ANN ARBOR — While progress along the Michigan football team’s offensive line could surely be measured quantitatively, the last 18 months under position coach Ed Warinner have resulted in development.
And we’re not talking one or two guys here. There have been several.
Redshirt freshman Jalen Mayfield is in a position to start at right tackle in Michigan’s season opener Aug. 31 vs. Middle Tennessee State, a storyline that has been well-documented in recent weeks. He was considered one of “six starters” the Wolverines had up front.
That is not by accident, either: Mayfield has bulked up (he’s listed at 6-foot-5 and 319 pounds now) and flashed high-upside ability to those around him.
“Jalen’s a quick-twitch, athletic guy,” starting left tackle Jon Runyan, Jr., said last week. “When he gets in a bad position, he can escape that using his feet and his hands — and he’s got good eyes. He’s put on a lot of weight this offseason and you can really tell. He’s looking really good.”
But behind him, that next group of players, is where Warinner and the staff have worked their magic. Redshirt freshman Ryan Hayes, who played tight end and defensive end in high school, has spent the last 18 months converting to offensive tackle.
He is now solidly the backup on the left side, and with Andrew Stueber out indefinitely with a leg injury, and moves up as the next best available tackle for Michigan.
“Ryan Hayes has the talent," Warinner said. “Talent and effort are there, so it’s one of the other things: Time on task or he doesn’t understand and hasn’t been coached well enough to understand what he’s doing. Sometimes if a guy’s struggling, we re-teach the whole thing and then we make sure we give him plenty of time on task, and then it comes.”
That apparently worked for Joel Honigford, who spent his first two seasons at Michigan working at right guard. Warinner said he was so comfortable with the strides Andrew Vastardis has made at guard this offseason he opted to move Honigford, a redshirt sophomore, out to right tackle after Stueber’s injury.
A year ago, Warinner admits, that would have not been an option.
“When I first got here (last year), I tried him out there and he struggled in pass-protection,” Warinner said. “Now he’s over a year working that and some of his fundamentals that we were able to develop with him, (and) he’s looked really good out there. That was the piece that kept him from playing tackle a year ago.”
For perhaps the first time in the Jim Harbaugh era, Michigan has a stocked offensive line, two-deep and all. Redshirt sophomore Chuck Filiaga is the backup left guard and Stephen Spanellis, a fifth-year senior, is the backup center.
Warinner also speaks proudly of the six offensive linemen he welcomed in as part of the 2019 recruiting class. He says freshmen tackles Karsen Barnhart (Paw Paw), Trevor Keegan and Trente Jones “all could be factors this year.”
And there’s the rest of the starters, of course: Four players are back from a group that cut the number of sacks allowed in 2018 by more than a third (23, compared to 36 in 2017) and tackles for loss by more than a quarter (60, compared to 83).
There’s a feeling internally that Michigan’s offensive line can take another step in 2019, with the goal of becoming one of the best in the Big Ten. What’s been the difference?
“It starts with the coaches and culture of the room,” said Ben Bredeson, a two-year starter at left guard and now two-time captain.
"Coach Warinner and the offensive line staff do a great job of developing the guys. He’s out there with us all the time, and he’s very particular. We’ve set a culture in the offensive line room of perfection and not getting on each other, but being critical of each other and working with one another so we can all be the best we can be.
“I think over time it’s paid dividends for us. I think it helped us a lot in spring ball, and it’s helping us in fall camp.”
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