Lost in the shuffle of the pre-Rose Bowl noise was the commitment of Northwestern offensive lineman Josh Priebe to Michigan out of the transfer portal: 

Excited for the next chapter! Go Blue!! pic.twitter.com/ZRDm6ZJ6o2

— Josh Priebe (@PriebeJosh) December 28, 2023

Priebe figures to play a big role on the Michigan offensive line in 2024 given that the positional group will need to reload after major attrition, so today let's give him a proper introduction. 

AS A RECRUIT:

PORTAL
247	On3	Rivals	ESPN
3*, 89, #209 Ovr #7 IOL	3*, 86, #780 ovr #64 IOL	3*, 5.5, #835 Ovr #83 OL	n/a
3.78	3.05	3.00
HIGH SCHOOL
3*, 89, NR Ovr #15 OG, #12 MI	didn't exist	3*, 5.7, NR Ovr #18 OG, #13 MI	3*, 79, #42 MW #55 OT, #16 MI
3.86		3.78	3.73

Priebe was a reasonably ho-hum guard prospect coming out of high school. The Edwardsburg, MI, (Cass County down on the Indiana border, about 15 miles from South Bend) native was a 3* ranked in the 600-700 range at the time of his commitment, though he was a riser over the process. He held offers from a bevy of MAC schools (Akron, Buffalo, CMU, EMU, Kent State, Toledo, and WMU), as well as Ivies Harvard, Yale, and Cornell, but once the P5 offers rolled in, it was clear Priebe was headed to greener pastures. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more background]

Though Priebe held offers from non-regional P5 schools, including Auburn, Tennessee, and Vandy from the SEC, and Miami, Duke, Louisville, and Boston College out of the ACC, Priebe's pursuit narrowed to the B1G eventually. Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, MSU, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, OSU, and Purdue all extended offers and in the spring of 2019, Priebe was visiting several of those, including Michigan ($). The Wolverines had offered him in February 2019 and he made several trips to Ann Arbor along the way. Brice Marich of 247 caught up with Priebe in the previously linked article from his April 2019 visit and got some pretty routine quotes: 

“Definitely just getting to know Coach Warinner better as well as Coach Harbaugh,” Priebe told The Michigan Insider. “Also having the opportunity to watch a practice and see their coaching styles and how they teach their guys.

“They are both excellent teachers. They take extra time to pull guys aside and really make sure they know what’s going on and everyone is on the same page.”

At that time Michigan State and Ohio State held the only crystal balls in Priebe's recruitment but within a couple weeks, the lineman had tabbed Northwestern. Allen Trieu's writeup of Josh Priebe's May 1, 2019, commitment to the 'Cats notes that he picked Northwestern "over offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee and several more". Edwardsburg was a pretty good HS program during Priebe's time there and Trieu got some quotes from his HS coach in the piece (emphasis mine): 

"Miami wanted to watch him do some flexibility drills because some big guys are not so flexible and Josh is extremely flexible,” Eddies head coach Kevin Bartz said. “Then you look at him and he weighs 275, 280 pounds, but you would never know it, so they are excited they can put 35 to 40 pounds on him and not lose a step. Then they want to hear him talk and see what kind of person he is and once they hear that, they are more impressed because he is not just another big lineman.”

Bartz went on to rave about Priebe's character and work ethic, so that's a good sign if you prioritize those sorts of off-the-field intangibles. Bartz's quotes about the athleticism Priebe possessed at that point in time feel relevant if you dig a bit deeper to Priebe's earlier visit to Michigan. Here's Priebe's recollection of what Ed Warinner liked about him: 

“(Warinner) tells me just how much they like my athleticism, the way I move, as well as how I carry my weight. They are very interested in me and he could see me playing any of the five positions on the offensive line.”

At 6'5", Priebe had height to play tackle but was considered a guard by most of the recruiting sites.

Scouting on him at the time wasn't terribly plentiful unfortunately. Shortly after he committed to Northwestern, their Rivals site put together a quick rundown on the 'Cats' OL commits, including future star Peter Skoronski. While the top 250 prospect Skoronski had lots written about him, the section on Priebe was rather brief. They admitted to not seeing him in person but gave a couple quick takes: 

Priebe also looks like he may have some position versatility, and he is a good athlete for the offensive line. He shows a strong technical understanding of the position that is ahead of the curve for his age group

Basically what we've seen. Positional versatility and good athleticism with a smattering of praise for intangibles/smarts. That seems to have been the lowdown on Priebe at the time. If you want tape on him as a recruit, his senior reel from Hudl can be found here. 

 

[Ryan Kuttler/Northwestern Athletics]

His Northwestern career 

As a class of 2020 commit, Priebe's first season in Evanston came that fall for the 'Cats. He appeared in 8 of 9 games for Northwestern, four of those games featuring snaps on offense and the rest being on special teams. There's not a ton to say from that year, as Priebe only totaled 27 total offensive snaps, about what you want from a promising true freshman offensive lineman. 

2021 was Priebe's first appearance with substantial work. He entered fall camp as a starter, having added weight in the offseason (he was up to 295 on the 2021 roster) and indeed got the start against Michigan State in week one of that season. He would start all nine games he appeared in, which included a game against Nebraska that I charted for FFFF when Northwestern came to Ann Arbor in late October. I gave Priebe a cyan on the diagram in that game after he struggled mightily, but he was a true sophomore very early in his starting career and was going up against tough competition. Nebraska had great defensive tackles that year so I'm not going to fault Priebe too much for that. A quick scan of his PFF grades from the 2021 season reveal that he was mostly a mid-50s grade player (in other words, not great), with a couple strong performances in the 70s and one stinker (Nebraska). I happened to chart that one. Oh well. 

Priebe returned to Northwestern as a starter for his junior season, now up to 308 lbs. per the roster, suiting up as the team's LG. He started their season opener and posted one of his best PFF grades to date in that one, a win over Nebraska in Ireland (perhaps revenge for his effort a year prior). After that he mellowed out into a mid-60s grade sort of player to the site, an uptick from the 2021 season but again not necessarily blowing the doors off. He started the Maryland game in Week 8 but unfortunately suffered an injury early on, one that would eventually end his season (his second consecutive year dealing with injury). He chose to stick with Northwestern in the offseason despite all the losing and the firing of Pat Fitzgerald. 

[Rivals]

In 2023 Priebe managed to stay healthy for the first time in his Northwestern career. Now up to 310 lbs., Priebe started all 12 games for the Wildcats, logging 764 offensive snaps before entering the transfer portal after the regular season concluded (he did not play in the Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah). Since Northwestern hasn't been on the schedule much, I haven't been able to do any charting of Priebe or offer any takes of my own, but again I can dip into the PFF well. They graded him at 61.5 overall this season, nearly identical grades in both pass blocking and run blocking. Priebe didn't allow many pressures (just 17) but of those 17, four became sacks.

After the season he was named Third Team All-B1G, but this is probably as much about performance as it is experience. Not to denigrate Priebe, but if you're a three-year senior starter and are not actively awful, you'll end up all-conference just as a career achievement award, generally speaking. The folks at Inside Northwestern handed out player grades in late December and graded Priebe as a B-, saying that "his play didn't totally meet expectations in 2023", though they were happy that he managed to stay healthy. I don't have any additional scouting on Priebe and you won't find any highlight reels of him on the internet as an offensive lineman. There will be time for more detailed film breakdowns when Seth begins the recruiting profiles in the summer, but as for now we can sum up what is known about Priebe as the following: he's a guard with solid size who is decently athletic and has performed at an adequate level over 1,785 B1G snaps (mostly as a starter) in his NCAA career. 

 

[Leader Publications/Amelio Rodriguez]

His fit at Michigan

Marich caught back up with Priebe last week to ask him about why he picked Michigan. He cited the usuals in terms of academics, coaching, and the S&C program (he stressed the importance of this due to his injury history), but then gave us a straightforward answer about where Michigan sees him fitting in: 

They see me fitting in at one of the guard positions. I’m incredibly excited to join that room. The talent in there is insane and I can’t wait to get to work with all of them

Simple enough. You probably could've figured it out but a quote from the player himself does a good bit to confirm that there are no positional switches a la LaDarius Henderson here. Michigan is losing Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan, in addition to Karsen Barnhart (who filled in at guard after Zinter's injury), so there is tons of room for help at the position. That's where Priebe fits in. 

Non-true freshman guard options for the 2024 Michigan team besides Priebe are Gio El-Hadi, Greg Crippen, Raheem Anderson, Alessandro Lorenzetti, Connor Jones, Nathan Efobi, and Amir Herring. Reece Atteberry also fits in this category hypothetically, but he moved to defense from guard this past season. Logically, El-Hadi has the obvious inside track for one starter spot, being the fourth guard in the rotation this past season and having multiple seasons of rotational experience. That would leave Priebe in line to fight for the other guard spot, where he'd be battling with (likely) whichever of Crippen/Anderson loses the center battle for the starting job. The younger group of players I listed could make a move but we haven't heard or seen much of them to date. 

As an extremely experienced B1G lineman who has proven himself to be at least competent, it's reasonable to pencil Priebe in as a starting guard for Michigan next season. Yes, he could lose the job to Raheem Anderson, for example, but if that happens, I don't think anyone will be upset because they will have beaten out a solid player. What Priebe gives Michigan is a reliable floor who can be expected to perform adequately. Ceiling may not be immense as an older player (though I trust this Michigan staff to wring the best production out of everyone) and if someone else blows past this floor, awesome. If no one does, you can do a lot worse than Priebe as a starting OL. Think about him like an OL version of what we expected Josh Wallace to be coming into last year... and hopefully it turns out as well as Wallace did.