[ICYMI: We're watching the game tonight at HOMES Brewery, and HomeSure Lending is buying the first round. Find the table by the projector.]

We're back to offense, and with every outlet focused on basketball the bits are mostly coming from one source: Jim Harbaugh's recent podcast. That didn't mention the quarterbacks, and the Gattis stuff has been discussed at length so let's go right to…

Running Back

The Bens are carrying the ball it seems [Bryan Fuller]

What we want to hear: Super-excited about Christian Turner, who's going to win a Heisman or three.

What we're hearing: A lot about the guy wearing #49, Lucas Andrighetto. Harbaugh's podcast:

In my opinion he's better than Tru Wilson was when he moved over from safety. He's fast, can see the holes really well.

They also talked about seeing Bens Mason and VanSumeren at running back. VanSumeren has been scoring touchdowns and "picking the soft shoulder." Tru Wilson's been working on catching the ball out of the backfield. Charbonnet is not going to practice at all in spring—the program is being cautious—but he's in their plans for a lot of carries this year.

What it means: Specialty backs, and not a lot of available backs. It makes sense that in the course of finding a place for the Bens in a fullbackless offense they'd use them as short-yardage specialists. Mason proved himself capable at that last year in tight situations, enough so that opponents often left the quarterback alone. Tru catching passes also makes sense given his natural role—if your third down back is just a blocker you might as well put #20 on an offensive lineman.

[After THE JUMP: Linemen be coming]

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Receiver

What we want to hear: Some insane catch by Oliver Martin. Tarik Black is taking over. Mike Sainristil is going to be worth having to rewrite his Hello post nine times for.

What we're hearing: We had to go all the way to a recruit—Oak Park WR Maliq Carr—via WolverineWire's Isaiah Hole's podcast, via Chris Peterson of GMBW, but we got something on the receivers:

Carr didn’t expand on much about Black, but he did tell Wolverines Wire that Black was one player that stood out to him and that the third-year wideout was looking really strong and aggressive during drills.

If you listen to that podcast itself, Isaiah had two different people close to the program tell him Mike Sainristil is standing out (around 14 minutes). He thinks Giles Jackson will see the field too but Sainristil is using the spring to maximum advantage.

Otherwise:

What it means: Just not the focus this week. I am getting impatient for something about someone other than the two injured returning starters. If I'm forced to speculate, this group got a new position coach and is going to be most affected by the change in offense. While that should help them down the line, they're probably working through too much right now to tell anything.

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Tight Ends

What we want to hear: Crazy catches, something about the redshirt freshmen?

What we're hearing: Sean McKeon was the first guy mentioned on the podcast, leading off a list of "Guys who've been out there and proven themselves," that ended after…uh, one. But the word "elite" was uttered. Eubanks has some more coaching points but is really becoming the blocker and receiver they see for him—lots of ceiling to get to. Schoonmaker and Muhammad doing a nice job.

Jack Harbaugh noticed "#83" on the practice tape. "That's Erick All—just a freshman but he's going to compete till he drops. Really excited about him."

What it means: Everything you want to hear about All, nothing else more really. The context that the RS freshmen came up in is Harbaugh tends to mention the entire roster when he can.

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Center and Guards

Grapes? [Patrick Barron]

What we want to hear: Ol' Grapes of Wrath has turned a corner.

What we're hearing: Onwenu has turned a corner. 247 ran a "who's standing out" article that had few surprises but plenty of good news that led off with the interior starters.

"Michael Onwenu is really standing out along with Cesar Ruiz and Ben Bredeson," Harbaugh said. "That’s a real strength for our football team. The tackles Jon Runyan Jr. is having a very good spring so far. Andrew Stueber and Jalen Mayfield are battling it out at right tackle. That competition is waging on, but younger guys (like Joel) Hongiford is doing a really good job."

Onwenu was a theme of this week's Harbaugh's podcast, which Ed Warinner sat in on. Sam Webb pulled most of the important bits from it for an article on the state of the OL:

I mean Mike (Onwenu) has really taken a big step and he has a lot of talent. He trained hard in the offseason in the first phase of winter conditioning and came in at great shape. His last two days of practices in pads have been phenomenal for him. If he continues like that, we are going to see it in the field when we play.”

…and not just because he's strong:

“Mike’s always been strong,” Harbaugh said. “He’s always been strong. He can always move anybody that he’s up against. But he’s doing so many subtle things now. His awareness to pass off twist games or zone block and redirect during the progression of the blocking scheme – should maybe talk a little bit about that.”

…and not just because he's physical:

“He has been studying the game. No one has been more aggressive asking questions, texting, wanting to know more, watching film. Those details are what’s going to make him a great player, because he is talented. His ability to understand the zone schemes and some of the things we see from our defense… where his eyes should be, his hand placement, bumping off games and twists, communicating, getting to the second level… he’s just doing a lot of those high-level details now and we are seeing them in practice. It’s because he wants to and he’s listening to those things and asking for those things. No one sends us more text messages about, ‘what should I do on this?’ He watches film on his iPad and takes a picture of something and sends us. We are really happy with Mike.”

Rivals had an interesting take on the conditioning, talking to former OL Doug Skene about 1992, when Gary Moeller instituted a faster tempo and more conditioning-focused offseason program.

In other guys, Bredeson came in for more leadership and Ruiz was called Ben's lieutenant. As for backups, Warinner mentioned Chuck Filiaga is having a really good spring, and Honigford is coming along. They still trust Spanellis. The second-teamers are alright:

"This is the deepest line we've had here,” Harbaugh said. “The emergence of guys like Hayes, Honigford, [redshirt junior Stephen] Spanellis and [redshirt sophomore Chuck] Filiaga haven't allowed for much of a drop off when we move to the second team unit.”

What it means: Onwenu is blowing up. Or blowing in. Or producing heavy metals in his core and spitting out energy into space at speeds near that of light. I'm not up on the astrophysics. The point is you'll be able to see it from the next galaxy.

This time last year Mike Onwenu was in a stiff competition for the right guard spot with Steve Spanellis, after surrendering the later portion of 2017 to true freshman Ruiz. I don't think we're going to have that same competition this year. The conditioning aspect is a big deal for him because Michigan is going to an up-tempo offense—catching the defense with the wrong guys on the field only works so long as your guys can stay on it.

The ID part sounds legit too, because in his charting last year a lot of his miscues were the exact decisions they're talking about above. When Onwenu did block a guy, especially in tandem with JBB, he wrecked. More of that his senior(!) year and we could be in serious business.

The Bredeson stuff is what you say about a captain and four-year starter. Tell me about his pass protection. Nothing to be gleaned from Ruiz either except he's not the kid anymore. Nothing to be gleaned from the second team except that Harbaugh likes to mention everybody.

Offensive Tackles

Steuber's gotta watch out for the 2018s. Marc-Grégor Campredon

What we want to hear: The kids are alright.

What we're hearing: I'll point again at the 247 article I led off with in the above section. Next sentence in fact:

Andrew Stueber and Jalen Mayfield are battling it out at right tackle. That competition is waging on, but younger guys (like Joel) Hongiford is doing a really good job."

Also this from the podcast:

"Dad you will be excited to also hear that Ryan Hayes is on the scene and really finishing and playing athletic"

Jack confirmed that both of his sons still think of him as the Western Michigan coach and thus responsible for every player to come out of that side of the state. Warinner went into a bit more detail on Hayes at about 45 minutes in:

[Hayes's] strength is better, his explosion. Pad level he’s playing with. He’s much more aggressive. And his details have been good. He’s doing some things you wouldn’t expect a freshman to do in terms of understanding schemes. It’s exciting, because that’s what you want to see, this year, these freshmen take off. I think Ryan’s got a bright future for us.”

Warinner went on to reiterate the competition at right tackle is between Steuber and Mayfield, with Hayes practicing at left tackle. They're getting exactly even reps, says Warinner, but I found this the most interesting part:

Both of them have great strengths and talents.

They also mentioned there's not a huge drop between the twos and threes, which are Jess Speight, Andrew Vastardis, Griffin Korican, Greg Robinson (who did some really good things Sunday), and Dan Jokisch. Jon Runyan is "the steadiest guy we've got" according to Warinner—Harbaugh notes he's their only fifth year scholarship player. He also brought up the fact that new OL analyst Juan Castillo coached Runyan Sr. on the Eagles.

What it means: Did you catch that? PAD LEVEL YOU GUYS! Anyway Ryan Hayes is tracking exactly where you want for a Frey-type/tight end convert: not really ready to play yet, but on course to be very good one when he gets there. The Runyan fluff tells us nothing.

There's no way to handicap the Stueber-Mayfield race; both are young enough that you can't read much into Stueber getting more playing time last year, or Mayfield being a year younger. The part about "both of them have great strengths and talents" leads to me believe they're excelling in disparate areas. Our assignment for this week is to learn what those are.