Tag: Josh Priebe

Michigan football OL decries Week 1 struggles as jitters, ‘easily correctable’

Here’s hoping those mistakes are all corrected by Saturday. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For the past three years, the Michigan football offensive line has been dominant, twice earning the Joe Moore Award given to the best OL in college football. But in Week 1 against Fresno State, the line hardly looked like the best in the country, let alone in the conference.

With Texas up next, things have to change in a hurry. And one prominent Michigan lineman believes that it will.

Harkening back to what head coach Sherrone Moore said at his Monday press conference, senior left guard Josh Priebe said that it was usually only one of five making a small mistake that caused some breakdowns, and that all of that should be fixed quite quickly — if not by next week, as the season rolls along.

“Easily correctable — easy to correct,” Priebe said. “And I think we played pretty physical. And I think as the season goes along, we’re only gonna get closer as an offense and as an offensive line, and just continue to improve each week and play better together.”

Despite being a transfer from Northwestern, Priebe has come in as one of the best linemen on an O-line that’s had a lot of wholesale changes from a year ago. In his first taste of playing in a winged helmet, Priebe says that he likes where the line is in its stage of development and cohesion.

But it wasn’t just mistaking the simple things. Part of the issue on Saturday was that many of these players were making their first start, or in the case of center Dominick Giudice and right tackle Evan Link, really getting their first taste of playing time. Once they settled in late in the game, then the line starting looking like vintage Michigan.

“Honestly, overall, I thought it was pretty good,” Priebe said. “Our communication overall, there wasn’t really anything where there wasn’t a whole lot of missed assignments, stuff like that. So a lot of stuff was just some one-man breakdowns and, like I said, just some technique stuff that through practice can be easily corrected. And certainly, you know, nothing that we’re super concerned about.

“I think, too, just like for a lot of guys, and even myself just playing my first game here, getting that kind of those first game jitters out, and certainly, once you get rolling the season here, I think why that stuff’s going to be eliminated.”

Gravity of Texas game forcing Michigan football to hone in

It’s Michigan vs. everybody! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There’s a certain gravity to Saturday’s Michigan game against Texas that has everyone buzzing. There hasn’t been a nonconference, non-bowl game as big as this for the Wolverines in 30 years. And even though the maize and blue weren’t terribly sharp in Week 1 in the 30-10 win over Fresno State, the team is ready for the challenge.

Most of the team has experienced big games as the Wolverines just won the national championship after having beaten Ohio State, Alabama, and Washington late in the year, but for transfer left guard Josh Priebe — who came aboard from Northwestern — this is the biggest game he’s played in to date. Before this, it was the 2020 Big Ten Championship Game.

But Priebe says that the team is ready and no matter what struggles the offense may have had in Week 1, they’ll correct the mistakes and will put forth their best against the Longhorns.

“Anytime you can play an opponent like this, everyone’s gonna be excited about it,” Priebe said. “And I think, regardless of things we need to clean up, whatever it may be, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. We’re gonna try and fix those things regardless. And we’re gonna have the same urgency surrounding what we need to fix and what we need to improve. And I think having an opponent like Texas is obviously an exciting challenge and something that we’re going to fully embrace.”

Texas isn’t just the favorite in the sportsbooks, but it’s unlikely that any analysts will choose the Wolverines to win on Saturday. Given how well Michigan plays with a chip on its shoulder, senior defensive tackle Rayshuan Benny says that let everyone talk — the maize and blue will do their talking with their play on the field.

“We see the media — everything,” Benny said. “Everybody has their own perspective on us and the team, but we got our own perspective, and we believe in ourselves. That’s all that matters.”

For Priebe, he says that the most important thing is that Michigan focuses on the task at hand, doesn’t make the game too big, and that the team plays its brand of football on Saturday. If they do that, everything will take care of itself.

“Certainly everyone in the building, understands the weight of this game and how serious everyone’s taking it,” Priebe said. “And I think nobody takes that lightly. But I think at the same time trying to eliminate all the outside distractions, all the kind of buzz or extra pressure of the game, I think just investing that time and energy into prepping and preparing for Texas, and it’s just kind of everyone’s focus right now.”

Michigan and Texas will kick off at noon EDT on Saturday with the game broadcast nationally on Fox.

Two Michigan football players make ESPN 2024 preseason ‘All-Transfer Team’

Both of these guys are extremely underrated. #GoBlue

Last year, there was a little hype with Michigan football given both the team it already had and the transfers it brought in. This year, not many outside of Ann Arbor are talking about either.

The Wolverines have a solid cast of characters returning from last season’s national championship team and they were very selective when it came to supplementing with transfers. The first two that joined the team, however, are the ones who are poised to make the most noise in 2024, ESPN says.

ESPN put out its 2024 preseason all-transfer team (subscription required) and despite not having a lot of hype behind Michigan’s additions, two players did make the cut.

The first one listed was the first to join the team back in December in left guard Josh Priebe. Described internally perhaps as the best offensive lineman (which says a lot), Priebe was described by Grant Newsome on Wednesday as having a similar impact to that of center Olu Oluwatimi joining the team in 2022.

OG: Josh Priebe, Michigan (via Northwestern)

The Wolverines inked only two players out of the portal in December during their run to the national championships, but it sure looks like both will be hits. Priebe, a 6-foot-5, 306-pound grad transfer from Northwestern, brings Big Ten experience with his 28 career starts and was a team captain for the Wildcats. Sherrone Moore has had a nice track record of finding O-line transfers capable of competing at a high level for Michigan, and it looks like Priebe will be a steadying force at guard for a new-look line.

The other is someone who’s been suddenly getting a ton of hype, and it’s emanating from the practice outward.

There’s perhaps no player who is being talked about more these days in Ann Arbor than that of Jaishawn Barham, whose penchant for hitting amid his physical prowess has the coaches salivating and opposing players trembling.

LB: Jaishawn Barham, Michigan (via Maryland)

The Wolverines’ hit rate on the transfers they brought in last year for their national title run proved to be extremely high. Barham is already looking like another win for them. The 6-foot-3, 248-pound linebacker comes in with two seasons of Big Ten starting experience and recorded 98 tackles, 28 pressures, 9.5 TFLs and 7 sacks at Maryland, earning Freshman All-America honors in 2022.

Though on the other side of the ball as a coach, Newsome proclaimed on Wednesday that Barham might be the best linebacker that Michigan has had due to both his capability along with his size.

Both players will start at their respective positions and should be high-impact players. And though they don’t have the same name recognition as a Quinshon Judkins, a Dillon Gabriel, or an Isaiah Bond, both should be huge for the Wolverines and their chances of success in 2024.

Michigan football physicality in practice helping continue winning culture

When practice is harder than the games, it means a team is championship-caliber. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In order for Michigan football to become what Michigan football had long been understood as, the culture had to change. The intensity in practice had to change. Everything had to change.

And in 2021, everything did.

The accolades attained during the Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller, and Lloyd Carr years had washed away. And even in the early Jim Harbaugh years, there were similarities to the Wolverines teams of old, but they still weren’t exactly on the same par.

That’s because there was one thing missing: games seeming to be easier than practice.

Such a sentiment was common for the maize and blue teams in the 1980s and 1990s, and started to wane in the latter yeas of the 2000s. It started to return when Harbaugh took over, but it didn’t result in championships. Now, with three Big Ten championships and a national championship under their belts, the Wolverines are finding games easier because they’re facing such fierce competition on a daily basis.

“In practice, no matter what group’s out there — ones, twos, threes — we expect no drop-off, so everything should look the same,” senior edge rusher TJ Guy said. “And (practicing) is probably harder than the games because a lot of the mental aspect that goes into practice, coming here every day, practicing every day. So building that callus mentally and physically — you can’t not get ready with that grind every day.”

The mentality shift came when the Wolverines decided the best course of action was to be player-led and become the toughest, most physical team they could be. The emergence of the ‘Beat Ohio’ drill coincided with the beginning of what ended up being a three-game winning streak against the Buckeyes.

Now there’s a ‘Quest for Atlanta’ drill — Atlanta being where the national championship game will be held this year — which expands the toughness drills from being 7-on-7 or 9-on-7 to 11-on-11.

The physicality that the maize and blue are playing with continues to ramp up, and that’s what continues to make Michigan better.

“Michigan’s always iron sharpens iron, good guys go against good guys,” senior fullback Max Bredeson said. “And we have the classic ‘Beat Ohio’ drill — that’s a staple of Michigan football. The ‘Quest for Atlanta’ drill — same thing.

“Just physical practices, ones-on-ones. When you’re practicing against guys who could be better than the guys who you play during the season, it just helps everyone get better. So I’d say it’s still as physical as it’s ever been.”

When it comes to the culture and health of the program, no one could give a better report than an outsider, someone who knows what it takes to play college football but who is seeing what is happening in Ann Arbor for the first time. Such is the case for Northwestern transfer Josh Priebe.

Priebe was a standout on an emerging Wildcats offensive line before he decided to make an intra-Big Ten move. And now that he’s a Wolverine, though he’s still months away from playing in a real game, he knows that he’s massively improved given the competition he’s faced in spring ball.

“First off going against guys like Mason Graham and K.G. — there’s no way that’s not going to make you better,” Priebe said. “And I have had a decent amount of experience playing in the conference, and I haven’t gone against guys with that level and that ability.

“Sometimes you play teams where there’s one guy who’s a really good player, but when you have both of those guys, you’re gonna be going against them every single time. I think that level of competition, it forces you to get better. And I think that’s what’s so been so great about Michigan so far is that you just develop it, guys develop at such a higher rate because of the level of competition and just the overall culture surrounding that.”

Michigan football gets another transfer portal commitment from in-conference

A #Michigan native coming home. #GoBlue

The maize and blue haven’t been quite as active in the transfer portal this cycle as the last, but thus far, they’ve been snipers.

First, it was stealing away Maryland star defensive player in second-year starting linebacker Jaishawn Barham — someone who had given the Wolverines fits the past two years. Now, Michigan looked into the other division to take a starting player from Northwestern.

The Wolverines just got a commitment from Northwestern guard Josh Priebe, a former three-star prospect from Edwardsburg, Michigan, a town in the southwest of the state. Priebe will be entering his fifth year and started the previous three.

Priebe has one year of eligibility remaining. He graded out in the low 60s across offense, pass blocking and run blocking in 2023 according to PFF. In 2020, he had offers from Michigan football, Ohio State, Auburn, Tennessee, MSU, Miami and more.

Priebe will likely take the guard spot that will not be occupied by Giovanni El-Hadi, who has filled in at times on the left side over the past few years when Trevor Keegan was injured.