Bizarre stat shows Michigan doesn't have to be elite at throwing the football to win games

Trent Knoop | 2 Hours Ago

Mandatory Credit: Dale Young-Imagn Images / Dale Young-Imagn Images

Michigan currently has one of the worst passing attacks in all of college football. There are only four D-1 schools that are worse than the Wolverines throwing the football and two of those schools are service academies who run and run it some more -- yes, Navy throws for more yards than Michigan.

The Wolverines are throwing for just 115 yards per game through the air through six games. In today's college football, that's really poor. There are 93 schools in the FBS level who average over 200 yards per game through the air.

But does Michigan have to throw the ball like those 93 schools in order to win games? The jury might be out there, but statistically, the Wolverines haven't thrown the football like any upper echelon team, but have won a ton of games the past three games. I went back to 2020, the worst season for many Michigan fans, and the Wolverines were actually averaging 250 yards through the air with Joe Milton and Cade McNamara playing. In fact, when J.J. McCarthy took over as the starting quarterback, the Wolverines regressed in yards through the air.

Michigan's passing offense since 2020:

2020: 44th-ranked (250.3 YPG) -- 2-4 record --
2021: 68th-ranked (228.7 YPG) -- 12-2 record --
2022: 83rd-ranked (219.9 YPG) -- 13-1 record --
2023: 82nd-ranked (213.7 YPG) -- 15-0 record --
2024: 130th-ranked (115 YPG) -- 4-2 record --

Now there are plenty of variables for that. The Wolverines' defense greatly improved from 2020 to 2021. Jim Harbaugh made significant coaching changes to his staff. But another big reason is that the Michigan run game came into existence and the Wolverines pounded their way to victories. After 2020, Michigan had a great run game to go with that amazing defense. J.J. McCarthy, while his stats weren't elite, was an elite quarterback and teams had to respect that.

Michigan's rushing offense since 2020:

2020: 95th-ranked (131.5 YPG)
2021: 15th-ranked (214.3 YPG)
2022: 5th-ranked (238.9 YPG)
2023: 55th-ranked (169 YPG)
2024: 38th-ranked (191.3 YPG)

The Wolverines' run game isn't far off from where they've been the past three years -- statistically better than the national championship team. But the passing game is clearly far below last year and quite honestly, worse than the 2020 year. Michigan doesn't have to throw for 250 yards in order to win games. But with Jack Tuttle as the starting quarterback, if Michigan can average 175 or more in the last six games of the season and keep the defense refreshed, the Wolverines could see a big change in the final six weeks of the season.

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