Ed Warinner working with depth along Michigan offensive line

Michigan football has a lot to work with up front, even if it’s inexperienced.

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Some say that, entering the 2020 season, Michigan football is too inexperienced along the offensive line to be able to contend. However, that’s something of a misnomer.

Sure, the Wolverines return but one starter from 2019 in Jalen Mayfield, who opted back in after opting out of the season when the Big Ten had planned to postpone 2020 to spring of 2021. But, depending on who wins starting jobs, several others have playing experience, starting or otherwise.

According to PFF, Andrew Stueber started the final two games of the 2018 season — at Ohio State and in the bowl game against Florida — and has played 339 snaps. Ryan Hayes started the first two games of 2019 and has played 265 snaps. Chuck Filiaga has been a reserve and has seen a lot of time on special teams, having contributed 185 snaps thus far. Andrew Vastardis has nearly 100 snaps over the course of his tenure (perhaps more, but PFF doesn’t seem to account for his relief of Cesar Ruiz late in 2019), having seen some time against Ohio State a year ago. Karsen Barnhart played a series in the season opener a year ago.

These are all players who have been in the system and have seen time on the field against an opponent wearing a different jersey. And that’s not even mentioning some other highly thought of players such as Trevor Keegan, Zach Carpenter or Nolan Rumler.

Michigan has options, and given this odd year, offensive line coach Ed Warinner is glad that he has a lot to work with. He spoke with Jon Jansen on MGoBlue TV.

“That’s what you want to have, is a little depth,” Warinner said. “A. For injuries, but then in this year, with what (is) going on with the pandemic, you may lose some guys to that. And you don’t know when that’s gonna happen. And we have enough depth where we shouldn’t get shut down and not be able to participate or play or have a good lineup out there.”

But the biggest thing isn’t just having pieces to work with, it’s having a cohesive unit that can collectively execute the fundamentals.

When Warinner came in back in 2018, it took the maize and blue about four weeks before the offensive line started to really become something of a strength. Before that, it had continued to look like a potential liability, until Warinner’s teachings took ahold.

Michigan gets no warm up games this year, opening the season at Minnesota, in what certainly could be a daunting challenge. The Golden Gophers were something of a middling team at getting to the quarterback in 2019 and in the bottom tier at tackles for loss. Still, with a prolific offense of its own, the Wolverines are going to have to find a way to match Tanner Morgan and Rashod Bateman.

Nonetheless, the good news for the Wolverines, outside of having to name a starting five, there’s some depth at the position. But building a cohesive unit out of stellar individual talent is something that could take some time.

“That’s gonna be one of the most critical things,” Warinner said. “We’ve been rotating the pieces and at some point, we’re gonna have to settle on, ‘These are the guys. This is the O-line,’ and let them play together. Because at some point, you’ve got to get comfortable with your ‘wing man,’ your guy next to you, because you communicate together. The noises and the sounds out of Chuck’s mouth might be different than Trevor’s mouth. It might be different than Hayes, it might be different than Karsen. So how they communicate is their own little world out there.

“I think it takes about two weeks together, and then once the season gets rolling – if you watch the season, probably Week Three or so, we’ll hit our stride up front. But you can tell when you watch film of the end zone and you see them and they all look the same. They’re all taking the same footwork, the same body position, a cohesive, choreographed unit, that’s when you feel really good as an O-line coach. We’re not there yet. I see glimpses of that. That’s what I see – how I know, when I start seeing they all look the same on every play, they start mirroring each other.”

But Michigan, at least, has one position it doesn’t have to worry about.

With Mayfield opting back in, Warinner knows he has something of a star on the right side of the line, and a player who started 13 games in 2019. It’ll still be a process for him to get back to where he needs to be, but he’s been actively participating with the team in the interim.

“Well Jalen had opted out and he’s chosen to come back and he’s working through the process of what he needs to do there,” Warinner told Jansen. “But he’s back on campus, he’s enrolled, he’s going to class – or Zoom class. He’ll be participating with us in meetings and practice. Everything should work out where he’ll be able to get back in there. So we’re excited to have Jalen back. A returning starter who played really well at the end of last year. We’ve just gotta get him back to that same routine. Get him going again. The last time Jalen had pads on was Jan. 1 against Alabama. So we all know that takes awhile. We’ll get him up to speed and get him ready for the first game. I’m excited to do it.”