What Happened To The Offensive Line?

angry Michigan hating OL God. I bet someone carried them all out of the program by plowing them up with his f'ing plow

UFR will either be late today (think 7 or 8) or you’ll get a dual blast tomorrow.

someone's going to be mad at you....

I propse we re-institute the pizza eating plan, combine it with the updated S&C, and adminster lots of anabolic medicine. The increased calories + better training in conjunction with the anabolic effects and enhanced recovery from the "medicine" will add slabs of muscle to our lineman and a nasty attitude.

You should add yourself to the list for promising offensive UFRs for tuesdays before we committed and not delivering on such promise.

It's no secret, you just live in the weight room. PERIOD. Jon Jansen was the prime example of a guy who lived in the weight room. Second, they need to recruit guys with some drive. Carr got some unmotivated flap jacks. No one should look to Rich and point the finger. We can question calls and what not, but theres an implied forgiveness even in the questioning of calls. Like one Michigan blog said, at this point questioning calls is like questioning if you want to get hit in the balls with a golf club or a sledgehammer. Debate it all you want, it's going to hurt either way.

.....our OL is subpar!?!?! Why did no one warn me!!!!!

 Really, what did people expect. We dont have top flight recruits on the line right now and they have not been coached up until now. Pretty sure the last coaching staff considered most of who is on the line now as career backups. But, because of player attrition and Mr. Plow, they are starters.

That said, I love the potential of the incoming freshmen O-Linemen. I think we'll see one of them play (Barnum) sooner rather than later. The future looks a lot brighter on the line than the present day, Thats a certainty.

A big key in the current day will be if Schilling ever starts to live up to his huge promise and recruiting rating coming out a high school. I am beginning to wonder about that, however.

...and seeing the embarrassment of riches they have at OL is depressing.  Anyone who questions Pryor's decision need look no further than our OL personnel.  The kid surely thought "Shit, I'm gonna get killed.' He's no dope.  Also: #@$%!

Also, while the sophomore class is terrible in all ways possible, Zirbel (4*) and Boren (4*) have to be considered when you talk about the current situation.  Boren, if he wasn't a big flabby sack of whiny bitch, would have anchored the middle relatively well this year.  Zirbel also would have been a vast improvement over Molk.  Add in one semi decent 5th year, hell, 0-4 on fifth year senior OL is terrible, make it 2 5th years, and you have a solid line.

All I see when I look at this is Moeller sucked and there was one bad OL recruiting class.  But the class above them had a 5* and 2 4*.   Also, Moeller.  That really is a bad sophomore class given our 11-2 record that year and Jake Long mauling people.

I just looked at the 2007 class for the first time, and it's amazingly horrible.  Marell Evans is a 2 star. 12 3* and 1 2*...where the hell did the "we're Michigan we can take just 4* and better if we want" meme come from?

I've been thinking about this problem for a while now.  I am concerned that we're in a bad cycle right now.

What I mean by that is the skill position players will be peaking, but the O-line will still be down.  By the time the OL peaks, our multiple year starters at the skill positions will be moving on, and so on.  To win, you really need it all to come together at the same time.

I've felt for many years that Michigan has had this cycle problem as between the Offense and Defensive sides of the ball.  When one was strong, the other was down, and vice versa.  There are very few seasons in recent memory where both were peaking at the same time.  2007 being an obvious example.  Even the championship year in 97, the offense wasn't that special.  

The only way to really put out an elite team is to have at least one side of the ball that doesn't cycle, it just constantly reloads.  OSU and USC are teams that do this.  The drop off from peak to off-peak is very small.  Otherwise, you really need to get lucky and have 2 amazing recruiting classes on both sides of the ball that gel together.  

I hope Rodriguez can figure out how to sync up all the different aspects of the team so that we can peak at the same time and make a title run in the near future.  I don't have any suggestions though.   

There are a lot of pieces moving against us on the OL:

1. Total lack of experience

2. Total lack of depth

3. No time playing together

4. Utah debacle was the first game

5. Lack of first rate talent among seniors and juniors and no fifth years

Its just going to take time.  Items 1-4 will start coming together in the coming weeks. Item 5is a multi year issue.

My hope is that by the end of the ND game, the line becomes functional (i.e. Mid-level Big Ten quality).  Anything more than that appears to be wishful thinking.  Next year we may be decent as the freshman physically develop to the point of being workable and the guys currently not wearing redshirts distance themselves from Moeller.

Dix -- this cycling issue is fixed by consistently recruiting and coaching. 

This is based only on my perceptions, but it seems that we have become
dependent upon individual talents as opposed to relatively high skill
levels across the board.

Our OL became a liability under thin recruiting and poor coaching.  Jake Long concealed a lot of weakness on the line because he could walk on water (quite and accomplishment for a guy weighing over 300lbs.) 

At QB, there had been no depth behind Henson, Navarre (hell, the started was iffy) or Henne (after Gutts left).  With Brady we had Henson, with Griese we had Driesbach, with Grbac we had Collins.  We had guys who had been in the system a few years before they expected to see the field.  

Our LB play has been poor, with an occasional star here and there for sometime.   

Where we have been consistently strong (barring a game or Rose Bowl here or there) have been corner (although we have lacked depth), receiver and RB. 

The USCs and OSUs have been able to keep their recruiting and coaching at a consistently high level, allowing them to "reload".

I don't see a cycling issue.  We are losing NO ONE from offense after this year, at least not to graduation and certainly not to the draft (Butler?).  Bringing all those guys back next year will make our offense immensely better.  By that time we will have enough of a core that we shouldn't have this problem again for some time.  New coach takes a little time.  I feel like we've been over this.

This post reeks of Notre Dame-ish lamenting: por coaching, poor recruiting, woe is me, etc, etc.

Frankly, it's scaring the hell out of me.

So, I went on the internets and "nd" is NOT copyrighted.

 Neither is "Returning to Glory"

Neither is "Since 1993"

 So, are there any U/M grads that are lawyers out there willing to "pro bono" and file an injunction (or whatever) against nd so Brian can start selling the fabulous T-shirts again.

Is there a bathroom in the actual weight room or do they just pee on the floor?

Oh my God! I just remembered about eating. How the hell are they going to EAT if they don't get to leave the weight room?  They're going to actually LOSE weight!

 I think perhaps you ought to reconsider you're advice.

Caup you're so right. What do you suggest? I spent a summer working for Jim Mora and the New Orlean Saints.......wayyyy back in the day if youre doing the math.....the lineman knew the phrase,"You arent leaving the weightroom," very well. I played basketball in college against Jon Jansens brother and all I heard was the same thing,"Dude never left the weight room for four years." BUT, every OL recruit I think is scared of Barwis. Boren, I mean, I don't get that at all. Family values? Dude he would've started and now he's on the bench? For what family values? This group of OL will not, WILL NOT leave the weight room now that Barwis is here. If I was a lineman, I'd pick MI just for the conditioning aspect. I know how bad the ROOKIE OL get teased and abused verbally by OL coaches in the NFL if they think they are going to get babied.

There's been a lot of Barwis hype, but I don't think many people realize it's gonna take him about 14 months to REALLY get the players fully conditioned into his system. Sure, he's made a difference in the 8 short months he's been here, but I think you'll see even more of an impact next year, especially on the OL.

I just read this and thought you might see the humor, especially in this thread:

Michigan - Rebound. Utah is really, really good. The big concern
is the way the Wolverines struggled to run the ball. When all else
failed, Michigan was supposed to be able to pound away with its good O
line [Emphasis mine] and great running backs, and it didn't happen. It might take half
the season, but the Wolverines will rebound.

Like Michael Phelps said,"I eat, I sleep and  I swim." That is all I am saying. You just give it your all without the junk roids. Lineman can only do so much technique work. Beyond that it comes down to size and strength+DESIRE. I think Jon's dad Larry said in off season at times Jon would be 6-9 hours a day in the weight room under Gittleson and co. It helps he's smart, a great athlete and a big guy naturally though.

1. There's lifting, plyometrics, stretching, cardio and then rehab. And of course eating. And we all know that being in the weight room does not always mean lifting. Sometimes you talk and what not. I've known a good many Michigan scholarship athlete and many do orbit a large part of their day in and around some form of weight or workout in the off season.
2. There really is not quick fix for the line. And there really is no way to know how a kid will mature and turn out. To the average fan of football who reads Brians blog here or the WLA, you should try to think of what this current coach inherited before attacking his results on Saturday. People quit, got bored with football and some gradutated or went pro. There were guys back there with zero game time experience.