ben mcdaniels

Shea Patterson

Wilton Speight said something a couple weeks ago after pro day about seeing you with the handcuffs off. Did you feel a little handcuffed?

“Uh, not really. That was the offense we were running last year and my job is to do that so I tried to be the best in that offense. I love Wilton, he’s awesome. But yeah, just gonna be myself in this offense, too. Each offense, it’s system-driven so go out there and be myself.”

Are they off now?

“Yeah. Yeah, they’re off.”

How similar is this to what you were running at Ole Miss?

“Pretty similar. Ole Miss was a little more Air Raid and pass-driven. I think this is a good mixture of both.”

Has that helped you adjust to it or learn it?

“Uh, yeah, I think just being in the RPO system gives me a little bit of a background and knowledge of what’s going on here.”

What do you like best about it?

“What do I like best about it? All the playmakers around me and all the different ways we can get to wherever we want.”

…

How different is the offense and how much do you like it?

“It’s night and day. I mean, we’re going to carry over some stuff from last year but as far as the similarities, I think they are very, very few of them. So, it’s going to be fun.”

[After THE JUMP: Patterson on the games that shaped his decision to come back, plus McCaffrey and Milton on the new offense, Ben McDaniels, and growth]

You haven’t been here that long but tell us: how’s it going?

“It’s going awesome. It’s been a great start to spring ball. First three days, really kind of installing the offense, getting the players caught up. Working with the coaching staff has been awesome. We’ve got great offensive coaches. They’ve done a really good job preparing the kids for all of our installs and the kids are going out and having a lot of success, so we’re just looking forward to kind of building on each day, just kind of adding to the installs as we kind of go through the offensive installs and just looking forward to taking the next step.”

Your hashtag: what does it mean to you?

“Well, you know, the hashtag can mean a number of different things. One, obviously the speed in space is obviously trying to put the defense in conflict, and when we talk about speed in space that’s just not only skill guys or getting our athletes out in space, that’s also getting our running backs out trying to create open holes and putting conflicts on defense from a run-pass conflict standpoint, being able to have the [?] last.

“One of the things we talk about on offense is having to dictate the aggressiveness of the defense and so we feel like if we can stay aggressive on offense we can limit how aggressive the defense is going to be. The whole speed in space deal is kind of something we preach with all of our skill guys and the concepts that we really emphasize, but ultimately it can be run-pass oriented and obviously moving guys around, getting our best skill players out there and getting them active and part of the offense.”

Harbaugh said that you’ve already got the players in place right now to run that, which isn’t necessarily usual when you’re changing some schematic things. Why is that possible here with the players you already have and who embodies that speed in space-type idea?

“Yeah, you know, it’s not necessarily a certain style of player. It’s really the schematic things that we’re able to do on offense. You know, being able to put the defense in conflict from a number of different ways: having first-level reads, second-level reads, third-level reads, so being active from that standpoint especially in the quarterback read-run game, RPO game, whatever we need to do to be aggressive, to create numbers and angle for our offensive linemen so they’re blocking clean blocks and creates open space and gets our athletes out in space.

“But we do. You know, when you look at the number of athletes we have on offense, I think we’re very versatile. We have a lot of depth at tight end. We need to get a little bit more depth at receiver. But we have to continue to get those skill guys better. We’re not just patting ourselves on the back. We’re not ready yet. We still have a long way to go in every area that we need to improve, but we’ve got the skill. We’ve got the guys all around.

“One of the things that we really have is an offensive line that can really drive our offense. I would say that’s the strength of our offense right now. And so those guys have been practicing over the first three days. We also have good, talented quarterbacks. Overall, we feel really good about the depth we have on offense.”

What brought you to Michigan?

“Just my familiarity in the Big Ten, you know, spending four years at Penn State battling against Michigan. Unfortunately I was on the losing end for a couple of those games, but my appreciation for this university, what it stands for academically, coach Harbaugh and what he’s built with this program and the success that they’ve had.

"Very few times are you able to go into a program and take over as an offensive coordinator of a winning program, and you’re going in not trying to figure out what went wrong but how you can make it better. So, that was something that was very intriguing for me when this opportunity came open. It was a no-brainer for me and I’ve been really, really happy here. I’ve been really excited. We’ve got a great staff and I couldn’t be more fortunate to be here.”

[After THE JUMP: seriously, they aren't huddling; no, really; different ways to attack a defense; how to build an offensive system; more on hashtag speed in space]

The Pep Hamilton will-he or won't-he ended the same way Tim Drevno's tenure did: a hard landing after an attempted soft one.

The Michigan Insider has learned that Pep Hamilton is leaving Michigan pursue other opportunities. The program confirmed that former offensive analyst Ben McDaniels will now take over coaching the quarterbacks in Ann Arbor.

Since Michigan gave Hamilton a boggling four year, 4.25 million dollar contract two years ago the "hard landing" in question is more like a Scrooge McDuck vault dive, but perhaps Hamilton's pride is injured since nobody in football wanted him at that price any more. That's the ticket.

[After THE JUMP: IMPLICATIONS]