Jason Beck Is Out at Michigan After Nine Games

Michigan fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck on Sunday, November 8 — less than 24 hours after his offense produced 192 total yards in a 15-6 home loss to Michigan State. The Wolverines did not score for the first 58 minutes of that game. By Sunday, head coach Kyle Whittingham had seen enough of what everybody in the stadium had seen.

Start with the shape of the thing. Michigan hired Whittingham to restore order after the program's wild three-year ride, and Beck was the football part of that hire — the coordinator who had run Whittingham's Utah offenses, knew the system cold, and could install it without a learning curve. Nine games in, the learning curve is apparently the only thing that got installed.

Because the numbers are not a slump. They are a profile. Six times in nine games this offense failed to reach 20 points. It managed 192 yards against its rival, at home, in a game that decides how a season feels in Michigan no matter what the standings say. It went 58 minutes without scoring — against a Michigan State team that is nobody's idea of a defensive juggernaut this year.

Asked Saturday night whether a change was coming, Whittingham said he would not comment — “not right now.” Sunday, the change was announced. “The results have not matched our desired outcome,” Whittingham said in his statement, “and I felt that a change in leadership was required for our offense.” Offensive line coach Jim Harding takes over as interim coordinator.

Watch: Whittingham addresses the firing and the offense’s struggles (WXYZ-TV Detroit / Channel 7).

The bill is the story. Beck is owed $10.1 million — roughly $7 million in remaining salary plus about $3.1 million in retention money, subject to offset if he lands another job — which FOX Sports reports is believed to be the largest buyout an assistant coach has ever collected in college football. Ten million dollars, for nine games of work.

What Michigan bought with it: a 5-4 team held under 20 points six times, ranked 132nd of 138 FBS teams in total offense and 126th in scoring at 19.6 points a game. The quarterback room tells the same story — five-star Bryce Underwood was benched along the way, and it was Tommy Carr, not Underwood, under center when the Michigan State game finished the experiment. Beck followed Whittingham from Utah in January. The reunion lasted nine games.

What is left is the hardest stretch of the schedule: No. 23 Oregon, No. 8 UCLA and No. 12 Ohio State, with an interim coordinator and an unsettled quarterback room. Michigan will pay Beck eight figures not to fix it. The buyout outscored the offense — $10.1 million against 19.6 points a game is not close.