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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At times when covering Michigan football under head coach Jim Harbaugh, it seems like he has an agenda of what he wants to talk about at his press conferences. On Friday, with a week of fall camp in the books, that appeared to be the case again.
That’s often enlightening — it shows what he feels is a strength of the team. And this year, it appears that Harbaugh is giddy about the offensive line.
WolverinesWire asked which freshmen were standing out through the first week, and once Harbaugh got on the topic of the offensive line, he couldn’t stop discussing the unit. In his answer, he shared where the OL stands as of current and just how deep it appears to be at the moment.
“Going back to some of the midyear guys: Greg Crippen continues to be a standout,” Harbaugh said. “I consider him to be in our two-deep. We’re about 10 deep on the offensive line, got a lot of really good players there.
“We could talk about that a little bit or keep talking about some of the freshmen — but since we’re talking about the offensive line, Hayes, Stueber, Zinter (are) exactly where we left spring ball. Those guys are starting. Keegan at left guard and Vastardis at center. Left guard is really being contested by Chuck Filiaga. He’s playing his best football, really playing with his hands inside. Doing a heckuva good job. And then Zinter being able to play center and Stueber could play right guard, Trente Jones has really developed into a fine, fine football player. There’s a lot of options there. Crippen, as I mentioned. Nolan Rumler, playing really good football. And the guy that’s had three really good practices all in a row is Karsen Barnhart. It’s hard to keep him out of the starting lineup.
“So, we’re good. We’ve got some good depth on that offensive line. Sherrone’s doing a heckuva job.”
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The takeaway from Crippen being in the two-deep is that Michigan isn’t necessarily considering players positionally as much as it is trying to get the best players on the field. Crippen is a center straight-away, and yet, the discussions have centered around Vastardis and Zinter playing the position.
We also asked Harbaugh about what players overall have impressed through a week, noting his mention of Karsen Barnhart having had a handful of standout performances, and again, Harbaugh demurred to the offensive line — again likely showing that it’s a group he has full faith in as the season nears.
“Hate to go through them all because you’re gonna miss some guys,” Harbaugh said. “Karsen (Barnhart)’s always been good, he was a starter at times last year. He’s really playing well. I’m addressing that first five (on the offensive line), but come to realize there’s those five that are the best five — realizing it’s a best seven, it’s a best eight. We got 10 that could really go in there. I think I mentioned most of those offensive linemen.
“There’s a lot of guys that are — right now, after week 1, it’s been everybody. Everybody competing, everybody practicing with great energy. Now we’re into week 2 and you get the feeling that if anybody doesn’t they’re gonna get left at the curb, because that’s the way this team’s moving. Starting Week 2 right now.”
We’ll see for sure where the OL stands come Sept. 4 when Michigan hosts Western Michigan for the season opener.
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