2018 OL two-deep?

Submitted by Ecky Pting on

OK, so this seems like a worthwhile distraction at this point... what do you think will be the make up of the Offensive Line two-deep?

Drawing from the following depth chart-by-class pool:

 

Freshmen

Sophomores
(c/o 2021)
Juniors
(c/o 2020)
Seniors
(c/o 2019)
OT
OG
N. Rumler '19
A. Vastardis*#
 
C
 
   

Replacement(s) required for exiting seniors: Mason Cole (LT), Pat Kugler (C). Despite his level of performance, it doesn't seem like UM can afford to not give JB-B a fifth year. Here's my SWAG, which leaves Bredeson at OG to bring Filiaga up at OT, but YMMV:

 
Starters
Backups
OT
G. Newsome
C. Filiaga
J. Bushell-Beatty
A. Stueber
OG
M. Owenu
B. Bredeson
S. Spanellis
J. Runyan Jr.
C
C. Ruiz
(a starter from above)?

It's looking like early playing time may be a key factor in securing Emil Ekiyor in the upcoming recruiting class.

Maizeblue11

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^

Any word on Grant Newsome’s progress? It seemed like he wasn’t gonna play football again after that injury.

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^

Seems like he’s recovering well, but I think it’s pretty foolish to pencil him in as a starter next year. Back in shape and healthy again is one thing, but he’ll have been out of football for two years by the time next season rolls around.



And let’s not forget this either, it’s not like he was an all-Big Ten caliber player when he went down. He was an average guy on a below average OL. Pretty good chance guys on the roster now will be as good or better.

TrueBlue2003

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:03 PM ^

he'll still be there when he comes back.  Not getting a lot of meaningful reps while trying to walk and run again.

But that isn't even the biggest issue.  It'd be suprising if he was physically ever the same.  So it's just not reasonable to expect him to be even a decent big ten tackle.  I really, really hope he is, but agree with Burger that it's highly unlikely he's effective for us.

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^

Yeah don’t get me wrong, I’m cheering hard for him and hope he defies the odds and is a huge success, but he was an average lineman when he went down, will have been away from live game action for 2 years by the time next season starts, and suffered a devastating injury. Expecting him to return to average Big Ten starter after all of that is expecting a whole lot.

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 10:01 PM ^

For a true sophomore he was doing pretty good. Mentioned it elsewhere, but PFF had him graded between Magnuson and Kalis in the games he played last season. Considering those two are hanging around on NFL squads this season, that’s pretty solid for a sophomore. But the grades they gave those three were generally in the 75-77 range which is an average starter in the Big Ten. Their top grades for OL are usually around 81-87. So at the time he went down he was pretty average — but definitely had potential.

Now if he had kept on playing and kept going at the trajectory he was on, he would likely be a pretty good OT. But he didn’t. He leg blew up and then he missed two years of football. Expecting him to come back in 2018 at that average Big Ten starter level he was at in 2016 is probably a stretch. But hell, below average Big Ten starter would still likely be an upgrade at this point.

Fezzik

October 24th, 2017 at 12:05 AM ^

Newsome walked by me at Penn State and there is a huge chunk of his leg missing on his interior lower leg and a smaller chunk missing from his exterior lower leg. It appeared he was walking completely normal but I'd be quite surprised to see him become a solid starter for us next year. His leg is gnarly.

reddogrjw

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:20 PM ^

LT - Newsome/Stueber/Honigford/Hudson

LG - Bredeson/Runyan/Spanellis/Hall

C - RUiz/Runyan/Vastardis

RG - Onwenu/RUnyan/Spanelllis/Hall

RT - JBB/Filiaga/Stueber/Honigford/Ulizio

Kevin13

October 24th, 2017 at 9:45 AM ^

Newsome back and playing at a high level next year, but I have my doubts.

I wonder if Bredeson can bump outside and play LT for us. I think Runyon can be solid LG, put Ruiz at center, Onwenu at RG and probably start JBB at RT so left to right

Bredeson/Runyon/Ruiz/Onwenu/JBB

Let the young guys battle it out for the 2 deep across the board with Newsome in there also.

ak47

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:22 PM ^

So your starting tackles are a guy that’s never played before who people worry might be too slow to deal with edge rushers and a guy who won’t have played football for 2 years and could likely never be able to play at a high level again.

How’s that 2019 schedule looking for a championship run?

Occam's Razor

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:36 PM ^

Enough of this kind of talk. 

Michigan will eventually have to win these tough games. 

We're in the B1G East with one of the most polarizing head coaches in the nation.

 

Teams will always play their A game against us. Michigan hasn't won anything of relevance on the road since 2006. This needs to change. 

 

It wasn't PSU this year, but maybe we can do it for Wisconsin. 

If not then, we can start talking about ND 2019 b/c I doubt we beat OSU if we can't hack it against Wisconsin. 

 

CLion

October 23rd, 2017 at 6:27 PM ^

We've been talking about 2018 ever since the end of Harbaugh's first full recruiting class. This year was always going to be a transition year. That was evident in 2015. Now if we're talking about 2019 in Oct. 2018, then yikes.

G. Gulo of the Dale

October 23rd, 2017 at 8:14 PM ^

... saying that "all our rivalry games are on the road" doesn't make next year radically more difficult than other years in the Big Ten East.  And our three "rivalry games" aren't necessarily our three most difficult games.  I know that PSU will suffer some significant personnel losses, but I would generally prefer playing PSU and Wisconsin at home, rather than MSU.  The former teams are typically better and (it seems to me) have a greater home field advantage. 

With that being said, while I know we needed the extra home game in 2019, it would have been nice to play ND at home next year, especially since we last played them in South Bend.  

CLion

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^

Come on man now that is seriously foolish. Return almost our whole defense. We have Speight, Peters, McCaffrey battling for next year. Plus return of Black and another year for DPJ, Collins, Martin. With Frey + young guys + Newsome, the OL should take a major step forward. Without Newsome, well that's my biggest concern. But to write off 2018 right now is irrational.

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:34 PM ^

Its not that foolish.  Yes they return a ton of starters, but the offense will likely be as young as this year's version if not younger.  Especially if guys like Filiaga, Ruiz, and McCaffrey earn starting jobs.  A starting lineup could easily look like: QB McCaffrey, RB Higdon, TE McKeon/Gentry, OL Filiaga/Bredeson/Ruiz/Onwenu/JBB, WR Perry/Black/DPJ.  Half of those guys are two years out of high school, and three of them (Ownenu, McKeon, Bredeson) are true juniors.  That would be a VERY young offense and we haven't seen anything in three seasons from the coaching staff that would lead you to believe they can quickly (or even slowly) develop young talent on offense.

The defense wil be better, but they are already pretty damn good so there's not a lot of room for improvement there.

So couple all of that together with the fact that they have shown zero ability to win on the road against good teams and have to go on the road to Notre Dame, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Northwestern (three or four of which could be ranked).  Also, they host Penn State and Wisconsin at home.  That is a TOUGH schedule.  Another 9-3 season is really likely.  And 8-4 is also on the table.

I'm not writing 2018 off entirely (there's a whole offseason for me to drink some Kool-Aid), but its no longer the coming out party I thought it would be going into this sesaon.  The coming out party feels like 2019 now when they will finally have an upperclassmen filled offense and the same old deep and excellent defense.

CLion

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:44 PM ^

It's not crazy to think we will go 9-3, I agree. And yes the schedule is hard. It's pretty crazy to write off the season though in my opinion. If Newsome is done and our tackles suck and Speight is the QB and looks like this year's version despite improvement at WR and TE, then fine. Another frustrating year at hand. If Peters or McCaffrey beats out Speight, Newsome returns, and we're only really searching for a RT, there is pretty big upside. We have seen the offense look pretty good under Harbaugh at various times with Wisconsin/Iowa level offensive talent. And I still have reason to believe that can be eclipsed next year on the optimistic (but not irrational) side. 

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 7:56 PM ^

Yeah, I'm not totally writing it off.  CFB is a weird sport and things can change on a dime.  But all signs seem to point to a repeat of this season, but maybe worse because the road games are harder.

CLion

October 23rd, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^

I'd like to add that I'm overselling the importance of Newsome. It seems we're going to have more interior talent than at tackle. If we put Bredeson at RT, the we just need one of the young guns to step in at LT. The OL will be young, but PSU is doing pretty well with a less than stellar OL at the moment too.

I Like Burgers

October 23rd, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^

PSU has a Heisman/generational level talent at RB, an excellent QB, and creative play calling to take advantage of those talents. That helps out an OL an awful lot.

Michigan has none of that. And not even close.

dragonchild

October 24th, 2017 at 7:14 AM ^

Dunno how much of it was Fisch but the last two seasons were not a mirage.

The problem is that, as you've been pointing out, our offense is in its infancy.  Harbaugh prefers his offense learn concepts; the ceiling is much higher but it takes time.  The frippery plays are rote memorization.  With veterans you can do both because with the concepts down, the team's capacity to grok new plays becomes near-infinite; Stanford's supposedly reached 300 in Harbaugh's last season there.  You don't need to rep scenario A vs. B vs. C; if a defender show up where he's unexpected they can adjust on the fly.  Repping plays without that underlying conceptual foundation has quicker returns but is unsustainably inefficient.  Think back to 2013 when Borges' plays would work fantastically, once, then get routinely blown up because the opposing defense didn't do what the scout team did in practice.

Drilling the Maple Leaf Rag as just a sequence of keystrokes is time not spent learning do-re-mi.

The Baughz

October 24th, 2017 at 8:55 AM ^

You've highlighted the positives pretty well but I am not sure if I can get on board with this team moving forward if the same offensive coaches return. Drevno needs replaced. JayBaugh needs to stay on staff but in a reduced role. This team needs a true RB and WR coach.

 

ND, OSU, MSU, PSU (just to name a few) all made staff changes recently and look at their success. Yes, MSU was terrible last season but now has rebounded well. ND, OSU, PSU are all in on the hunt for a playoff appearance. Michigan promoted JayBaugh to RB coach and hired Pep Hamilton. Lost Fisch and Wheatley and look where they are. Obviously Don Brown was an A+ hire, but he needs to get some A+ offensive coaches as well.

reshp1

October 23rd, 2017 at 8:46 PM ^

This year's a confluence of no QB, bad WRs, and bad OL. OL is the only one that's not looking to improve. QB is going to have Speight back as a floor and two blue chip bullets for Harbaugh to bring online. WRs have all the talent you can ask for, they just need seasoning.

OL will probably be a sore spot again, but fix the other two even a little and you can paper over a lot of faults.