Up and down the Michigan football team’s lineup, the turnover from last year’s roster to this year’s has been stark. Dozens of starters either graduated or departed for the NFL, and even several role players elected the same fate.
But nowhere on the Wolverines’ lineup has the shakeup been more apparent than with their offensive line. With seven total departures, including all of last year’s starters now gone, the crucially important position group has undergone a makeover. And a key component in remaking that group and maintaining the prowess it demonstrated over the past three years has been senior lineman Giovanni El-Hadi, who has been confirmed as Michigan’s starting right guard.
Asked about El-Hadi, Michigan offensive line coach Grant Newsome stated that the three year backup’s promotion has been a long time coming.
“At 95-97% of programs across the country, he is a three-year starter and is probably in the NFL already,” Newsome said Wednesday. “I think it’s a credit to him and his mentality, being patient but not being complacent. Going out and competing and winning the starting job.”
Though El-Hadi enters this season with some sporadic starting experience during his sophomore year, this campaign will mark his first time fully in the limelight. For his first three seasons in Ann Arbor, despite being a four-star, top-100 recruit coming out of high school, El-Hadi had to spend most of his time behind linemen like Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan who are now in the pros.
So while El-Hadi hasn’t started, he isn’t a green prospect, and he’s used his vantage point as someone who has waited his turn to step into a commanding leadership role.
“I want to be a leader for the O-line,” El-Hadi said Aug. 9. “I’m giving it my all every day. I trusted in the process this long, I trusted in God this long. It’s my time. I’m going out there to dominate.”
That leadership is something that Newsome and Michigan coach Sherrone Moore have noticed. With a younger, less experienced offensive line that is still in flux, the Wolverines needed someone to step into a more vocal role. And so far, El-Hadi has impressed.
But more than just shifting into a vocal leadership role, El-Hadi’s position has actually changed slightly from the past three years to this one. While he played right guard in high school, El-Hadi spent the first three years of his collegiate career at left guard, so his transition this season took a little bit of extra work.
“I had to get my right side back into action,” El-Hadi said Monday. “Just training my right side more, and everything else. I lost a lot of baby fat you would say and just built it into muscle. I’m getting my speed, my power, my strength, everything better.”
And Moore has taken note of his offseason work.
“Another guy that jumps out is Gio,” Moore said Aug. 13. “I mean, he’s changed his body, and I think that being behind Keegan and Zinter the past couple of years, he’s really done a good job of learning. You know we say ‘watch, emulate and surpass,’ and that’s what he’s trying to do.”
If Moore’s praises ring true and El-Hadi, having learned from pros like Zinter and Keegan, is able to somehow live up to or even surpass them — Michigan’s offensive line will be drastically better because of it. El-Hadi and the linemen who surround him on Saturday will be undertaking the project of rebuilding the Wolverines’ dynamic offensive line.
Monday, Newsome said that the offensive line is the “most important position group of any football team,” and having waited his turn, emulated those who preceded him and turned himself into a vocal leader, Gio El-Hadi is looking to be a major force within that group.
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