Michigan fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the school announced on Sunday, one day after a 15-6 loss to Michigan State in which the Wolverines managed only 192 total offensive yards. Offensive line coach Jim Harding will serve as interim offensive coordinator for the remainder of the season.
Beck, the nation's highest-paid offensive coordinator, came with head coach Kyle Whittingham after a successful year together at Utah last season. That success never translated in Ann Arbor, however, on a 5-4 Michigan team that is one of the most disappointing in the country. The loss to Michigan State was the final straw.
"The results have not matched our desired outcome, and I felt that a change in leadership was required for our offense," Whittingham said Sunday. "We need to put our offensive players and the entire team in the best possible position to be successful.
"We appreciate the hard work and effort that Jason has dedicated to the program. Jason is a great man and coach, and unfortunately, it did not work out the way that we wanted it to at Michigan. We wish Jason and his family nothing but the best in the future."
Michigan already made a quarterback change earlier in the season, benching highly paid former five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood in favor of freshman Tommy Carr. The offense never really got going, however, and ranked 125th in passing offense, 126th in scoring offense and 132nd in total offense out of 138 FBS teams.
Beck's firing comes with a significant financial hit for Michigan. The Wolverines will owe Beck as much as $10.2 million to buy out a three-year deal that paid him $2.8 million this season and was set to go up to more than $3 million the next two seasons. It could be the most expensive assistant coach buyout ever, though it is subject to offset mitigation.
The pressure had been building on Whittingham to make a move as the offense continued to flounder this season. The noise got particularly loud after a 13-6 loss to Indiana in which the Wolverines managed only 57 rushing yards on 42 carries. Michigan had one of the nation's most expensive rosters, sources told CBS Sports, and had especially invested big on the offensive side of the ball. Beck was never able to fit the pieces he acquired into the system he wanted to run, however.
It will be interesting to see whether it provides a spark to an offense that is in desperate need of one. As CBS Sports first reported last month, Whittingham's job security could also be in question. Michigan is in the middle of an AD search to replace outgoing AD Warde Manuel and would like to find its next athletic department leader before deciding on Whittingham, according to sources. But it is not out of the realm of possibilities that Whittingham could be one-and-done in Ann Arbor, especially if he continues to lose games.
"I think they know this isn't the long term," one industry source told CBS Sports. "It's just, do you rip it up after one year?"
