With the offense being the most glaring issue this season, Michigan offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell has faced more scrutiny than any other assistant:
The Michigan Wolverines are 5-4 in 2024, one year removed from winning the National Championship Game in Houston. Losing 13 starters to the NFL Draft will do that to any program, but fans are still not happy with how the team has performed this season, especially on offense.
First-year head coach Sherrone Moore promoted quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell to offensive coordinator last offseason. Nine games in, Campbell is leading an offense that ranks 127th nationally in yards per game, 116th in yards per play, 116th in points per game, 128th in plays of 10 yards or more, and 129th in plays of 20 yards or more. Given the rough results, Campbell has faced more scrutiny than any other assistant this year.
The Wolverines followed up a win against in-state rival Michigan State — perhaps Campbell’s best called game all season — with a 38-17 loss to the Oregon Ducks . The nail in the coffin came on a fourth-down play from the 10-yard line after Michigan drove 70 yards down the field, trailing by 14 points with about seven minutes to go. Needing just five yards for the first down, Campbell called a trick play that went horrible wrong. The Ducks took over and scored another touchdown to put the game on ice.
4th and 5. Game is basically on the line down 31-17. Calling a trick play where Semaj Morgan is the passer and Alex Orji was the receiver = shocking. The pass was so bad Orji hit a camera hard.
Davis Warren was playing well and the ball should have been in his hands. pic.twitter.com/baQs06CriA
— Trevor Woods (@WoodsFootball) November 3, 2024
“I think for us, it’s got to be a collective effort on how we do this and how we formulate the offense. Got to just be better as a whole group,” Moore said during his Monday press conference. “It’s not just (Campbell), it’s got to be everybody. Everybody’s got to be a team, and we got to do everything together. So we’ll figure out what’s the best way for us to continue to move the football and be successful. It’s just not the calls and all those things. Those are conversations we have internally.”
On Wednesday, tight ends coach Steve Casula also addressed Campbell’s criticism and defended his fellow coach.
“I mean, I guess all the attention, I suppose, is on (the play caller), the criticism is pretty profound,” Casula said. “I think it’s hard to go through regardless of the level or the place that you coach. I was here when it was tough for Josh Gattis, for coach (Don) Brown. It was tough for me at the University of Massachusetts, it was tough for me at Ferris State when we didn’t play good.
“There’s nobody that wants (to perform well) more than (Campbell). He’s organized, he’s detailed, he certainly isn’t retreating. But we very much aren’t a finger-pointing operation. We’re all responsible for how we perform on offense, offensive coaches especially. I know our players would stand here and tell you the same thing. It’s about the team, the team, the team … But we all understand what’s at stake, what the expectation is, what the standard is here, and it’s something we’re working toward each day.”
Every coach on the team has faced scrutiny this season, but the focus now is set on upsetting No. 8 Indiana this weekend.
“We’re just going to keep fighting,” Moore said. “We can’t worry about outside noise, praise or criticism. For us in this building, for these players, like I said before, they’re the most disappointed people in the world right now. So my job is to make sure that they’re in a good head space, make sure that’s it, they’re taken care of, and we can continue to push forward in a positive way and continue to try to win.”
The media and the fans tend to ride with you when you win, and they turn on you when you lose. The Wolverines went 40-3 from 2021-23, capturing three Big Ten championships, making three CFPs, and winning a national championship. But when expectations change as fast as they did this year — expecting to make the CFP versus fighting to make any bowl game — the outside noise finds a way to seep in through the cracks.