Most of the talk surrounding the Michigan Wolverines’ football offensive line as of late has centered around redshirt sophomore right tackle Andrew Stueber and his indefinite knee injury.
It had been long known that the Connecticut native had been deadlocked in a battle with redshirt freshman Jalen Mayfield for the starting job, but whether or not one of them had pulled ahead at the time of Stueber’s injury remained a mystery to the public.
Offensive line coach Ed Warinner was asked this afternoon to provide an update on where things stood between the two when the redshirt sophomore went down.
“It sounds like coach speak, but it was really close,” he revealed. “We rotated them in the spring — of the 15 practices, they each started seven and then we rotated them in the spring game.
“We did the same thing in training camp and kept watching to see if one guy could pull away. One would sneak away and then the other would catch up — they were fighting it out and it was pretty darned close.
“They both would have played quite a bit, and we probably would have gone 60/40 between them in a game, which is a good thing.
“Now we’re trying to get [redshirt freshman tackle] Ryan Hayes to that point — he’s coming along nicely.”
Warinner revealed in the spring that Hayes was serving as fifth-year senior Jon Runyan’s backup at left tackle, with more responsibilities likely coming in the wake of Stueber’s injury.
The backup to senior right guard Mike Onwenu, meanwhile, had been redshirt sophomore Joel Honigford, though Warinner recently revealed that he had since been moved to tackle.
There had been some speculation in the winter and spring that a youngster could be in position to grab the starting job from Onwenu, but the senior appears to have upped his game up in a big way.
“It’s tremendous how well he’s moving,” Warinner exclaimed. “He’s still big, but his body composition based on all the testing they do is very good.
“He has lean muscle mass and is just a big human who can move people and move his feet. We’re expecting a big year out of Mike.”
Notes
• Michigan's six-man freshman offensive line class has received rave reviews during their short time on campus, and Warinner gave a brief overview of each one this afternoon.
“They’re just an overall great group," he said. "We have three playing tackle and three playing inside. Karsen Barnhart is from Paw Paw and has come along nicely, and we have Trevor Keegan from Illinois and Trente Jones from Georgia playing tackle.
"We love all of them and I’m so glad we recruited all them — I think they could all be factors this year, and hopefully we can get all of them into at least four games, and will play them more if we need them.
"We’re not going to hold them back and tell them they’re redshirting — it’s up to them. Nolan Rumler is a really good player out of Akron, Ohio, and was a four-year starter for a team who won four state titles.
"Zach Carpenter is from Cincinnati and is playing center, and looks really good. Jack Stewart is from Connecticut and not far from Stueber’s hometown. He’s been a real pleasant surprise and is an aggressive kid.
"I think we hit the mark on all of them and I can’t see any of them lagging behind. A couple of them may push their way into the two-deep.”
• Warinner was also asked today how the new offensive attack under Josh Gattis is designed to 'protect the defense,' and he explained that the answer is actually quite simple.
“By scoring more points," he noted. "We want to be explosive and have big plays, but can you control the clock for 35 minutes? Big plays mean you don’t have the ball as long, so there’s a balance in that.
"We obviously want to create some drives that have first downs in them, but we also have big play potential and can threaten with both the running game and passing game. There are creases where receivers and skill guys catch the ball in space, which is the whole ‘speed in space’ thing with not a lot of people around.
"When you get the ball to athletes, things happen fast. You protect your defense by making sure you’re smarter in situations when you’re backed up and minimizing your turnovers and negative yardage plays that put you behind the chains.
"We still want to be explosive and attack the defense, and if that occurs on a second play of the drive, then so be it. The odds of scoring almost double when you have a 20-yard play in a drive, so it only makes sense to go for explosive guys.
"We have the guys who can do that.”
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