The Michigan football offense looked anew in the second half against Penn State when Tommy Carr came in to replace Bryce Underwood. The Wolverines exploded for 21 points -- albeit all off turnovers -- but even so, the offense moved the ball in ways it regularly hasn't all year now that Carr was at the helm.
And former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn took notice.
Quinn will be in Ann Arbor this week as part of Fox's Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday when the maize and blue host Indiana. The defending national champions are coming off a loss, but the Wolverines are hoping that the quarterback change has injected enough energy to come away with a victory.
On The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Quinn explained what Carr was able to do within the offense and why it looked so much more crisp with him at the helm on Saturday, and shared his thoughts on how it might pay dividends this week against the Hoosiers.
"He just operated within the offense right from the jump when he got inserted in, in the very beginning of the second half of this past week's game," Quinn said. "I mean, there's a couple of things that really stood out to me. He only threw the football eight times in this game in the second half. However, they started off the second half with him throwing an RPO over the middle. Typically, coaches don't want to put, especially an inexperienced young quarterback, in that position, throwing the football over the middle, because that's where the interceptions come. The tips, the overthrows, things of that nature. There was a strike to JJ Buchanan, and they're off. And then the next on the third down, he throws a nice little sprint out completion to Andrew Marsh, who, if he just ran upfield, trusted his speed, probably would have gotten the first down. Didn't, but even a flea flicker then later on.
"So there's an assortment of plays that they're basically saying, this young man's capable, even though he doesn't have the reps of doing all of these things we're asking of him. And then you go look at the 22, 23-yard scamper he had for a touchdown, it's like, oh yeah, he's got that dual-threat ability running the football. So it's no surprise that interjecting a different quarterback in there, who I think did a better job with some of the run reads, but also the reads in the passing plays helped open up an offense for over 220 yards and 21 points in a comeback victory.
"Now it's a different challenge this week versus Indiana with as much pressure as they like to bring. And there was one play in particular where I'm not even sure he saw the corner cap, the corner blitz pressure, but the offensive line, the running back did a good job picking it up. He's going to get a heavy dose of that versus Indiana. They're typically a team that doesn't like to bring a lot of pressure, but they have the past couple of weeks turning it up. And I would imagine they're going to test him often with his eyes and what he's seeing out there given his inexperience."
Michigan and Indiana are set to kick off at 12:10 p.m. EDT at The Big House, with the game set to be televised on Fox.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Brady Quinn explains why Michigan's offense clicked with Tommy Carr