joshua christopher

Gattis, tracked. Michigan's pursuit of Josh Gattis was abrupt and fevered:

When Gattis arrived at the office, he and Tide coach Nick Saban had a conversation about the 35-year-old coach’s future. Gattis was hoping he’d get the shot to replace Locksley, but Saban said he didn’t want a first-time play-caller on offense. He wanted Gattis to help with the gameplan and install the offense, but someone else would call the plays.

“So, in order for me to show you that I’m good at calling plays, where I have the utmost confidence, I gotta go do that,” Gattis told Saban.

Around 9 a.m., Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh phoned Gattis, who said he was honored to get the call but asked to talk specifics.

“This is to be the offensive coordinator,” Harbaugh said. “You run your system. You run the offense. Your verbiage. Your terminology. It’s fully in your control.”

To say that's a departure for Harbaugh significantly undersells it. That's part of an extensive Bruce Feldman article at the Athletic* detailing not only the hiring process but why Michigan was sold on Gattis without so much as an interview:

Michigan had done its own due diligence on Gattis. Former NFL executive Tom Gamble had helped Michigan gather intel, calling around former colleagues of Gattis and tracking the young coach for two years. One of the people Gamble connected with was Joe Moorhead, the offensive coordinator who coached with Gattis at Penn State in 2016 and 2017 and now is the head coach at Mississippi State.

Feldman launches into an anecdote about the end of the 2017 PSU-Iowa game, which was a last-play win by Penn State on which Gattis sold Moorhead on changing a play on the fly because he'd seen the safety bite on a corner route. It worked:

It almost didn't work because PSU forgot to change the drag route underneath the post, almost drawing an underneath defender into position to get a PBU. Fun stuff.

*[My subscription expired yesterday and I was wishy-washy about renewing, and then I had to because there were three different things I had to read. Hope they're making money.]

[After THE JUMP: Martelli, breakfast cereal]