(The Michigan portion is written by Pat and posted by tbone)
All-American or panic. It may sound like hyperbole but this description is perfect for Michigan's offensive line in 2012. Michigan's pair of starting tackles is likely to be the best in the conference. Taylor Lewan looks more and more like an All-American in what is now his third season starting at left tackle, one of the most important positions on the football field. Michael Schofield has received praise as the better of the two in run blocking. Schofield is big and cameo'd at both guard and tackle last season due to injury. He did quite well as a too-tall guard and is better suited for tackle. These two studs literally have no viable backups. (No offense meant to former walk-on Eric Gunderson or true freshman Kyle Kalis, Erik Magnuson and Ben Braden)
On the inside Michigan will turn to senior Ricky Barnum to take over for David Molk at center. Barnum was a starting guard last season but battle injury issues throughout the year. When he did play he was effective and is a very big body. He has received high praise throughout the spring and fall. His backup is Jack Miller, a young player who came in needing to put on weight. He would be more in the Molk mold of a mobile center but would be a big dropoff from Barnum.
Right guard is firm with Patrick Omameh. Patrick is one of those players who has seemed to have been around forever. He was great in the zone schemes diagrammed by Rodriguez in 2010 as a sophomore and suffered through some transition issues last season while starting every game. I expect his second season under Hoke and Borges, with some added weight, will see Omameh reach a high level of production.
Left guard is the only position on the offensive line that still has an ongoing battle. Senior Elliot Mealer, former walk-on Joey Burzinski, redshirt freshman Christian Bryant and true freshman uber recruit Kyle Kalis are doing battle there. Playing a true freshman is always scary but I expect Kalis to be the starter by the time B1G play rolls around and I am actually excited about that possibility as he's not your typical freshman OL recruit.
Mealer, Burzinski, Chris Bryant and Jack Miller will provide depth along the interior of the line (unless one of them earns the starting OG spot over Kalis, maybe Mealer or Burzinski).
So this unit is easy to forecast. They are elite and have terrible depth. If Michigan can make it through the season without an injury to an OT I think they will be in line for some serious postseason awards on the Oline and likely have the best offensive line in the B1G. If one of their tackles goes down...players will be shifted all over the place and things could end up in disaster
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MSU
If the UM offensive line is All-American or bust, than the MSU line is All B1G or bust. I am not sure what I am getting there other than this line should be good. As good as UM's. ESPN B1G blog has the MSU offensive line as the third ranked OL unit (UM was second), saying "this could be the best offensive line Mark Dantonio has had in East Lansing." and "Chris McDonald is one of the league's top guards."
McDonald is the most experienced returner as a 5th year senior and three year starter. He is on Outland Trophy watch list and ranked as both a preseaon all B1G team member but also one of the best guards in the country. ESPN has also ranked him as the fourth best overall lineman in the B1G. There are not a lot of juicy stats for offensive lineman, but McDonald did lead the team in knockdowns and in snaps played. That might be the most telling stat. Chris is good and is durable.
At the other guard spot, left guard, is named starter Blake Treadwell. Currently Blake has a stress fracture in his tibia. Unfortunetly the tibia is a weight bearing. I hope this is not something that lingers all season. I imagine when you weigh 300 pounds, that hurts. Last year, Blake started three games at center, before receiving a medical redshirt for a knee injury. The left guard position was going to be an on going position battle between Blake and Jack Allen. Though Blake should return within 2 months. Jack Allen is a name that almost always pops up evertime you read a Spring report on MSU football. Jack was a redshirt last year and this spring has been receivng reps at both left guard and center. Now is the time for Jack to show what he can do. Offensive Coordinator Dan Roushar believes that MSU has "something special" in Jack. Allen was ranked the 7th best center in the country out of high school. Along with that he was a successful high school wrestler, winning hte class 3a state championshio in his weight class and racking up over 140 career wins. Jack has the athleticism, we are all ready to see it. Between our guards is the steay hand of Travis Jackson. As a redshirt freshman last year, Travis started 10 games for the Spartans. Yahoo, ESPN and BTN all named Travis to their B1G all freshman team and some sources had him on their freshman All-American team. Jackson should fine himself on some first team All-B1G lists after this year, anything less than that would be a disappointment for him. Backing up our guards and centers are Ethan Ruhland at left guard. Ethan is a fifth year senior who started in the win over Minnesota last year but received action in 12 games. Ethan is more than a serviceable backup and is a great guy to have should anyone get injured. With Allen sliding over he should be hacking up Jackson at center. Backing up McDonald is John Deyo another 5th year senior with loads of game experience. Deyo saw action in all the games last year. This kind of experience is what you need in an offensive line. Especially a grind it out team like the Spartans claim to be.
On the outside the Spartans have Dan France at left tackle who will be entering his second year as a starter. Last year France started 13 games at left tackle and recorded 29 knock downs. With a right handed quarterback having a player who is receiving All-B1G team praise is what you need to protect your quarterback. Dan is listed at 6-6 and creates headaches for opposing ends with his size. At the other tackle spot is Fou Fonoti. Last year Fou seemed to get better as the year went on. He really had great games against Wisconsin and the offense seems to like to run behind him. This will be Fou's second season as a starter and has received pre-season All-B1G accolades. Fou finished last year starting 11 games and playing 659 snaps. What is more impressive about that is that he did not allow a sack. Fou is exceptionally athletic for a guy his size and has no problem getting to the next level to help stretch run plays. Fou should be on a few All-B1G lists as the season ends. No sacks allowed? Come on. Backing these guys up are Skyler Burkland at left tackle. Skyler was a starter last year before an ankle injury sindlined him for the rest of the season. Skyler should push for a starting spot or at least a lot of playing time. He is a talented kid with massive frame at 6-7 317 pounds. I would have full faith is Skyler were starting right now, even with his limited playing time. Henry Conway is the backup at right tackle. Conway is least experienced of the entire offensive line having appeared in only three games last year, Conway red shirted his freshman year and missed the next season due to an injury.
Other players worth mentioning would be Nate Klatt who plays both center and right right guard. He will be backing up both positions and could be the #2 guard behind McDonald. There is also Donavan Clark who is a true freshman and a big recruit out of high school. There is also Connor Kruse who has been limited so far with a knee injury.
Overall this is a deep unit, about as deep as an offensive line can be. There are four starters returning and six players that have started at some point in their career. That is solid. It may be a cliche but is is true, football is won in the trenches and this is as talented and game tested of a unit as Mark Dantonio has ever had.
EDGE: Interesting one here. While UM might have the best single overall player, I think MSU has the better overall unit. These are two talented offensive lines. I will add that I would not want the UM line for the MSU offense and I do not think Pat would want the MSU line for the UM offense. Along with that, the MSU line is intact from last year while UM will have a new face up front. Based on that, I will say PUSH.
(AMAZING SHOTS)
The starting unit for Michigan is better than MSU. The depth for Michigan is scary here though they have a ton of young talent that should be OK as the season progresses. McDonald is the only MSU lineman who would start on Michigan's team this season IMO. Lewan and Schofield will both play in the NFL. Omameh is in his third year starting. I guess you could argue over center but I like Barnum.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, while MSU has a good Oline this season, Michigan's is better.
I agree that Michigan's is better, while state's did very well in pass protection, their rushing numbers last year were quite poor.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Zach on this one. I think it's a push. I'm willing to give UM the slight edge among starters, but I don't think you can count on all 5 of those guys staying healthy. So I think MSU's depth allows us to pull even overall.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the hype MSU's line has gotten had actually confused me a little. Afterall as the third best member of the second Fab Five (the original isn't vacated for purposes of this blog) points out MSU was "quite poor" running the ball last year.
And yes, their overall numbers ranked them 11th in the B1G. But if you look at the season as a whole it was a line that got significantly better as the season went on.
They came in with no experience, having played very little together. THis led to the offense averaging 1.3 ypc against ND (when Burkland went out) and 2.3 against OSU, who in fairness was a good run D.
Enter the bye week where they build some cohesion. They come out of that weeka and run for 213 total yards at 5.5 ypc against Michigan. The backs combine for 112 at 3.78 against wisconsin (still not good, but not awful either). Then they average 4.4 ypc against Nebraska but the team lays an egg so they don't run the ball much.
Also of note it is around this point in the season where the carries flip from maybe 60 percent Baker, 40 percent bell to the opposite. Against Minny (awful I know), Bell runs for 96 yards on only 15 carries, 6.4 ypc. Then runs for 112 on 20 carries against Iowa, 5.6 ypc. For the season even with a "poor" line Bell averaged a healthy 5.2 ypc.
So I think high expectations for MSU's line are justified. But really, both MSU and UM should have high expectations for this position group.
Third best member? I was definitely better than Conlon, Mitchell, and Ward.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure Kyle Kalis won't end up being one of the best lineman on either team by the end of the season either, his hype as the most college ready offensive line recruit evah mean he can at least provide solid depth even if he doesn't beat out Mealer for the starting spot.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if we are going to give massive hype on this blog to William Gholston then we must acknowledge that Lewan dominated Gholston in last year's game in East Lansing and therefore by the transitive property of sports give Lewan even massive(er) hype.
I will not stand for a push here you silly Spartans. Michigan's line is simply better.
Lewan is probably the best Left Tackle in the conference. I won't argue that. I think Fou Fonoti playing 12 games in his first year in major college football and not giving up a single sack is pretty impressive. Somehow he was only 19 when last season started despite being a JC transfer. Says something about his potential.
ReplyDeleteIf you get to count on Kyle Kalis as a true freshman then we get to count on DeAnthony Arnett in the wideout post. Highly touted recruit who got PT in the SEC last year.
Also, you're the one who's opening sentence was "All American or panic"
As for Maceo, I have him behind Tractor Traylor and Maurice Taylor. Those two guys get bonus points for flipping their explorer and helping push Mateen to join the Spartans.
I guess Maceo was right. Turns out the Tractor didn't enter the barn until the following year.
ReplyDeleteWe did count Arnett when we talked about WR, why wouldn't we? He's on the team and will play...
ReplyDeleteIf Lewan gets hurt certainly this comparison changes but starters are obviously more important than backups. I'd take MSU's 6-9th guys over Michigan's by a huge margin, but I'd take Michigan's starting 5 in a landslide.