Grant Newsome, Michigan offensive line having more fun in preparation for upcoming season

Winning three straight Big Ten Championships is fun. Appearing in three consecutive College Football Playoffs is fun. Raising a national championship trophy is definitely fun. An 8-5 season after all of those accomplishments, though, may not be quite as fun. 

After a slow start to the 2024 campaign, the Michigan football team finally found its groove later in the season with wins against Northwestern, Ohio State and Alabama. But in the lows of the season, offensive line coach Grant Newsome definitely felt some of that deflated play translated to his position group’s approach to practice and day-to-day operations. 

It left Newsome and the group coasting — and they weren’t having as much fun.

“It’s natural anytime you go through some adversity, and especially just us coaches, it’s been a while since anyone in that building had lost more than a game in a season.,” Newsome said Monday. “… I always joke, we play a kids game like some of the 6 year olds play out at recess. And obviously, yes, there’s bigger stakes to it. We all understand that, but at the end of the day, you have to have fun playing this. I think there were times last year where I didn’t do a good enough job of just letting them do that.”

Now entering his 11th year with the Wolverines — his fourth as an assistant coach after both playing and serving as a graduate assistant — Newsome especially knows what it’s like to win at Michigan. This offseason, the Wolverines added some key talent to the O-line to compliment some breakout seasons from returners. This culmination of returners and new talent will lead to a healthy mixture of combinations in spring practices to nail a front five by week 1.

So with all the change, Newsome is taking a different approach to spring practices by having fun and compiling all of his experience.

“We all have everyday practice and, yes, we’re obviously going to continue to coach and clean up the mistakes, but just making sure, too, we stay incredibly positive and just have fun,” Newsome said of adjusting practices this spring. “I keep saying that, but kind of have that swagger, have that energy about us. That’s been one of the hallmarks of the Michigan offensive line.”

In addition to Newsome’s approach, two returners on the Wolverines’ offensive line who played and won in many of those high-stakes games — graduates Giovanni El-Hadi and Greg Crippen can help set the tone this offseason. El-Hadi and Crippen were on all three playoff teams and started the majority of games last season.

After only appearing in one game his freshman season in 2021, El-Hadi has played in every game since, including starting every game last season while earning an All-Big Ten honorable mention. Crippen has also played in games throughout the last four seasons with 27 total appearances and eight games as the starting center. 

With their abundance of experience, El-Hadi and Crippen can aid Newsome and his efforts to bring the fun back to the unit.

“We have a little bit younger of a group, but then we do have two older guys who played a lot of football, Greg Crippen and Gio,” Newsome said. “We were looking at the other day, and Gio’s played over 1,000 snaps of college football. You go back and look at our games in 2022 and he’s starting multiple games that year. … So I’ve been happy, encouraged to see those two take on that leadership.”

Beyond Eli-Hadi and Crippen, the return of junior offensive lineman Evan Link will help contribute to the group as he adds 13 games and 11 starts worth of experience from last season. Some of the aforementioned emerging talent highlighting the offensive line during spring practices include former five-star recruit freshman Andrew Babalola, who enrolled early, and redshirt sophomore Brady Norton from Cal Poly — as well as the developing returners sophomore Andrew Sprague and junior Nathan Efobi. 

Even in a relatively young and inexperienced offensive-line room, Newsome and the leaders of the unit, El-Hadi and Crippen, are starting to shift the vibe in spring practices. By bringing the fun back, Newsome and the group look to reignite the spark of Michigan’s winning O-lines of the past.

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