Kirk Campbell Talks Impact Players, How Michigan's Offense Will Look

Michigan's new offensive coordinator seems to fully understand how to make an offense go.

New Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore decided to stay in house to find an offensive coordinator and did so by promoting quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell. Moore has been running the offensive show for the last two years, but now it's Campbell's turn. Campbell has been at Michigan for a couple years now but as the OC, he's stepping into a brand new spotlight.

“Life comes at you fast," Campbell recently said to Jon Jansen on the In The Trenches Podcast. "You've got to take advantage of opportunities when they’re presented to you. Especially my time at Michigan has come really fast — being off the field, then getting on the field as the quarterbacks coach and then rising to coordinator. I truly believe you prepare yourself for the opportunities that are presented to you, and then when they are there, you strike. I prepared myself my entire coaching career to be offensive coordinator at Michigan.”

With Harbaugh gone and Moore now likely relieved of playcalling duties, Michigan fans are very curious about how the offense will look on Campbell's watch. Harbaugh and Moore, a former offensive lineman and O-line coach, certainly loved running the ball. Campbell, with his QB background, have many fans thinking that the Wolverines will air it out more in 2024. 

“Any great offensive coordinator needs to, one, assess the roster, find out who your best players are — which I have a good grasp of — and then put them in the best position that suit their abilities,” Campbell explained. "Going back to last year, let’s just talk about Roman [Wilson] a little bit. Roman was a really fast guy, you couldn’t get your hands on him, so we had to find ways to let him, pre-snap, not get touched.

“This year, who the starting quarterback is going to be, let’s make sure we put his assets out there to be able to shine so he can produce the best.

“Donovan [Edwards] is a really good receiver, as well, out of the backfield. So lining up out there, how can we put him in situations to make it advantageous for us? I can go down the list.

“Colston Loveland — really, really good at catching the football. Let’s make sure to build our offense around our key pieces so then we can thrive come Saturdays.”

It's such a simple concept but so many coaches seem to forget about their best players. Michigan fans should love hearing that Campbell intends to keep the main thing the main thing, while also ramping things up to get his stars involved.

“The offense is not going to change, as far as schematics. We’re still going to be similar, as far as presentation of formations,” Campbell explained. “Listen, I know I’m a quarterbacks coach, but nobody loves running the football more than a quarterbacks coach because that helps with play-action passes and getting the quarterback some candy-store completions as we talk about it."

Campbell also realizes that he's going to have some great assistants working with him. Moore, even though he's the head coach now, has done some really impressive things with Michigan's offense over the past two seasons. Leaning on him will be paramount and Campbell recognizes that sometimes, most times, two heads are better than one.

“There will be a collaborative effort," Campbell said. "Sherrone’s the head coach and what he wants done is what I’m going to apply on the field and make sure that we’re able to execute that, but we just have to continue to make sure that whatever plays are on that call sheet, we are in the best situations to succeed on it. Whether it’s a run play, a pass play, however it’s formatted, there are going to be a lot of people in that room — Grant Newsome, other coaches that we have, Ron Bellamy — to make sure we put the best plays on the call sheet. So, it will be collaborative through everybody in that room.”