Michigan football's offensive game plan Saturday was a sound one, but also something that probably would've been impossible a year ago.

Enter first-year offensive line coach Ed Warinner, who has not only helped transform the confidence level of Michigan's offensive line but also has meshed well with coach Jim Harbaugh's evolving run game.

Early returns say this was an outstanding offseason hire by Harbaugh. As evidenced by a mauling of Wisconsin on Saturday at Michigan Stadium. The Badgers were dinged up, but Michigan dominated the line of scrimmage, an unthinkable concept 12 months ago.

After trying to attack as many gaps as possible early against the Badgers, Michigan tweaked its plan at halftime and focused on the edge.

“We went to as many C-gap plays as we could," Harbaugh said afterward.

The A-gap is between center and guard. The B-gap is between guard and tackle. The C-gap is between tackle and tight end or off tackle if no tight end is on the line of scrimmage.

Michigan has run its G-block with solid success this season. We've gone over split-zone as well. On Saturday, Michigan also sprinkled in some pin-pull/outside zone concepts. The theme with all of this? Offensive linemen have to be able to move and be athletic in space, otherwise, it's a meltdown.

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On this play, tight end Zach Gentry is tasked with making a pin on the edge, which he executes. Left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. is reaching outside to get a piece of the safety in the box. But left guard Ben Bredeson makes the play by not only getting himself around the pin quickly, but also being athletic enough to adjust his path to an incoming linebacker.

He throws a terrific block to seal the outside of a rush lane. Center Cesar Ruiz is quick enough to get into the second level to seal the backside. On plays like this, linemen don't have to drive defenders into the turf. They have to be agile enough to get a piece of a defender and open a hole. Running back Karan Higdon makes a great read and picks up a big chunk of yardage.

Another example comes later in the third quarter, with Michigan starting to assert itself.

Here comes the G-scheme again, as Bredeson is going to pull down the line, while the rest of the group is going to reach block left. Zone concepts are simple if your linemen are athletic enough to move and create seals. The play side is reaching left, the back side is hustling to create seals and give Higdon multiple gaps to choose from.

And as has been the case all year, Harbaugh is running a basic concept off a specialized action. This is a run play Michigan can use out of any formation, but by choosing to use Ambry Thomas' jet motion here, it adds another wrinkle.

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By the end of the third quarter, Michigan had this game in control. And the offensive line had completely worn the Badgers out.

Michigan attacked the edge all game, and has now put enough layers of its run game on tape to give opposing defenses a lot to think about. The Wolverines run quarterback Shea Patterson off play-action bootlegs all the time. They're now using zone-read action.

Which leads to something like the play below, where a basic split-zone creates a big hole. Right tackle Juwann Bushell-Beatty and tight end Sean McKeon cave in the right side of the line. Fullback Jared Wangler throws a nice lead block on a linebacker who, after watching Patterson roll out all week on tape, is frozen in his stance.

Higdon has a massive gap to run through.

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It all worked well, as Michigan gained 320 rushing yards.

But another hat tip to the Warinner-Harbaugh combination comes from the decision to start incorporating more read-option plays with Patterson (and later backup quarterbacks Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton).

Michigan has sprinkled these in now and again throughout the season. Sometimes a play looks like a read-option and it really isn't. But Michigan, in an effort to attack the edge vs. Wisconsin, went into the bag for more Saturday.

A lot of these were basic read-option looks that Wisconsin really wasn't ready for. But Patterson's 81-yarder in the first half comes from the way-back machine, as Macomb Dakota assistant coach James Light (who is a great football follow: @JamesALight) points out the concept came from Harbaugh's days with Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers.

Michigan runs a pistol read that looks a lot like split-zone. It's not, though, as McKeon executes an "arc" block, where he ignores the defensive end (the player Patterson is reading) and arcs around to create an outside seal that opens everything up. Wisconsin is not ready for Patterson to pull the football.

It's another concept opponents have to account for.

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Analysis:Can Michigan run over Michigan State too?

Seidel:Shea Patterson has to be better in one key area vs. Michigan State

Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBaumgardner.

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