Strain Mounts on Grant Newsome to Elevate Michigan’s Offensive Line

Tucked away close to the top of his prolonged reply to a query concerning early standouts throughout fall camp, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore tossed a bone to the newly constructed mind belief overseeing the offensive line, a place group that grew to become the bedrock of the Wolverines’ renaissance throughout its ultimate few seasons underneath Jim Harbaugh, whose run was punctuated with the 2023 nationwide title.

Moore started by shouting out second-year offensive line coach Grant Newsome, his longtime protégé as a student-assistant, graduate assistant and chief of the tight ends room throughout a six-year interval that started in 2016 when Newsome, a once-promising Michigan offensive sort out, medically retired after badly damaging his proper leg. Newsome was the logical option to take over the offensive line as soon as Moore assumed management of this system after Harbaugh bolted to the NFL. On the time, Newsome’s promotion was considered as nothing greater than the subsequent step in his meteoric rise by means of the teaching occupation, a trajectory lauded again and again by Harbaugh within the previous years.

From there, Moore continued his ode to offensive line tutelage by recognizing everybody else who’d performed a job in what he described as widespread enchancment at that place for the reason that finish of final season, an 8-5 marketing campaign wherein late victories over Ohio State and Alabama salvaged an in any other case forgettable yr. He acknowledged Nick Gilbert, an assistant offensive line coach coming into his second season in that exact function. He talked about John Morookian, one other assistant offensive line coach who’s again in Ann Arbor after two years as a place coach at Charlotte. And he referenced Juan Castillo, the senior assistant offensive line coach who spent 2024 teaching the offensive line at UCLA and has practically three many years of NFL expertise on his résumé, to not point out one season as an analyst for Harbaugh at Michigan.

“They’ve invested a number of time in that group to be actually good,” Moore stated throughout a information convention on Aug. 12. “They usually know the imaginative and prescient. They know what I would like in that O-line. They usually know the way we must always run it as an offensive line. They’ve imprinted [what I want] in that group, and so they’ve turn into nearer this offseason. They’ve labored actually, actually onerous.”

What Moore didn’t say, maybe as a result of it was equal elements implied and understood, was that the rationale Michigan added two extra assistant coaches to its offensive line room, and why everybody related to that place has needed to work so onerous, is as a result of the on-field product final fall got here up in need of this system’s normal. 

The Wolverines completed tied for 73rd nationally in dashing at 157.2 yards per recreation, their lowest common for a full season since 2019. They completed tied for fifty fifth in tackles for loss allowed with 66, a rise of 18 from the yr prior and practically double what Michigan yielded in 2021, when its miniscule tally of 34 was the bottom within the nation. Their common of seven.7 quarterback pressures per recreation surrendered was the group’s highest mark since permitting 8.3 per recreation in 2021. All informed, the unsavory efficiency compelled Newsome, who turned 28 earlier this yr, to confront what was arguably his first actual second of adversity since coming into the teaching occupation.

Such a obvious want for enchancment alongside the offensive line would have existed no matter whom the Wolverines trot out at quarterback this fall following the revolving-door they endured final season. However the arrival of five-star phenom Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 total prospect within the nation, and his seemingly impending choice as Michigan’s starter, has solely intensified the microscope hovering over Newsome this fall, given the significance of such a well-compensated asset. And when this system’s different marquee freshman — five-star offensive sort out Andrew Babalola, a participant Moore stated was neck and neck within the competitors to start out at left sort out — suffered what many have reported to be a season-ending knee damage on Aug. 18, the stress heaped on Newsome and his cadre of assistants is now compounding. 

“We notice that we weren’t ok final yr as a staff,” Newsome stated in a information convention on Aug. 6. “And as an offensive line, it’s important to lead the staff. That’s the expectation right here. That’s the way in which it’s been right here. Each nice Michigan staff, the offensive line has led the staff. That’s the way it must be. And so [it’s about] embracing that. You possibly can view it as a problem and type of shrink back from it, or you possibly can view it as a chance.”

Grant Newsome through the third quarter of the Michigan soccer spring recreation. (Photograph by Jaime Crawford/Getty Photos)

Michigan’s offensive line brings again three starters in middle Greg Crippen, guard Giovanni El-Hadi and offensive sort out Evan Hyperlink, although all of these returns include asterisks. Crippen, now a graduate pupil, cut up snaps with fellow middle Dominick Giudice for a lot of final season earlier than the latter transferred to Missouri over the winter. El-Hadi and Hyperlink, in the meantime, are each flipping from the proper aspect of the road to the left with new, inexperienced faces nonetheless battling to fill their outdated spots. Moore stated sophomore Andrew Sprague, who logged simply 73 snaps in 2024, practically all of which got here within the ReliaQuest Bowl in opposition to Alabama, is predicted to emerge at proper sort out, whereas a four-man competitors continues to unspool at proper guard.

The world of biggest concern is left sort out, the place Hyperlink had been contending with a legit surge from Babalola, the Wolverines’ highest-ranked offensive line signee at school historical past. Hyperlink, who was a first-time starter final fall, had 30 of the staff’s quarterback pressures charged to him in a marketing campaign when no different Michigan participant exceeded 10, in line with Professional Soccer Focus. The one Massive Ten offensive tackles to permit extra pressures than Hyperlink had been Alan Herron of Maryland (38) and Bryce Benhart of Nebraska (31). Hyperlink’s pass-blocking grade of 38 ranked 166th out of 171 offensive tackles who logged at the very least 700 snaps final season — a scathing indictment it doesn’t matter what individuals consider that exact metric.

Although Newsome and Moore have been staunch of their protection of Hyperlink for the reason that finish of final season — each coaches stated his confidence and efficiency have drastically improved — there’s little doubt that Babalola’s presence eased their considerations previous to the damage. A local of Overland Park, Kansas, the place he was the state’s highest-rated prospect in additional than 15 years, Babalola arrived at Michigan because the No. 16 total recruit and No. 3 offensive sort out within the nation. He bulked his 6-foot-6 body as much as 315 kilos by working with the Wolverines’ energy and conditioning workers and nutritionists from January by means of the beginning of fall camp.

Gamers of the Michigan Maize staff lineup in opposition to gamers of the Michigan Blue staff through the first half of the Michigan Maize vs Blue Spring Soccer Sport. (Photograph by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Photos)

“He’s an extremely good man,” Newsome stated of Babalola. “Not simply school-wise, however soccer IQ-wise. It looks as if [those traits] would go hand in hand — however undoubtedly not so. He’s 10-times smarter than I used to be soccer IQ-wise, particularly early in his profession. And it’s a credit score to him, how a lot he cares about it, how a lot he invests in it. However that’s one among his greatest attributes, clearly, along with being very bodily gifted.”

For Newsome, who will earn $600,000 this season, touchdown Babalola gave him a crown jewel for an already sturdy recruiting profile. He introduced three blue-chip tight ends to Michigan throughout his two seasons teaching that place from 2022-23, headlined by Brady Prieskorn, the No. 130 total prospect within the 2024 class, and he paired Babalola with two further high-level offensive tackles in his first cycle main the offensive line: Ty Haywood, the No. 39 total prospect and No. 6 offensive sort out within the nation; and Avery Gach, the No. 280 total prospect and No. 15 offensive sort out. Michigan’s 2026 recruiting class, which is ranked tenth nationally, already contains three extra four-star offensive linemen. 

Such profitable participant acquisition is consistent with the rock-star-style descriptions Harbaugh lavished on Newsome throughout their time in Ann Arbor, even after Newsome obtained a one-game suspension for his alleged involvement in recruiting violations through the COVID-19 useless interval. Harbaugh marveled over Newsome’s work with tight ends Colston Loveland, AJ Barner and Luke Schoonmaker, all of whom had been chosen within the first 4 rounds of the final three NFL Drafts. He gushed about how Newsome would make a fantastic President of the US. And he consistently reminded reporters that Newsome turned down careers in finance and politics to pursue his soccer goals. To Harbaugh, there was nothing Newsome couldn’t do. 

“He’s the tight ends coach now,” Harbaugh stated of Newsome on the “Inside Michigan Soccer” radio present in September 2023, “however [we are] already grooming him to be the offensive line coach. After which, as soon as he has perhaps a yr or two underneath his belt as offensive line coach, identical to Sherrone Moore, he’ll be the coordinator. At that time, after we can’t give him any more cash or any extra titles, someone will snatch him as much as be a head coach. 

“Mark my phrases and mark them nicely: That can occur.”

However first, earlier than any extra of Harbaugh’s prophecy can come true, Newsome must solidify his standing by fixing Michigan’s offensive line.   

Michael Cohen covers faculty soccer and faculty basketball for FOX Sports activities. Observe him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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