That's why Harbaugh's commitment to change is still my top question. The quotes are too dramatic to believe. But if JH is committed and Gattis is truly in charge, THEN I'd predict that he'd use those words (RPO and spread) to mean at Michigan what they did when the 2018 Bama and 2016/2017 PSU offenses were being designed.
And that's why my next biggest question is whether Gattis is all that.
You misunderstand me, these quotes are not too dramatic to believe. They are not that way because UM already runs a modest amount of "spread" stuff, as that word is kinda meaningless at this point. And Michigan has some RPOs in their package.
I know, I know, this is my hobby horse, but we put so much on design and play-calling, when what we're really talking about it effectiveness. And these are much less tightly linked than we imagine. Technique, finer points of coaching and just playing better matter far more than having a third WR out there all the time.
Using the Bama offense as a comparison point for anything isn't all that useful. Their third-leading rusher might be the first back taken in the draft. They have five receivers ranked ahead of anyone Mich has but DPJ, and have a very rare QB. Garbage time started in the second quarter much of the season.
Penn State is a more interesting comparison. I don't know if they fully gave themselves to the RPO lifestyle, but they have the numbers of a team that did. They didn't run the ball much. The thing with RPOs is the defense tells you when you run and when you pass. Penn State also had the oddity it wasn't that efficent but was hilariously good at big plays. If they go that route and struggle, I wonder when we hear, "Why aren't they running it more?"
In the end, I worry we'll see what we want to see. If the offense is running spread and RPOs and isn't good, we'll see it as a Harbaugh thing, as we've discussed run-run-pass is more reaction than question of strategy. If it looks like this year's offense, with less under center, and it's good, the spread revolution will have arrived. This year's offense, at least the times I sat to break down the film, rarely suffered from a lack of diversity off offensive concepts. It had plenty, and often modern ones. They just we're being run well.
Pick something, run it well with good talent, that's always key.