Josh Priebe was at a loss for words.
When asked Tuesday whether the No. 10 Michigan football team would prefer to face an easier opponent than No. 3 Texas while it works out the kinks along its offensive line, the graduate offensive lineman declined to pick an answer. Instead, Priebe used his next response to emphasize the O-line’s excitement to fix its problems, no matter who the Wolverines are playing.
“Regardless of things we need to clean up, whatever it may be, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is,” Priebe said. “We’re gonna try to 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 having an opponent like Texas is obviously an exciting challenge and something that we’re gonna fully embrace.”
With a stellar defense like the Longhorns’ coming up next, Michigan urgently needs to get its O-line into lockstep after Week 1 featured some struggles at the position. As the Wolverines’ five starters played their first game together, there was certainly room to improve, particularly in the first half.
Against Fresno State, Michigan attempted to establish the run early on, but had trouble doing so. The Wolverines averaged a measly 2.2 yards per carry in the first half, as the offensive linemen scrambled to find a rhythm with each other. With senior offensive linemen Dominic Giudice and Greg Crippen rotating at center, and three of the other four starters earning their first career start, the line didn’t instantly click — but that wasn’t much of a surprise.
“I hate to say that it’s expected,” Priebe said. “Obviously we want to be as perfect as possible, but nobody’s ever gonna play a perfect game. … For us, it’s about correcting those little things, eliminating those one-man breakdowns, eliminating everything that we can and just playing better together.”
In the second half of Saturday’s season opener, Michigan’s O-line already started to play better as a unit. Even with just two quarters under their belts, the Wolverines still showed marked improvement as they continuously wore down Fresno State’s defense before the run game finally broke through.
Some of the second-half uptick in rushing production could have been due to graduate running back Kalel Mullings getting increased touches, but there was a clear improvement in the trenches as well. As a result, the Wolverines upped their yards per carry to 6.3 in the half, and Mullings broke off consecutive runs of 15 and 21 yards, respectively.
“Towards the end there, we just started to cut it loose,” Priebe said. “… Everyone was playing a little bit more free, and just overall, it felt like having more fun playing the game. … Those pregame nerves, or whatever you want to call it, just seemed like they dissolved at that point.”
Ahead of Michigan’s best nonconference matchup in years, there will likely be pregame nerves for the Wolverines to deal with. Finding a way to make those nerves dissolve earlier against Texas — and ensure it doesn’t take a full half for the O-line to find a groove together — will be paramount to pulling off an upset.
But with pregame nerves comes the pregame excitement that Priebe emphasized, too. And if Michigan’s offensive line can harness that excitement and use it to form a cohesive unit, then it can set itself up to take a big step in the right direction on the biggest stage.
The post Michigan offensive line attempting to work out the kinks ahead of Texas matchup appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
Leave a Reply