Though only a sophomore, left guard Ben Bredeson is looked at as one of the veterans on Michigan’s offensive line, due to the extensive action he saw last season as a freshman. Bredeson played in all 13 games in 2016 with eight starts, something that is almost unheard of nowadays for a freshman offensive lineman.
As a result, the Wisconsin native knows what it’s like to compete for playing time on the line as a rookie, and spoke about the Wolverines’ latest crop of newcomers.
“I think our line is getting more athletic,” Bredeson said. “As for the freshmen class, we’ve only seen Cesar [Ruiz] and Ja’Raymond [Hall] as of today, but those two are extremely athletic. Just in general, I think we’re getting faster and quicker, so it’s all working together well.”
Having enrolled early, both Ruiz and Hall have now been on Michigan’s campus for nearly half a calendar year, and have progressed mightily in that time.
“It was actually kind of cool to see,” Bredeson said, referring to the strides they’ve made. “With Cesar being in the middle and having to make all the calls, he’s gotten a lot more confident. He really started to take charge and order people around.
“It was nice to see Ja’Raymond clean up his technique and really come together early in spring ball. You can see each making their own strides, and they’ve both done very well.”
Since Jim Harbaugh has been the head coach at Michigan, he has stressed that the five best offensive linemen will play, regardless of position.
As a result, several guys have bounced around on the line, with senior Mason Cole’s potential transition from center to left tackle perhaps being the best example.
One might think that all the mixing-and-matching could make it hard for the linemen to gel with each other, but Bredeson insists that’s not the case.
“It really shouldn’t make it any harder because we take so many reps together,” he explained. “We’re always mixing people around, so we’ve practiced with just about everybody next to us. Whatever happens in a game, we’ve done it before in practice.”
Experimenting in practice is what helped Bredeson excel in game action last year as a freshman.
“It wasn’t overwhelming at all,” he said. “We had a lot of practice for it, so I was ready.”
Although Michigan has a strong young crop of offensive linemen, its incoming defensive line unit might be even better. Bredeson has already had the luxury of going up against a handful of them in practice.
“We’ve got some big guys,” he said. “Aubrey Solomon is not small at all. Luiji [Vilain] has a got body on him.
“They’ve progressed the same way as Cesar and Ja’Raymond. For example, Donovan [Jeter] wasn’t necessarily lost early on, but he just wasn’t as confident at the beginning as he was toward the end of spring camp.”
Bredeson’s success last year as a freshman was obviously a rarity in today’s game – but by the sounds of it, several linemen in this year’s freshmen crop might just be capable of having similar success.
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