young offensive linemen suck

Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End.

[Bolded player rules: not necessarily returning starter, but someone we've seen enough of that I'm no longer talking about their recruiting profile (much, anyway). Extant contributor.]

Tim Drevno put out fantastic, mauling offensive lines at Stanford. The guys they recruited were 3-stars, but they were smart, and didn't have to start until they were redshirt sophomores or juniors, by which time they'd been sufficiently drilled to run Drevno's complicated list of calls and checks. At Michigan he fruitlessly chased after recruits who didn't want his immediate playing time and started a season with Nolan Ulizio at right tackle. The "Drevno Effect" never happened. He's now at UCLA.

Greg Frey, the Rodriguez assistant who recruited tight ends and grew them into Mike Schofield and Taylor Lewan, was brought back for a year. He recruited some more build-a-bears for a year then left for his alma mater. Today he's at Duke.

Ed Warinner seemed like a guy who knew what he was about. Between the first game of 2018 and the 2018 Big Ten season Warinner turned Jon Runyan Jr. from a turnstile into one of the most underrated guards in the NFL. Last year Michigan broomed Ed for a guy born the year Ed coached his first OL at Army. Warinner is now the run game coordinator at FAU.

Sherrone Moore played tackle at Oklahoma in the mid-aughts, and coached tight ends at every stop until Michigan raised him to OL coach. His first line, made of parts acquired by Drevno, Frey, and Warinner, won the Joe Moore Award.

In all that time, with all those coaches, somehow Michigan figured out how to amalgamate all of their philosophies into a stable run of tackles. Runyan graduated and instead of the fanbase collectively chewing their fingers off, a redshirt sophomore Ryan Hayes stepped in. Andrew Stueber graduated to the NFL this offseason and his backup, a 4th year guy, won the job early in spring. Behind him is a classmate who started some in 2020 and 2021. Behind that guy is a 3rd year guy, and a 2nd year guy, and a freshman who's getting talked up even though he's not needed for years. Except for Hayes they're all Warinner recruits, though most are Frey types, and they run Drevno's tackle-pulling gap system. This spring Hayes intimated that Moore was increasing the complexity of their protection calls, since the guys playing have been around long enough to handle more on their plates. Imagine that.

THIS ARTICLE HAS A SPONSOR: If you haven’t yet talked to Nick Hopwood, our MGoFinancial Planner from Peak Wealth Management, this might be a good week to catch him, since Nick reports he has barred himself in his office and plans to do nothing but work until all the Spartans in his life think he’s run off to live a simpler life in the woods or something.

Our deal is Nick is the guy I go to for financial strategies, and he gets to ask us Michigan questions on your behalf. Anytime it’s a Nick question, we’ll let you know. Anytime you’ve got a financial question, let Nick know.

Michigan ran a few zone read-like things with O’Korn but for whatever reason these just got a back swarmed for no gain. [Bryan Fuller]

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Nick’s Question: …

MGoBlog: Do you have a question this week?

Nick: f---?

MGoBlog: That question is self-answering. New question.

Nick: sigh.

MGoBlog: …

Nick: How does this offense get better?

MGoBlog: Yelling at it?

Nick: I mean that’s my question. You have to answer it.

MGoBlog: Yell at it LOUDER.

How does this offense get better?

Seth: Let's start with the simplest: build some quarterback running plays into the offense because O'Korn is a better run threat than a Tom Brady-esque check-to-your-5th-read distribution center. Also the pocket won't last that long. If the ends are constantly having to worry about holding the edge or getting optioned that takes some pressure off the tackles. And I think they are starting to build an interior running game that's functional as long as the counters are.

I thought I saw O'Korn mess up a couple of zone reads in this game and then Michigan dropped it but the Denard power offense might be a good fit for these guys if they could find a running back willing to lead block.

[Hit THE JUMP for other ideas that don’t involve testing the stickiness of substances]