Best Michigan offensive lines

Submitted by MichFan1997 on

Ok MgoBloggers, let's get a little pre-season talk going here. Which offensive lines since 1997 have been the best OL's Michigan has had. Let's try to rank them.

turd ferguson

August 21st, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^

i nominate the 2000 o-line.

LT  jeff backus

LG  steve hutchinson

C  david brandt

RG  jonathan goodwin

RT  maurice williams



every one of those guys was a senior in 2000, and if i remember correctly, they all found an NFL field very early in the following year.

turd ferguson

August 21st, 2011 at 10:46 PM ^

yep, it looks like backus, hutchinson, brandt, and williams all started at some point in 2001.  goodwin didn't get there until 2002 and didn't start until 2004, but he started all 16 games last season.

ridiculous college o-line.

EGD

August 21st, 2011 at 10:43 PM ^

That team lost an early-season game at UCLA because (a) Henson was injured and (b) a bad call took away a late Jeremy LeSeuer INT.  Then they lost @ Purdue and @ Northwestern due to defensive meltdowns.  But the O-line was dominant the whole season.

funkywolve

August 22nd, 2011 at 11:03 AM ^

While the defense wasn't great, I don't think the offense can be without blame.  The offense absolutely dominated the first half (4 possessions and 4 TD's), but only managed to put 3 pts on the board in the second half.

mGrowOld

August 21st, 2011 at 10:46 PM ^

It did achieve big things.  It managed to get not one but TWO ESPN Classic/Big Ten's greatest games with the heartbreaking loss at Purdue by one point and the even more heartbreaking loss to Northwestern when the A-Train simply forgot to hold on to the ball so  he could run 70 yards for a touchdown.

Every time they're on (and they seem to be on about every 2-3 hours) I want to throw up all over again.

Jasper

August 22nd, 2011 at 8:06 AM ^

Memories of those games make me cringe whenever I hear someone say "We need to get back to the GREAT defenses that Michigan has always had."

Yeah, we do need a @#$%load of improvement on that side of the ball, but let's be careful with our references. May I suggest '97?

jmblue

August 22nd, 2011 at 1:06 AM ^

The 2002 line had an Achilles' heel: no right tackle.  Courtney Morgan, a natural guard, tried to play there and was just overmatched.  The matchup between him and the Iowa DE (Devries?) alone was enough to stymie our whole offense that day.  The Iowa DE was in the backfield all game long and we got killed.

Jasper

August 22nd, 2011 at 8:08 AM ^

Do you mean the guy who washed out at Michigan and transferred to the MAC?

Sure, he did well there (All-MAC, I think), and it would have been nice to have him around, but I don't think he would have made a huge difference at UMich. AFAIK he wasn't drafted this past year.

ST3

August 22nd, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^

I know you said since 1997, but why limit ourselves to the recent past? The '90 O-Line won the MVP for the '91 Gator Bowl. They had up to that point, the best tackle, guard, and center in my lifetime (since '70), in Greg Skrepenak, Dean Dingman, and Steve Everitt, respectively.  Check out Skrepenak's Wikipedia page, it's a real eye-opener, once you get past the convicted felon part. Jake Long would rank ahead of Skrepenak, but at the time, Skrepenak was a monster. Steve Hutchinson ranks ahead of Dingman now, but that's mostly because of his time in the NFL. Everitt was the 14th overall pick in the '93 draft. If you want to talk about nasty mean streaks in an O-lineman, watch some film of Steve Everitt.

The other great O-Line that I remember is the '81 line that had All-Americans Big Ed Muransky, Bubba Paris, and Kurt Becker. If I'm not mistaken, that line also had a young Stefan Humphries.

Fredgoblu

August 22nd, 2011 at 7:12 AM ^

I was always fond of the linemen in the early 80's. They were all on the team together in 1980, but I can't remember if they ever all played together...can somebody look it up?
<br>
<br>Becker, Paris, Lilja, Muranski, and Humphries.
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<br>If memory serves me correctly, they each made All-American lists at some point during their career.
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<br>I remember running into Bubba Paris coming out of the store in the South Quad basement in 1980. He quite literally filled the entire door frame.