Tag: Ed Warinner

Former Michigan OL coach Ed Warinner nearing new job

According to The Athletic, Michigan football’s successful offensive line coach is heading down to Boca Raton for a new role.

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It was something of a shock this offseason to see Michigan football offensive line coach Ed Warinner not retained on the coaching staff.

Jim Harbaugh made a lot of bold moves this offseason, including dismissing cornerbacks coach Mike Zordich, who has a solid track record at the position. But Warinner seemed like he was somewhat untouchable. However, he was let go with Sherrone Moore shifting over from tight ends to oversee the OL.

However, Warinner is zeroing in on a new opportunity, and it’s one led by another former Harbaugh assistant. According to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Willie Taggart and the Florida Atlantic Owls are honing in on Warinner as their new run game coordinator.

Warinner spent three seasons as Michigan football’s offensive line coach, coming aboard after one year at Minnesota after several at Ohio State. All five of his starting linemen from the 2019 team have either been drafted into the NFL, or will be this year.

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Report: Michigan adds new OL coach, moving on from veteran assistant

In something of a shock, Michigan football has parted ways with offensive line coach Ed Warinner.

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It’s been no secret that Michigan football, after Jim Harbaugh signed his contract extension earlier this month, has been revamping the coaching staff in a big way.

The first announcement came in the form of former Wolverines all-time leading rusher Mike Hart returning to Ann Arbor to coach running backs after spending the past four seasons doing so at Indiana. Then, Mike Macdonald was announced as the new defensive coordinator after having spent seven years with the Baltimore Ravens. The rest of the defensive staff was proclaimed this week, with the retention of defensive line coach Shaun Nua and linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, and the additions of safeties coach George Helow and cornerbacks coach/co-defensive coordinator Maurice Linguist.

Everything appeared to be set, but it turns out the tinkering wasn’t yet over.

Ed Warinner, the three-year Wolverines offensive line coach who had turned around the unit after some moribund years from 2015-17, was seemingly safe. However, in the world of college football — especially after a 2-4 campaign — there were no sacred cows, as Michigan football appears ready to part ways with the longtime offensive line coach. The Wolverines will be hiring former receiver Ron Bellamy, whose West Bloomfield program just won a state championship.

Given the turnaround of the offensive line unit, Warinner had become something of a fan favorite, with many maize and blue fans saying they’d welcome a lifetime contract for the 36-year coaching veteran.

A Mount Union graduate, Warinner spent the bulk of his coaching career at Army, where he coached from 1987-99. He’s also coached at Michigan State, had multiple stints at Kansas, spent one year at Illinois, had two years at Notre Dame, won a national championship at Ohio State, and had one year at Minnesota.

For now, the staff is as mentioned above, with Jay Harbaugh reportedly coaching special teams. There’s no official word as of yet whether or not tight ends coach Sherrone Moore has been retained at this point.

Update: Warinner may still be on staff, but not in his current role. Stay tuned.

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Ed Warinner updates OL injury status ahead of Penn State

Could Michigan football get one or both of its injured offensive tackles back vs. Penn State?

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Could Michigan get something of a boost this week against Penn State up front?

Both offensive tackles in Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes have missed from the end of the Michigan State game to last week’s contest against Rutgers. While Michigan offensive line coach Ed Warinner wouldn’t say whether or not either would play this weekend against Penn State, he did say that both players have, at least, been cleared to practice and have been on the field working to get back this week.

“They’re both practicing, so we’re just working, seeing how quickly they can come back,” Warinner said. “They’re both out there and doing practice reps, so it’s good to see them out there. I won’t say anything other than that, but they are not in the training room during practice. They are on the field in gear working out and we’re moving them along. They want to get back as quickly as they can, so we’ll see when that is. Both or one might be able Saturday.”

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But Mayfield and Hayes aren’t the only two offensive linemen who have missed time. This past week against Rutgers, center Andrew Vastardis also was a no-go, and was replaced by Zach Carpenter, a second-year player, at center in Piscataway.

Warinner didn’t have as firm an update on him — though he wasn’t responding to a direct question about his availability, as he was with Mayfield and Hayes — but said he’s making progress.

“We’ll see where Vastardis is as he works his way back,” Warinner said. “He’s working hard to get back, too. So go from there.”

The offensive line already was coming in as a young unit, with Mayfield the sole returning starter from 2019. Though Hayes and guard/tackle Andrew Stueber both had starting experience, it was minimal — two games a piece — heading into 2020.

With Mayfield, Hayes and Vastardis out, the line had been completely reshuffled, with second-year tackle Karsen Barnhart, fourth-year guard Chuck Filiaga, second-year center Zach Carpenter, first-year guard Zak Zinter and the aforementioned Stueber playing against the Scarlet Knights from left to right.

It’s been a difficult transition, Warinner notes, given the massive, wholesale changes up front, these aren’t excuses — they’re facts. The Wolverines are massively inexperienced up front, and could have used spring ball and traditional fall camp more than most — certainly more than any unit on the team.

Still, the group is adjusting and learning on the fly, especially given the relative youth of the offensive line.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Warinner said. “We lost four starters last year and three this year. So we’re down seven starters since the Alabama game. Pretty good – I’m pretty proud of the guys how they’re sticking together and working.”

Those players up front will have some strong competition lined up across from them in the form of the Penn State front seven, as the Nittany Lions come to The Big House on Saturday at noon EST.

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Fixing Michigan’s offensive line is the key for a 2020 turnaround

No unit on the offense has struggled more for Michigan football than the offensive line. If they can turn it around, the season can change.

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It’s year two under the speed in space offense run by Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. Last year it showed flashes of what it could be, but it wasn’t up to par. With another year of learning, this offense has a chance to put up points week in and week out. There’s just one problem with that so far this season, and it’s the offensive line.

The offensive line was known to be taking a backseat in 2020. Despite having a great offensive line coach in Ed Warinner, it wasn’t looking well for the group. With four new starters among the line, it was well documented that this unit wouldn’t be as good as they were the year before.

Against Minnesota, that seemed to be gibberish. The offensive line kept Milton up almost all night with just allowing one sack, and it was on the first series of the game. The ground game was able to churn out yards and get into the endzone, finishing with 256 yards and five touchdowns on 31 carries.

The unit seemed like it wouldn’t be a problem, like many expected. Then came the next game against Michigan State. Michigan was getting no push from its lineman and the ground game that worked well the week before was stagnant and not itself. The team was only able to get 152 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries. So with more carries, Michigan got over 100 fewer yards and two fewer scores. What hurt the team the most that game was losing starting right tackle, Jalen Mayfield.

This week against Indiana, Warinner needed to show that the depth he had at his positions were stout. The team wouldn’t see Mayfield play against Indiana, but they also wouldn’t see starting left tackle Ryan Hayes either, so now both starting tackles are injured for the Wolverines.

The offensive line would see a dramatic shift as Karsen Barnhart would start at left tackle. Zak Zinter would start at left guard. Andrew Vastardis would remain at center, while Chuck Filiaga would flip from left to right guard, and Andrew Stueber would move from right guard to right tackle. Stuber played right tackle before the 2020 season, so luckily, he’s had experience before at that position.

Heading into the matchup today, despite being weakened at the position, Michigan had a chance to run all around the Hoosiers defense. Against Penn State, Indiana allowed 250 yards and two touchdowns on 52 carries. The week after against Rutgers, they allowed 121 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries. If you average those two up, Indiana allowed an average of 185.5 yards per game and an average of 4.4 yards per carry.

Today against Michigan, Indiana eradicated the Wolverines running game. Michigan was only able to get a measly 13 yards on 18 carries. That’s .72 yards per carry. Those numbers are unheard of when talking about Michigan football. Michigan is known for being a smashmouth running team that will make you pay for everything in the trenches. The trenches today for the Wolverines ran dry.

The theme of a poor offensive line continues to define the offense this season. When Michigan isn’t able to run the football well, the offense takes a hit. Despite the speed in space type of offense Gattis runs, it still needs the running game to be relevant because if it dies, so does the offense. In both losses, Michigan was not able to get the ball moving on the ground. They struggled with that against Michigan State and really showed its struggles against Indiana.

These teams aren’t the best rushing defenses in the country, either. Indiana allowed 250 yards on opening week, while the Spartans allowed 226 against Iowa today. It’s plain and simple. If Michigan can’t run the football well, they lose the game. What dictates whether the running game can work? The offensive line.

Michigan has plenty of weapons in the backfield with Hassan Haskins, Zach Charbonnet, the returning Chris Evans, and the freshman, Blake Corum. These players are good at what they do, and when they are asked to try and run through a wall of defenders because the offensive line doesn’t have any holes for them to run through, that is a lot to ask out of them.

Warinner needs to figure out what he can do with his guys. Injuries have certainly changed up the game for him, but if he can figure out what issues they are dealing with, the offense can do what it did against Minnesota two weeks ago. With the defense having issues, Michigan’s offense needs to put up points. The offense is the biggest issue overall for the team in 2020.

Sure, you can point at the defense and give them the blame, but if Michigan can put up points, drive after drive, and its defense can make one more stop, they win, easy as that. College football is moving away from its low scoring, defensive shutouts, and more towards the high-scoring action-packed games. Defenses don’t win you championships anymore in college; offenses do. If Michigan can figure out what to do with the offensive line and help the running game become relevant again, then this team has a chance to turn this around possibly.

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Where do Trente Jones and Nolan Rumler stand in their development?

The Michigan football offensive line coach shares where the two second-year players are in their development.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — This offseason, we’ve heard about all sorts of up-and-coming offensive linemen for Michigan.

On Monday, head coach Jim Harbaugh noted that second-year tackle Karsen Barnhart is essentially a starter, while on Wednesday, offensive line coach Ed Warinner shared that Trevor Keegan, Zach Carpenter, Reece Atteberry and Zak Zinter have gotten time with the ones before being relegated to the twos.

But what does that mean for some of the other players entering their second-year who we haven’t heard much about? Namely former four-stars Trente Jones and Nolan Rumler?

Hailing from southern powerhouse Loganville (GA) Grayson, Jones came to Ann Arbor rated the No. 108 recruit in the 2019 class, per the 247Sports Composite. Yet, he hasn’t gotten the mentions of the others, despite being rated higher than all of them.

Warinner shared where Jones is as far as his development, noting that he has superstar potential once he learns to be more consistent on a day-to-day basis.

“Trente is running with the twos and he’s really come a long way,” Warinner said. “His trajectory – the biggest thing we tell Trente is he has the ability, he plays fast – consistency. When he becomes the same guy every day, holy cow! I think we’ll have something there. But he’ll have days where he has wow days and other days, not so good. So we’re really trying to develop consistency. But you can see it’s in him. And it’s just a matter of coming in mentally and being consistent physically.

“He’s on a good trajectory. For a redshirt freshman, he’s right where most redshirt freshmen are. Kinda in the wings, kind of – not having a spring ball hurt him. It would have been fantastic for him to have a spring. But I see his future is still glowing brightly.”

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Rumler’s lack of press has had Michigan football fans wondering aloud what’s happened in his development.

Rated No. 174 overall in the 2019 247Sports Composite, Rumler came in as a guard, but many had him pegged as the future starting center. With Cesar Ruiz having moved on, it’s Zach Carpenter in his class who ended up in the middle, but Rumler hadn’t gotten any mention as someone contending for a guard spot.

Warinner says that he’s still on track, but has been somewhat hampered with injuries — especially as of late.

“Nolan was running and doing a lot of good things with the twos, but then he’s had a couple little injuries here that have set him back,” “He’s been slowed down just a little bit. But nothing permanent. He’s gonna start working into practice, but last week and this week, he hasn’t practiced much. Minor things have kind of slowed him.

“He’s doing fine, too. He would have a lot of quality reps with the twos in camp at guard, playing guard, playing right guard. His time will come, too. His time will come.”

For both, Warinner reiterated that the absence of spring ball did neither any favors, but it appears they’ll be factors down the road once they continue to progress in the system.

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Former Minnesota asst. Ed Warinner taking Gophers ‘very, very seriously’

With the Golden Gophers on deck, Michigan football OL coach Ed Warinner recalls his one year in Minneapolis while looking ahead to Saturday.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The last time that Ed Warinner was involved in a battle for The Little Brown Jug, he was on the losing side. Now with his opposition from 2017, he hopes that trend doesn’t continue.

Michigan poached Warinner — the former Ohio State co-offensive coordinator — away from P.J. Fleck’s fledgling staff in Minneapolis just after his first year. Now the two teams will meet for the first time since that night game in Ann Arbor, but this time with higher stakes, as a ranked-on-ranked matchup for the Big Ten season opener.

On Wednesday, Warinner recounted what it was like being on the other side of this rivalry, and where he’s seen the program grow since leaving for Ann Arbor.

“I went there and worked there P.J.’s first year,” Warinner said. “I enjoyed being in his program. He’s very organized and he’s very good at communicating what his objectives are to the team and how he wants to run his program. He has a real clear vision of how he wants to do that. Obviously, how he wanted to build his program, it came to fruition Year Three there, last year with a great year, a great finish to the season.

“Everything about it for me was positive. Now we’re on the other side. And I’m looking forward to going back up there, and I enjoyed Minneapolis that year and I enjoyed being there. I still have a lot of friends on the staff. Really good people that I’m still close to up there. In this particular game, we’ve gotta get after each other and see if we can come out on top.

“But I think he’s doing a fantastic job with the program and how to manage the program in that environment – the university, in the Twin Cities with five pro teams in that town. He’s done an outstanding job in three years of building that thing up.”

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Saturday will be a different animal, however.

The last meeting between the programs featured two unranked teams, whereas this one will be in primetime and broadcast nationally on ABC. ESPN College GameDay is in town for the pregame show, putting even more national attention on the game.

Warinner feels good about where the Wolverines are at the moment, but still — given the odd offseason due to the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no telling precisely where Michigan is until it faces off against a team wearing a different uniform.

“The last time, when I was at Minnesota the one year, we came here to The Big House and played,” Warinner said. “It was a battle for awhile, then Michigan pulled away and controlled the game. I know we haven’t played since. I think prior to that, there were a few close games in there, I believe.

“Obviously, they’ve built the program up. They’re a good team, a really good team. Everybody on their schedule last year, they were capable of beating. They’re breaking out a new team the same as us – no preseason, no non-conference opponents. We all think we know what we have – we don’t know what we have until we play this game. We think we know what we have. I’m sure they’re well-prepared, I’m sure they’ve recruited well, I’m sure they’re ready to go just as we are. I think it’s one of those games – it’s gonna be a typical Big Ten game. We’ve gotta go up there, control the line of scrimmage, take care of the football and create some big plays when we can. Play physical, play smart and I’m sure they’ll try to do the same thing – play great defense, stop the run on defense, all those things. That’s all coachspeak, but I really think that it’s a tight game going in. Somebody will separate themselves as this thing plays out, I think.”

Nonetheless, it can be assured that the Gophers have the Wolverines attention.

There have been times that Michigan has appeared to play down to the competition, but this won’t be one of those times. Sure, they’re both evenly ranked, but the Wolverines are certainly more talented. According the the 247Sports Team Talent Composite, Michigan is ranked No. 18 compared to Minnesota at No. 59.

Still, the Gophers were No. 46 a year ago and took down No. 13 Auburn in the Outback Bowl.

“We are taking them very, very seriously – very seriously,” Warinner said. “This is not a pre-Big Ten – this is a Big Ten, GameDay is there. The whole country thinks this is a big game. We’ve always thought that. We know – we watched Minnesota beat Auburn the same day we played Alabama. But we know what they can do.”

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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.”

In-state 2021 OT Caleb Tiernan puts Michigan in top four

Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Northwestern are the programs that remain in Country Day four-star offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan.

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Four teams are left in play for Livonia (Mich.) Detroit Country Day 2021 three-star offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan. All of the programs are from the Big Ten.

Tiernan included Michigan, along with Ohio State, Penn State and Northwestern. He has 17 offers.

“Michigan made the list because it’s an amazing program that has everything you could want in a school – great coaches, great education, and great players,” Tiernan told WolverinesWire.

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Michigan possesses all five 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions. His primary recruiter from the Wolverines is offensive line coach Ed Warinner.

The 6-foot-7, 265-pound offensive lineman is ranked No. 368 in the nation, No. 32 at the tackle position and No. 11 in Michigan, according to 247Sports composite.

Coach Jim Harbaugh has two commits in the 2021 class – La Grange Park (Ill.) Nazareth Academy five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy and Sterling Heights (Mich.) Stevenson four-star offensive tackle Giovanni El-Hadi.

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Michigan ‘near the top’ for Detroit Country Day 3-star OT Caleb Tiernan

Detroit Country Day 2021 offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan went to Michigan to watch the basketball team take on Oregon at Crisler Center

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Livonia (Mich.) Detroit Country Day 2021 three-star offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan has Michigan “definitely near the top” in his college recruitment, and a recent trip to Ann Arbor has solidified his interest.

Tiernan went to Michigan to watch the basketball team take on Oregon at Crisler Center Saturday, which ended in a 71-70 overtime loss.

Since it wasn’t a football game, there were fewer recruits. That gave the prospect something similar to a one-on-one experience.

“I think I know everything about Michigan and how it works, so I’m just trying to build connections with the coaches and other commits to see if this is the place,” Tiernan told WolverinesWire.

The 6-foot-7, 265-pound lineman focused on what he was looking for in a football program, spent time with offensive line coach Ed Warinner and offensive line graduate assistant Josh Hendershot.

“More personally and less in a rush,” Tiernan said of his conversations with Warinner and Hendershot. “It was a lot more impacting because if I end up going there, they would be my coaches.”

Specifically speaking his relationship with Warinner, Tiernan said he was a “really nice guy” and showcased his caring attitude for all those on the roster.

Tiernan also had the opportunity to check in with 2021 four-star offensive tackle Giovanni El-Hadi, the 96th-best prospect in the country and a Michigan commit.

El-Hadi was the first in the 2021 class to commit to Michigan, and Tiernan wanted to find out what caused him to pledge so early.

The Sterling Heights (Mich.) Stevenson only had positives words regarding the Wolverines.

“It was the first time I’ve asked a commit about why he chose Michigan,” Tiernan said.

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Following the relaxing yet engaging visit to Michigan, Tiernan trimmed his list to four schools – Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State and Penn State.

Tiernan doesn’t plan to set a commitment date.

“It will probably be whenever,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m going to set a date.”

Ranked as the No. 451 prospect in the country, Tiernan is also No. 47 at offensive tackle and No. 12 in Michigan, according to the 247Sports Composite.

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