Heading into his final season at Michigan, fifth-year senior left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. has turned to a familiar name to help him continue his development.
When Runyan’s father, Jon Runyan, played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles, he was coached by Juan Castillo. The veteran offensive line coach was hired this offseason as an offensive analyst for the Wolverines.
Castillo has been working with the younger Runyan for the last few months, just like he did with his father for so many years. He has been helping Runyan see the game better and watch film at a higher level.
“It’s really how small of a world it is he’s coming here and he’s an analyst for me,” Runyan said. “He’s down for whatever, whenever. [He’s] texting me clips of stuff that he sees or he’s down to get in the film room whenever if I have a question about anything. Telling me drills I can work on by myself all the time.
“Just trying to develop and grow into a player that’s not just focused on just getting through every day, but develop the skills on and off the field. That’s something that will help me further down the road as well too.”
Along with analyzing film better, with Castillo and offensive line coach Ed Warinner, he has worked on staying lower when he’s blocking and using his hands better. He’s also gotten leaner in the offseason.
“I feel a lot better,” he said. “I’m really focusing on eating right ever since the winter conditioning. I weigh about five pounds less, but I feel so much better and trying to hold that into summer conditioning as well.”
While he is in better condition, this offseason for him is different in a key way. Instead of being locked in a battle to earn the starting nod, Runyan is squarely entrenched as the starting left tackle.
In his prior seasons, he was motivated by the players competing with him for the starting role and it gave him an extra edge in practice. Without that position battle, he said he’s had to become self-motivated.
He’s also been sparked by the new offense under offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. The transition to the system has not been challenging for Runyan.
“I kind of ran a similar offense in high school, so I was kind of used to it,” he said. “It hasn’t been too much of a transition and I think as an offensive line, we’ve been getting it pretty well.”
When Runyan first watched Gattis’ Alabama, at first he was apprehensive.
“Before we even started spring practice, when Gattis got here, I went through most of Alabama’s games, I was trying to picture that with us and I really didn’t know how it would translate because I’d see Alabama run an RPO and see a receiver catch a ball on a slant and take it 60 yards to score a touchdown,” he said. “I didn’t really know if we had the capability to do that. But going through spring practices, it’s definitely possible.”
Runyan knows the Wolverines have the speed to run Gattis’ offense successfully. The core tenant of the offense is tempo, and that’s something Runyan thinks is a necessary change.
“With the no-huddle, you either go three and out or you’re going to get the ball [more]. The more times you get the ball, the more points you’re going to score,” he said. “That’s why the teams that were playing in the [College Football Playoff] last year average around 40 points per game and we only averaged around 30-ish. The more times you get the ball, the more opportunities you get to score.”
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