The biggest change for the Michigan football program from 2018 to 2019 will be the offense, especially at the wide receiver position. Head coach Jim Harbaugh could only ask for so much from his number two defense as the offense saw improvement, but still struggled to put up points when it was needed.

Seeing his offense ranked 79th in passing yards and the offense ranked 49th overall with the help of the run game, Harbaugh knew changes had to happen and it started with the passing game.

He was able to get quarterback Shea Patterson to transfer from Ole Miss to Michigan in 2018 and he couldn’t waste his final season with the quarterback. 2018 was a good year for Patterson, but Harbaugh knew he could get better with some better coaching and with somebody who knows how to groom wide receivers.

That’s when Harbaugh made a call to Alabama co-offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

“Found out through the grapevine that Josh was considering leaving Alabama to go to Maryland, so we reached out and asked if he’d have any interest in Michigan,” Harbaugh said. “So, I called him at 10 o’clock in the morning and by 3:30, he was coming to Michigan with a signed memorandum of understanding.”

Harbaugh just didn’t hire Gattis though, he did something nobody thought he would ever do, give up some control of the team. Gattis will be calling all the offensive plays for the team, something Harbaugh has had his hand in since starting his Michigan coaching career in 2015.

“Coach Harbaugh’s been awesome in making it a system to where I’m going to have full control,” Gattis said. “I’m looking forward to it. We have a great offensive staff, and I couldn’t be more excited about the players and staff that we have. I’m looking forward to what we can do to change the direction of the offense.”

Gattis reiterated his point of it being his offense in April when people were curious if Harbaugh had tried getting his hand in Gattis’s cookie jar.

“Coach Harbaugh has been amazing to me, just the support that he has in our offense,” Gattis said. “He hasn’t been involved at all. He hasn’t stepped in. I think that’s one of the great attributes of a great head coach is his willingness – and let me say this: a lot of people have put a lot of questions and comments out there in the spring. This is a sign of what great head coaches do. They’re willing to change.”

So now with Gattis running control of the offense, what does that mean for the wide receivers? Expect the offense to be more spread out and the use of the wide receivers speed as Gattis calls it #SpeedInSpace.

It starts with the top three wide receivers on this team. Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins, and Tarik Black.

Peoples-Jones had an okay freshman year, but in 2018 he was more dominant and became Patterson’s favorite target, finishing with 47 catches for 612 yards and eight touchdowns.

Collins had a great fall camp and with Black starting out the season injured, stepped up and turned into a big deep threat option for Patterson. Collins finished with 38 catches for 632 yards and six touchdowns.

Black has suffered two big injuries during his time at Michigan so far, both limiting his action and holding him back to his true potential. Last season Black only had four catches for 35 yards, but with a healthy off-season, he will be a full go for this offense come week one.

So what can Gattis do with these three playmaking wide receivers? He can try and do what he did at Alabama last season and make it a problem for any defender as they try and cover all three guys, plus the tight ends and running backs on the field.

I decided to dive into how the Michigan top-three wide receivers have done the past 20 years to see how dominant they have been and while some years blow you back, there certainly have been years where the passing offense was worthless.

Only four years out of 20 were Michigan able to have over 2,000 yards between three wide receivers. Once they even had less than 1,000 and that was just two years ago in 2017. The average was 1,669 yards, 12.85 touchdowns for those 20 years.

Now, what can Gattis do for the wide receivers? He can produce more yards and touchdowns. Production, production, production. While you can’t compare 20 years with four different head coaches and multiple changes at offensive coordinator to Gattis coaching at four different schools in eight years, you can still see the production Gattis has delivered.

In eight years, Gattis has only had three seasons where his top three wide receivers had under 2,000 yards. In the past 20 seasons, the top three wide receivers at Michigan have only produced five better seasons than Gattis’s worst season in 2016.

In his eight seasons, Gattis averages top three wide receivers average 2,339 yards and 16.375 touchdowns.

Even if Gattis puts up the same numbers as his worst season in 2016, the Michigan offense will greatly benefit from it. With all three wide receivers able to declare for the NFL Draft after next season as well, this trio could be a one-time thing for Gattis.

Peoples-Jones will be looking to one-up his impressive 2018 season, and so will Collins as they are the top two targets. That leaves Black as the number three and a nasty number three to have. Black’s speed and ability to get open deep will make opposing defenses wondering how they can stop all three guys.

If Gattis can do anything close to what he was able to do at Alabama last season in Ann Arbor, Michigan could be a dominant offense. The best part of all this? There’s deep depth at the wide receiver spot and players like Mike Sainristil, Ronnie Bell, Oliver Martin, Cornelius Johnson, and Giles Jackson can make an impact on the field as well.

If any of these other wide receivers are able to step up and be a viable option and Michigan can keep recruiting talent, the Wolverines can just keep reloading at the position and keep this offense a consistent problem for years to come.