Yes, Michigan plans to use the tight ends more often

One big question Michigan fans have asked since the beginning of the season centers on the tight ends — specifically, why haven’t they been used more since Marlin Klein‘s 90-yard game in the opener? What was expected to be a position of strength in the offense with Klein and Hogan Hansen was derailed a bit by injuries to both players in the early going, but they both played Saturday night in a loss at USC and didn’t make much of an impact.

Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has had his share of success with the tight ends in his career at his other stops. He said Monday they’ll still be targeting them this season.

“Sometimes the coverage dictates where the ball goes,” he said. “I think that’s probably the biggest thing. [Klein] had a good first game. We got a lot of single high coverage, cover three, and up the seam, different things. I think he had one catch the other day or something, so I just think game by game, probably the coverage dictates that more than anything.

“We still expect those guys to be [involved]. We’re getting Hogan back, too, so now we’re splitting some reps. One guy’s not getting all the tight end reps and mixing [Zack Marshall] in there and some other guys. So, hopefully, as the season goes, those guys will become more involved. But at the end of the day, I think you can’t determine, ‘hey, we’re going to throw the ball at this guy.’ I think the coverage probably dictates that more than anything.”

There’s been talk for weeks how the two-tight end sets could open the offense a bit, and there are still plans to do it, Lindsey continued.

“I think that’s a huge part of what we do,” the Michigan O.C. said. “I think some of it depends too how the other team sees your guys. In other words, some of our tight ends, they may see as “receivers” and play nickel defense instead of base defense.

“Each and every week you evaluate, okay, who are the players we’re trying to get the ball to, and then how does that fit into the game plan based on the looks we’ll get in those personnel groups? I wouldn’t know the stats on 12 and 11 and 13 and so forth, but I think we do – we try to have a good mix of those things and try to do our best to keep guys’ defenses off balance and use those guys in different ways. A lot of it depends on their skill set.”

And the match-ups, of course. All of it is built in to the routes and play calls, and Lindsey is confident his tight ends will get theirs.

“I’m not necessarily thinking that we really call plays for certain positions. They’re in the progression of the play, and either sometimes we’ve thrown the ball to the first or second progression and it didn’t get to them or whatever,” he said. “But I think early in the season, there were some looks that were good for that. I think you’ll see it happen again, too.”