Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers 

Welcome to Opponent Preview week! Next week is the real preview week of Michigan Football, but this week will be mostly about the opponents, as I've got four more The Enemy pieces lined up, and I believe we should have the conclusion to Opponent Watch as well. Get hype! 

We are now on to the offensive line, which is a little bit longer of a piece because there are more names to talk about. I provide the depth chart below each team, showing the starters and a couple reserves who may see the field or are of note. Ideally, these are the first up at guard or tackle. A quick note about the format: bold refers to a returning starter while italics refers to a starter at another school who has transferred in. For this piece, I lean heavily on PFF grades for the non-conference teams because traditional stats don't exist for OL and I didn't really watch any of these teams last year. Then we transition to using my own charting from FFFF last year once we get into the B1G slate. 

 

12. Connecticut 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Valentin Senn	Noel Ofori-Nyadu	Jake Guidone	Christian Haynes	Chris Fortin
Chase Lundt			Niko Pohahau	Danny Antolovich

The Huskies rank last on our list due to an offensive line that is in the process of being rebuilt without a ton of talent or experience. They do return two starters from last season, both of them at guard, and both posted solid PFF grades. However, we must point out a pretty important caveat with UCONN's PFF grades: PFF does not curve based on quality of opponent and the Huskies played a dreadful schedule last season, with 1/3 of the games being UMass, Holy Cross, Yale, and Vandy. So take both those scores with a grain of salt. UCONN imports a transfer center with plenty of experience, Jake Guidone, but he is coming from Dartmouth, which makes him not the most fit to block teams like Michigan. Canadian Chris Fortin slides in at RT after playing some last season, but he received poor marks in those outings, and Austrian LT Valentin Senn transfers in from Colorado, boasting little experience. 

This is a group with a couple decent returning players (but ones who were decent against a horrendous schedule), a transfer center from the Ivy League, and tackles with little experience and recruiting rankings outside the top 1,800 national players in their respective years. The depth doesn't offer much of anything to note either, so this is pretty much the same story for what UCONN has been in this series so far, an untalented positional group offering little experience or depth. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: OLs with fewer Ivy League transfers]

 

[Colorado State University Athletics]

11. Colorado State 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Brian Crespo-Jaquez	Dante Bivens	Jacob Gardner	Gray Davis	Dontae Keys
Ches Jackson			Gage Gaynor

If you like fresh faces, this positional group is for you! Four of the five starters are transfers from elsewhere (three of which were starters at their old school), and the fifth didn't play at all last season at Colorado State. That player is Brian Crespo-Jaquez, a RS FR left tackle who will see an NCAA field for the first time when the Rams arrive in the Big House in early September. Crespo-Jaquez was a 3* outside the top 2000 in the class of 2020, so not a ton can be expected of him against a P5 opponent. The other four starters are transferring in. Dante Bivens arrives from Tulsa having not played much the last two years, but posting subpar PFF grades back in 2018-19. Jacob Gardner and Gray Davis (not the ex-California Governor) both followed their head coach from Nevada, the former being extremely poor at center last season, while the latter graded out okay. Dontae Keys headed to Fort Collins from Florida International, and he also did not receive the best grades. 

As a unit, this OL has some potential for a mid-major, but is going to need time to gel and will need to be coached up. Gardner and Keys were bad last season, Bivens was bad when he last played, and Crespo-Jaquez is totally green. They will all need attention from the coaching staff and since they're all wearing name tags, they need to get to know each other too. There are no formal returning starters, and the depth is slim pickings. The idea that this will be a functional OL that will give Michigan any trouble in two weeks seems farfetched, frankly.

They were pretty similar to UCONN in terms of ranking them. Both have okay players with experience at guard, CSU has a center who hasn't played very well vs. an Ivy League transfer center at UCONN, and both have iffy left tackles with little experience. What tipped the scales ever so slightly to CSU is the presence of a RT who has at least been a starter and the fact that their players have played moderately tougher schedules than what UCONN faces. But this is splitting hairs between two bad offensive lines who aren't going to be able to hold up against Michigan. 

 

10. Hawaii 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Ilm Manning	Stephan Bernal-Wendt	Eliki Tanuvasa	Micah Vanderpool	Austin Hopp
		Maurice Ta'ala	Solo Vaipulu

Hawaii returns two starters on their offensive line in LT Ilm Manning and Micah Vanderpool, both of whom graded out pretty well in PFF's data. That gives them a nice pillar to stand on, and pretty quickly moves them ahead of either of the other two non-conference opponents. They also have a number of other players with experience. Center Eliki Tanuvasa played snaps equivalent to about half a season last year and while not great, wasn't horrendous against MWC competition. RT Austin Hopp at RT didn't play much for Hawaii last year but has played many snaps in his past at Western Illinois back in 2018-19. Even backups Maurice Ta'ala and Solo Vaipulu have gotten some run, with Vaipulu in particular playing close to a starter's workload a year ago, faring well as a run blocker and poorly as a pass blocker. The only player without much experience is projected LG Stephan Bernal-Wendt, a former walk-on in his sixth year in the program, featuring mostly on special teams in past years. 

The combination of solid returning starters and many guys who have spent most of their collegiate years on the island makes Hawaii clearly the best non-conference OL in my opinion. CSU and UCONN are both the case of new coaches trying to piece together OLs that can hold up against lesser foes out of scotch tape, glue, and transfers. Hawaii at least has the cupboards stocked with returning players for new head coach Timmy Chang, which is a better situation. One of the only places on this roster where that is the case. 

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

9. Rutgers 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Willie Tyler III	Curtis Dunlap	Ireland Brown	JD DiPenzo	Hollin Pierce
	Mike Ciaffoni	Gus Zlinksas

Rutgers had a bad offensive line a year ago and in the offseason they swapped out most of their names for new, also bad names. The two returners are half-starter C Ireland Brown (also a neat name), who took over for Nick Krimin late in the year with okay results, and Hollin Pierce at RT, who was not good. The rest of the starters are gone (the prognosis on Reggie Sutton's injury looks bad) and Greg Schiano replaced them with spare parts from elsewhere. Willie Tyler III replaces Raiqwon O'Neal at LT and he received a subpar grade (with horrible pass blocking scores) from PFF at ULM last season and that came against Sun Belt competition. Not great!  

LG Curtis Dunlap switches allegiances inside the B1G from Minnesota to Rutgers, and he was PFF's worst-graded Minnesota OL last season in spot duty. RG JD DiPenzo comes over from Sacred Heart, and though he has many career accolades in that conference, the adjustment in competition is going to massive, so it's hard to expect a ton. This picture is not terribly rosy, and I wouldn't expect a ton from the reserves either. Ranking Rutgers last among the B1G schools was pretty easy in my mind, between the lack of returning starts and the poor collection of names that are on paper. Hard to see this unit moving anyone at the line of scrimmage. 

 

8. Iowa 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Mason Richman	Tyler Ellsbury	Logan Jones	Connor Colby	Jack Plumb
	Matt Fagan		Nick DeJong

I have to make a quick note here about the bold players: Mason Richman and Jack Plumb were more half-starters than full starters last year. Richman started a lot of the year but then got demoted after a brutal outing mid-season, while Plumb received a similar amount of snaps. 

Iowa's offensive line has produced some very good players over the years but this line does not seem to be one of those. The two OL we starred on the FFFF diagram for the B1G Championship Game, Kyler Schott and Tyler Linderbaum, have both exited the program. What the Hawkeyes are left with are two new starters at LG/C (a huge hole at C in particular after losing the Rimington winner), and a bunch of returning starters/half-starters who were awful in pass protection. Mason Richman and projected reserve Nick DeJong got the full cyan circle for poor performances, while Connor Colby and Jack Plumb both received half-cyans denoting very poor pass protection, while being good run blockers. This was a theme for the Iowa line, okay on the ground, but a mess in trying to keep the QB upright. That was the case for last year's Iowa line, and now you've deleted the two best players from it.... ouch. 

Tyler Ellsbury and Logan Jones are slated to step into those roles, a SO and a RS FR, respectively. Both were decent recruits, with Ellsbury a 3.5* and Jones a top 300 4*, so there's reason for optimism, but the recent record of Iowa offensive line play is not as rosy as it once was. There are a lot of problems plaguing the Iowa offense, inept coordinating/coaching, awful QB play, WRs who can't get open, but also an OL that sabotaged the passing game through horrendous pass blocking. And for the record, I wasn't too impressed by the run blocking against Michigan either. All of this comes together to paint a grim picture, and it lands Iowa second-to-last among B1G opponents. 

 

PSU's OL in one picture [Patrick Barron]

7. Penn State

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Olu Fashanu	Landon Tengwall	Juice Scruggs	Sal Wormley	Caedan Wallace
	Hunter Nourzad			Bryce Effner

The forever Achilles heel of the PSU offense projects to be that yet again, and will be so until proven otherwise. Three starters exit State College, Eric Wilson, Mike Miranda, and Rasheed Walker, but it's not clear to me if losing any of those guys constitute big losses. The returners are Caedan Wallace, who we cyan'd in FFFF and is a horrible pass-blocking RT, and Juice Scruggs, who I thought was a weak-link at guard and now moves to center. Everyone else is new, *gulp*. 

As is always the case with the PSU OL, they have talent! RS FR Landon Tengwall slides in at LG and he was the #54 overall recruit in the 2021 class, per the 247 composite. At the other guard spot, Sal Wormley, who played a little last year, is the projected starter, and he too was a top 300 player back in 2019. New LT starter Olu Fashanu is not quite the same level, but he was a 3.5* in the 2021 class. None of these players should be turnstiles, yet the PSU coaching staff has found a way to make that happen. And when you remember that Wallace and Scruggs, the two returning starters who were not particularly great last year, were also blue chippers once upon a time, then you should be able to realize why I'm so down on PSU's OL. Reserves Bryce Effner and Hunter Nourzad have reasons for optimism (Effner played some last year and was mediocre; Nourzad is a transfer who was good at Cornell) but if they can't win jobs on this line, I'm tempering expectations massively. 

The level of talent raises them slightly above Iowa, but that's about it. This is a bad OL until James Franklin can produce one that isn't. 

 

6. Maryland 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Jaelyn Duncan	Mason Lunsford	Johari Branch	Delmar Glaze	Spencer Anderson
		Aric Harris	Amelio Moran

Look at all that bold!!!! Maryland is the only team on our list to return every starter from last season, as well a player with plenty of experience on the interior, Aric Harris. Let's face the facts: Maryland's offensive line was bad last season. But, they rank ahead of Rutgers/Iowa/PSU because there's a reason to hope that it could be better, and that reason is experience. Returning an entire line intact, as well as a depth piece, is a nice luxury that most all teams don't get. For that reason, the Terps get boosted a decent bit, even if what I saw from them against real opponents was pretty ugly. 

All five guys graded out pretty decently to PFF, but I was a good bit lower on Maryland's OL than those scores indicated and I believe I was justified in what I saw against Michigan and other good teams. Jaelyn Duncan is a former blue chip recruit who isn't terrible, but also isn't good. In his fifth year in the program, I'm not sure how much better he can get, but if I had to guess one guy to get a star on our FFFF diagram, I'd wager it's him. Both guards got cyan'd last year, though PFF liked Delmar Glaze a bit more than I did, and he's a guy who rotated out to tackle at times last year (while Spencer Anderson played inside). There's some positional flexibility here, but I'm not entirely sure that was because the players are versatile and not because they were trying things out to plug gaping holes. 

Overall, though, while I don't love this group, I don't think they should be horrendous, especially against middle and lower tier B1G teams. Will they be able to give Tagovailoa time against your Michigans and Ohio States? I'm skeptical. But against Rutgers and Northwestern? Possibly! Experience never hurts, and they rank in the middle of the pack for that reason. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

5. Indiana 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Luke Haggard	Mike Katic	Zach Carpenter	Tim Weaver	Matthew Bedford
	Randy Holtz			Parker Hanna

On a 2021 Indiana offense that was incompetent at best and anemic at worst, the OL was far from the biggest culprit, and that unit returns three full starters + a couple guys with experience. Luke Haggard is the leader for this positional group, and he's a legit left tackle. Mike Katic is back on the interior of the line and he's mostly just a guy. Old Friend Zach Carpenter takes over for good at center after starting there some last year. I doubt he's ever going to be an All-B1G level player at this point, but I think Carpenter should at least be decent based on the pedigree. Tim Weaver is another new starter at guard, one who rotated in at points last year and PFF thought was fine. The only weak spot would appear to be Matthew Bedford, who was playing at guard last season against Michigan and is now out at RT. I didn't love him at all last season, but he was also not on my list of worst B1G OL and is a returning starter with another year under his belt. 

Indiana gets 3/5 of a decent line back and adds two rotational pieces who have seen the field. They also pick up a transfer in Parker Hanna, who may play the role of 6th man. For me, that moves them ahead of teams with multiple weak spots like Maryland, but perhaps a little short of the teams ahead of them based on what I saw last season. 

 

4. Nebraska

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Teddy Prochazka	Kevin Williams Jr.	Trent Hixson	Broc Bando	Turner Corcoran
		Ethan Piper	Bryce Benhart

The Huskers represent the largest leap of faith I've taken in this piece, but here I'm betting on upside. Last year Nebraska had a young and inexperienced OL that struggled, but the level of talent on the line makes me believe that this group is ready for a step forward. Injuries forced Nebraska to start Teddy Prochazka against Michigan at LT as a true freshman last season. He did his best and then went back in the Crock Pot to marinate. In year two, I am buying he can be a solid player as a former blue chip recruit. It's a similar story for Turner Corcoran on the other side of the line, who was atrocious last season in his second year in the program, but he's a former top 50 recruit who was a first-time starter. I'm betting on improvement. 

Bryce Benhart was a starter last season but as of now, appears to be behind Broc Bando, a veteran who didn't play a ton last year. If Benhart finds his way through, he's also a former 4* recruit, even if he struggled last year. Ethan Piper and Trent Hixson provide Nebraska with two options at center who were both wobbly a year ago, but again, both should improve. Kevin Williams Jr. arrives as a JUCO transfer at LG to complete the line projection. 

With this group, I'm betting on returning players who have tasted the B1G and have talent being better coached under a new OL Coach. Donovan Raiola (brother of longtime Lions center Dominic Raiola) arrives as the new OL Coach and he boasts NFL experience and at the very least should be a fresh voice instead of the same old same old that wasn't working. He's got blue chippers at multiple positions to work with who were too young/not ready for the show last year, but could be this year. I like that mix and am willing to take a chance, and when has that ever gone wrong with Scott Frost and Nebraska? 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

3. Michigan State

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Jarrett Horst	JD Duplain	Nick Samac	Brian Greene	Spencer Brown
Brandon Baldwin			Matt Carrick

A world in which an MSU OL is top three on Michigan's schedule says a lot about the caliber of OLs on the schedule. To the credit of Mel Tucker and the Spartans, they cobbled together a decent OL last season, even if they relied on Kenneth Walker III to produce most of the rushing yards and also a personnel trick. That trick was constantly rotating players on the offensive line, as MSU had as many as nine or ten bodies in frequent rotation during the course of games, to cut down on mismatches. If someone was getting whipped repeatedly, they'd get yanked off stage and someone else would take their place. That's less possible this season, as the depth has been depleted, but the players who remain should be... fine? 

JD Duplain is good. He's a solid left guard who could wiggle his way onto All-B1G lists. Nick Samac was their better center last year, even if he was the nominal backup behind the departed Matt Allen. Jarrett Horst was an Arkansas State transfer who hung in there at tackle last season, while former 3* recruit Spencer Brown, who got some run in the Peach Bowl, is the favorite to start opposite him across the line. The one total newbie on the line is Wazzu transfer Brian Greene, who was a half-starter out in Pullman last season and has not impressed PFF over the course of his career. Matt Carrick is the 6th man on a line that has seen the AJ Arcuri/Kevin Jarvis/Blake Bueter types take off, though he's recovering from surgery. 

Would I say this is a good offensive line? No, not really. Is it bad? Also no. I do have some concerns that MSU's OL may revert harder than expected without the benefit of constant rotation, but as of right now, there's no one I envision as an obvious cyan, which is better than you can say for anyone up to this point. I don't think there's an obvious star other than Duplain perhaps, but having five mediocre players somehow lands you at #3 on this list. I guess this is what happens when Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Purdue aren't on the schedule. 

 

2. Illinois 

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Julian Pearl	Zy Crisler	Alex Pihlstrom	Isaiah Adams	Alex Palczewski
	Jordan Slaughter		Zachary Barlev

The Illini are #2 on our ranking after having a very good offensive line last year, one that powered an excellent rushing attack. 3/5 of that line departs, but they have a half-starter plugging the hole at center and bring in JUCO starters at both guard spots. Combined with a coach who has a track record of building solid OLs, that was enough for me to rank them #2 (again, still an indictment of the quality of B1G OLs). Of course, it helps to still have Alex Palczewski around at RT, who has been a Dude since 2018 and should be an easy All-B1G pick. This is a line of players who are better run blockers than pass blockers, and Palczewski exemplifies that. 

Julian Pearl is the starter on the opposite end of the line and he graded out pretty solidly last year, which gives the Illini offense a pair of solid, experienced pillars to build around. Alex Pihlstrom slides in after 382 snaps a year ago, worse than the departed Doug Kramer and in need of improvement in pass blocking, but far from a liability. The incoming JUCO guys Zy Crisler and Isaiah Adams are somewhat unknown, but they ranked 25th and 26th nationally in the 247 JUCO transfer rankings, so they are not total nobodies. And this is where I'm trusting the Bielema track record. The depth is a little sketchy, but overall, I like the line because of the known quantities you have to build around and the likely plug and play ability of the transfers overseen by a coach who knows what he's doing at OL. 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

1. Ohio State

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Paris Johnson Jr.	Donovan Jackson	Luke Wypler	Matthew Jones	Dawand Jones
	Enokk Vimahi			Josh Fryar

I think it says a lot about offensive line play in the B1G that the top-rated OL on Michigan's schedule this fall is an OL that got abused by 2021 Michigan's pass rush and struggled to open holes on the ground in The Game. To be clear, though, the reason why they're #1 is that was an uncharacteristically bad performance by the OSU offensive line. In last year's FFFF for OSU's offense, every single offensive lineman was starred on our diagram. They were very good most all of the year, with only elite passrushers/DTs having the ability to muck it up, notably Nebraska/Michigan/PSU. Against everyone else, they were a fortress around Stroud and paved the way for Henderson. Who knows how they will fare against the big boys this year, but at least against the middle of the road, Ohio State should be excellent again up front, which is better than you can say for everyone else. 

The Buckeyes lose forever OL Thayer Munford and OT Nicholas Petit-Frere, but return three other starters. Paris Johnson Jr., former 5* OT, started at guard a year ago and now slides over to his natural position to take the job vacated by Petit-Frere. Dawand Jones is the projected starter opposite him, a mountain of a man who was seemingly destined for the NFL until The Game went very, very poorly. Both were very strong last season outside of the end of November, and while there is some adjustment needed for Johnson switching positions, I have no reason to believe either are going to be an outright cyan. I'd expect Jones will have his star again heading into late November 2022. Luke Wypler was a first year starter at center a year ago and was pretty solid. I'm expecting improvement from him and he has a shot to threaten for All-B1G at that position. 

Matthew Jones was last year's sixth man on the line and did well in that role; now he gets a real shot at starting, as the projected RG. Donovan Jackson, a former 5* OT who seems more natural at guard, is set to slide into Paris Johnson's old spot at LG and should be fine there. 

At the end of the day, even though I am far from in love with Ohio State's offensive line after watching them against Michigan, they rank 1st because the bar is pretty low here and they generally did quite well against all the non-Michigan teams. And when you see Aidan Hutchinson doing swim moves around Pro Bowl tackles in the NFL preseason, maybe you can cut OSU a little bit of slack too. I didn't want to rank every OSU offensive positional group as tops among opponents, but I also have to tell you the truth. 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

Where would Michigan rank on this list? 

I'm going to give you what you want, people: #1. 

In my mind there isn't much question here. Michigan had an awesome offensive line a year ago, one that definitely outplayed the top-ranked opponent OL on this list head-to-head, and they may have gotten better. Hayes, Keegan, and Zinter should be better with another year under their belt as starters, Michigan likely upgraded at center going from Andrew Vastardis to Olu Oluwatimi, and then a former top 300 recruit with many years of marinating in the program, Trente Jones, slides in at RT. This is an OL that could have 3 or 4 guys starred on an FFFF diagram, no weaknesses among the starters, a 6th man who would start at most B1G schools (Karsen Barnhart), and more depth on the two-deep with young guys like Greg Crippen and Reece Atteberry, who the program like.  

There's not honestly much else to say... this is the easiest answer I've given so far. This is an OL that was superb in pass protection a year ago, really only losing battles against Arnold Ebiketie and PSU until they played an NFL defense in the playoff, and they paved almost everyone, with the exception of perhaps MSU and Wisconsin, who keyed in to stop the run. And again, this group is probably better. Compared to the schedule, which simply does not boast many good OLs this fall, Michigan is clearly the cream of the crop.