Michigan has finally, formally announced Ed Warinner as offensive line coach.
Warinner, a former offensive coordinator at Ohio State, slides in for Tim Drevno, who is now at USC as running backs coach. He updated his twitter page over a week ago to convey his new title, but U-M made it official March 8.
Per his Minnesota bio, Warinner came to Minnesota from Ohio State, where he had coached since 2012. Warinner helped lead Ohio State to a national championship in 2014 and a Fiesta Bowl title in 2015. He served as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Ohio State in 2016 after previously coaching the Buckeye offensive line from 2012-15.
“He took an offensive line that was definitely very talented under Jim Bollman, who is now at Michigan State, and really elevated them when he took over at Ohio State,” BuckeyeGrove.com’s Kevin Noon said. “Very early in Urban Meyer’s run with the Buckeyes, we saw an emphasis placed on the offensive line, and a lot of that has to be credited to Ed Warinner.”
Ohio State averaged 39.4 points per game under Warinner in 2016. He served as co-offensive coordinator his first three seasons with Tim Beck and took over as coordinator in 2015. He helped the Buckeyes set dozens of school and Big Ten records, including season marks for points (672 in 2014 after scoring 637 in 2013) and touchdowns (90 in 2014 after 87 in 2013), a Big Ten record for rushing yards (4,321 in 2013) and school records for passing yards (3,707 in 2014) and passing touchdowns (42 in 2014). “Nothing against Bollman, but Warinner is just a really good teacher,” Noon said. “People that play under him are just extremely loyal to him. Technique-wise, he just gets it. He manages to get the most out of his guys.
"He and Tim Beck were co-OCs, but let’s not forget the fact that they are just OCs in terms of running Urban Meyer’s offense. They may have been calling plays, but under the constraints of a Meyer offense and with the pieces they had.”
Warinner's primary duty at Michigan will be to help mold an offensive line that hasn’t been consistently good since probably 2007, and his history indicates he’s up to the task. Warinner was named the 2014 FootballScoop offensive line coach of the year, the first coach to earn offensive line coach of the year honors from FootballScoop twice (2012).
Rivals.com named Warinner one of the Top 20 "hottest assistant coaches" in the nation in 2012. Warinner was also a finalist for the American Football Coaches Association's National Assistant Coach of the Year award following the 2009 campaign at Kansas, where he also excelled. His 2007 Jayhawks were the nation's second-highest scoring team (42.8 points per game) and set a school record by averaging 479.8 yards per game, two reasons why Kansas went 12-1 that year with a 24-21 FedEx Orange Bowl victory against Virginia Tech. The 2008 Jayhawks averaged 432.4 yards and 33.4 points per game, respectively, and his final Jayhawk offense averaged 422.4 offensive yards, including a school-record 310.3 passing yards.
Harbaugh said on Signing Day Warinner was a perfect fit, and it seemed clear he wouldn’t remain just an analyst for long.
“Ed Warinner has been fantastic,” Harbaugh said. “To a man, everybody that we’ve brought in, including our graduate assistants, just top-notch. I feel great about Ed. I iddn’t know Ed before, but feel like we’re becoming best friends.
“I believe, as good a coach as he is, we’ll plan on this being a long, trusting friendship between Ed Warinner and the Michigan football program. I have been very, very, very impressed with Ed.”
Even Ohio State folks have been impressed with the hire.
“He did a great job as a line coach, especially,” Noon said. “The results showed on the field. Urban Meyer trusted him a lot and always said that was an offensive line driven team.”
All five of his offensive line starters in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game went on to become day one rookie starters in the NFL.
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