What Is The Best Offensive Line You Have Seen During Your Michigan Fandom?

Submitted by Santa Clause on

During the WTKA show this morning, the offensive line was brought up in a slightly negative way. I started to think back to when Michigan having a great offensive line was an afterthought, and was basically asumed before any given season started. So my question to the board is, what was the best offensive line you have seen during your time as Michigan fan?

Picture of Steve Hutchinson just for the hell of it:

Image result for steve hutchinson michigan

stephenrjking

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:34 PM ^

Secret: The OL wasn't that good that year. For the season they averaged 3.2 yards per carry, 118 rushing yards per game. That's not great. They weren't able to run particularly well against Alabama, either, but certain other members of the team managed to come back and make up for it.

Ronswanson13

December 2nd, 2016 at 6:52 PM ^

Hutch, Backus, and Jansen. Two 1st rders and all three selected top 37.

Not to totally derail the thread, but I often wonder who was Michigan's best receiving corp? A lot of great duos, but was there ever a better trio in terms of versatility than Braylon, Avant, and Breaston in 04? You literally had everything and all went on to have some success at the next level.

stephenrjking

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:28 PM ^

That was a good corps, as was the '06 group. 

In 1990 we had Desmond Howard and Derrick Alexander. In 1992 Alexander was joined by young Amani Toomer. 1999 had David Terrell, Marcus Knight, and young Marquise Walker. 

Lots to pick from. I would probably take '04 or '06, with Breaston as an excellent third option putting a good crew over the top.

stephenrjking

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:50 PM ^

True. I tend to think of Terrell maturing sooner, while Walker really didn't emerge as a top threat until 2001 when he was the entire offense.

But a quick check of the stats reveals that both Knight and Walker cleared 30 catches that season, while Terrell had 61. So Terrell was indeed the alpha dog, but Walker was a bigger contributor than my memory recalls. Burnishes the reputation of the group as a whole.

 

stephenrjking

December 2nd, 2016 at 11:12 PM ^

McMurtry and Chris Calloway. Yeah, great players. I checked their stats today, they were... less impressive than I remember. 

Which is not a knock on them. It is entirely a function of the changing state of the game, especially the contrast between Bo and the modern era. Their stats don't look impressive because we are used to seeing stats from teams that pass 40 times a game. In their era, they were very good.

RobM_24

December 2nd, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^

97 was good. It didn't matter who ran the ball -- Howard, A-Train, Williams, Floyd -- they all ran well. That's always a sign of a great offensive line.

In reply to by ijohnb

1974

December 2nd, 2016 at 8:55 PM ^

I disagree. It had a once-in-a-generation talent (Jake Long) and a bunch of guys similar to what we have this year (beneficiaries of what amount to lifetime achievement awards from coaches and writers). IIRC no one else got beyond the practice squad level in the NFL. Compare that to the Hutchinson-Backus-Williams-Brandt line.

Wolfman

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:35 PM ^

I watched my first football game on Nov 22, 1969. I had no idea who was on the offensive line, or any other position for that matter. With that being the beginining of my love of Michigan football it didn't take me long to find out. Deirdorf, Mandich, McKennzie, Brandstetter, etc., was a damn fine line with a couple being in the NFL and College Halls of Fame and the others winning conference honors.

 1997,in Lloyd's opinion, wast the best he ever had and inasmuch as the majority came from the defensive line and I think most were drafted he might have a point. DL are generally more athletic than their offensive counterparts so if you have that athletic ability, coupled with the ability to handle the complexity of offensive line assignments, with the pure strength needed, etc., you're going to get a good bunch: Backus, Jansen, Ziemann, Brandt, Frazier. Think they were all drafted. Not sure. 

The one with Cocozzo, Dingman, Dohring, Ellito, Everitt certainly has to be up there. Just too damn many during that almost 40 year period, but Bo's first is certainly not  a bad place to start if you can't think of other units. 

Then, of course, with Bubba Parris being the anchor, whoever surrounded him probably comprised a damn good unit. Just too damn many to declaritively state The Best. 

WindyCityBlue

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:09 PM ^

Also, can someone explain what happened...

...the past 10 years or so with regards to our OL. If we were so committed to having these beastly lines in the past, then what happened? Was it recruiting acumen, changes in the way the game was played, etc?

It seemed RR liked smaller more agile/athletic lineman, but maybe that's because he couldn't recruit well in that area. I dunno, I'm at novice so If anyone can educate me on the philosophy of OL, I would be greatly appreciated.

BlueMaize

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

Combination of a few factors. The last couple years of Carr's tenure weren't great for the OL. Then, as you mentioned, Rich Rod came in with a completely different philosophy. He favored the smaller, more athletic lineman to fit the zone blocking required by the zone read spread offense. Then it took him a while to get players to fit that scheme.

After that you had Hoke who wanted to go back to a traditional manball OL, and the staff did an okay job recruiting, but those type of players don't just come in as freshman and dominate. It takes time and getting coached up. When you go from RR to Hoke with Borges and then Nussmeier, then Harbaugh comes in with Drevno, it's tough to have the consistency needed for the long term development of a unit like the OL.




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1blueeye

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:10 PM ^

Sometimes we look at offensive lines in hind sight after NFL drafts and careers validate what we thought was a good OL. But for performance purposes, the early 90's lines with Steve Everitt and Greg skrepnak were outstanding. The Hutchinson and Backus line was good. I always wonder how great we would have looked if we didn't run offenses coordinated by average offensive coordinators in those early Carr years.




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SugarShane

December 2nd, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^

I dont really see why people are predicting a regression based on our o line graduating 3 players.  They were a very mediocre unit, not bad, but definitely not special.  It's akin to our linebacking corp last year graduating 3 mediocre players--and that unit was better this year