Moore for his flippancy and lack of transparency when it comes to injuries at Michigan under his tenure. Marshall would be the 27th Wolverine this season to miss time due to injury, and fans get practically nothing from the staff regarding them.
Regardless, we’ll see what continues to unfold regarding Marshall’s injury status in the coming days. The timing of this whole situation feels odd, and with The Game against Ohio State looming just around the corner, the Wolverines can ill afford any distractions or further injuries. Marshall missing more time than initially thought would be disastrous for their offense, as he has accounted for 40% of their total yards and five of their six touchdowns ever since Justice Haynes went down with injury.
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