The Michigan Wolverines' football program kicks off spring ball next week, and there are two positions that need quality contributors to emerge more than anywhere else on the team — at quarterback and along the offensive line.
Both spots are not only losing key starters (Shea Patterson at the former and left tackle Jon Runyan, left guard Ben Bredeson, center Cesar Ruiz and right guard Mike Onwenu along the latter), but also have major question marks surrounding how productive the replacements will be.
Redshirt junior Dylan McCaffrey and redshirt sophomore Joe Milton are the top candidates vying to replace Patterson, but both men have only played sparingly during their time at Michigan and have yet to show the ability to successfully lead an offense.
The competition is expected to rage on throughout spring ball and into fall camp, and perhaps even carry over into the season (head coach Jim Harbaugh isn't necessarily opposed to playing two quarterbacks, revealing last July he planned on using both Patterson and McCaffrey in 2019).
There was plenty of buzz and excitement surrounding McCaffrey prior to last season, but that died down a bit when the then-redshirt sophomore suffered a concussion in the Sept. 21 loss at Wisconsin and only played 21 snaps the rest of the season.
McCaffrey's accuracy will need to improve next year if he winds up earning the starting job (he has only connected on 51 percent of his 35 attempts), and he'll also need to show he can stay healthy after injuries have interrupted each of his past two seasons (suffered a broken collarbone against Penn State in 2018, and the aforementioned concussion last year).
Fans have seen an even smaller sample size of Milton in college, with the Pahokee, Fla., native appearing in just eight games so far and having only attempted 11 passes.
One luxury for whoever earns the starting job is that they'll have plenty of familiarity and a solid understanding of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis' playbook, having spent last year in the system as well.
It took about two months for Gattis' debut offense to click last season in Ann Arbor, but the results were impressive once it did (U-M averaged 428.5 yards over the team's final four games, with three of those contests coming against top-21 defenses nationally in Ohio State, Michigan State and Alabama).
The Wolverines finally have the right offensive mind in place to take the club's offense to the next level (which wasn't necessarily the case with past coordinators Tim Drevno and Pep Hamilton), while also possessing the adequate talent at running back, receiver and tight end to help make that leap a reality.
Based on everything we've heard behind the scenes, McCaffrey and Milton both have the appropriate mindset, leadership qualities and work ethic to play quarterback at a high level, attributes that were lacking with Patterson at times.
The question now becomes whether or not they have the accuracy and decision-making abilities to take Michigan's quarterback situation from a question mark and turn it into a potential strength.
Elite quarterback play could be derailed in 2020, however, if Michigan's offensive line doesn't find a way to adequately replace the four aforementioned starters it lost.
Poor performances up front helped ruin U-M's 2017 season (though subpar quarterback play was a big factor as well), causing Harbaugh to hire veteran Ed Warinner to coach the unit once the campaign came to an end.
Warinner worked wonders with the 2018 line as he took a unit devoid of confidence and helped turn it into a strength, and will once again be faced with a similar rebuilding job heading into 2020.
Redshirt sophomore right tackle Jalen Mayfield is the lone returning starter up front and will be expected to re-earn a starting spot, with a plethora of primarily inexperienced youngsters looking to fill the voids left by Runyan, Bredeson Ruiz and Onwenu.
It's a safe bet redshirt sophomore Ryan Hayes will earn one of the starting tackle jobs, after he played in 10 games last year and received at least 10 snaps in eight of those 10 contests.
A starting tackle duo of Hayes and Mayfield has plenty of promise, but the interior remains filled with question marks.
The starting center job appears to be between two candidates in fifth-year senior Andrew Vastardis and redshirt freshman Zach Carpenter, but the latter has never appeared in a college game and the former has just 65 career snaps under his belt (most of which have occurred in blowouts).
It's now or never for redshirt junior Chuck Filiaga at left guard, meanwhile, while the right guard battle appears to be wide open.
There has been some discussion that redshirt junior Andrew Stueber could potentially slide down to guard and claim a starting role, though redshirt freshman Nolan Rumler will likely be in the mix as well.
It will take plenty of mixing and matching to make U-M's offensive line a successful one, but fortunately for the Wolverines, they have one of the best o-line coaches in the industry to make it happen in Warinner.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
