The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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46 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2019 FOOTBALL PREVIEW the one they were at last year. They're trying to get to the level of winning championships, and the objective is for everyone to take a step forward. They're all very much into it, especially the three guys [Runyan, Bredeson and Onwenu] who are in their final year here." Warinner has been around the block in his 35-year college coaching career that in- cludes stops at Akron (1984), Michigan State (1985-86), Army (1987-99), Air Force (2000- 02), Kansas (2003-04 and 2007-09), Illinois (2005-06), Notre Dame (2010-11), Ohio State (2012-2016), Minnesota (2017) and Michigan (2018). He's coached almost every position on both sides of the ball, but long ago found his niche tutoring offensive linemen. There was something about the guys up front he could relate to, he said this spring in addressing the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club in Canton, Ohio. "When you choose to be an offensive line- man, you choose a different lifestyle, because we stay out of the limelight," he said. "They don't talk about left tackle statistics after the game. They talk about the quarterbacks. They don't talk about the right guard statistics after the game. They talk about the middle linebacker. "They only talk about linemen if you don't get a fourth-and-one, or how many sacks did you give up?" His blunt style might come as a shock at first, but his pupils understand what he's do- ing and why he's doing it. He wants them to be their best for themselves and for the team, Jansen said, and U-M's former All-American has witnessed it himself at practice. "He's intense," Jansen said. "He demands guys do it the right way — it doesn't matter if you've been starting for three years or you're a freshman. He has the same standard for everyone: you do it right or you do it again." At the same time, Jansen added, he's still a "patient teacher." "He does a good job breaking down the skills, describing to guys what they're doing right, what they need to keep improving upon and how they can improve upon it," Jansen noted. "That's what guys want. They want coaches who if they're hard on you, they're equal opportunity that way. … They demand the same out of everybody. "That's what he does. And when you win and people start talking good about the offen- sive line they realize, 'I can put up with that.'" Back To The Familiar This year will be a return to the norm for Warinner, who has spent many years coach- ing linemen on the intricacies of the spread offense. Last year, in fact, was the first time in 15 seasons he'd coached a group of line- men in anything but the spread, going back to his stint at Air Force prior to joining the Kansas staff in 2003. That made for an easy transition for the blockers up front this spring. "Football is football at the end of the day," Bredeson said this spring. "For us, it's a lot of the same concepts. We're just adjusting to the new offense, and for us, it's not that bad." It does require them to be in better shape, and they've answered the bell. Many won- dered how Onwenu, specifically, would re- spond, having carried extra weight the last few years. He showed up to a June youth football camp in Jackson, Mich., at least 20 pounds lighter and was continuing to work on it during the summer. An offense line used to huddling also had to learn how to get the calls from the coach- ing staff on the sidelines. "We may run 75 plays a game instead of 55, so, that's 20 more plays a game," Warin- ner said. "Within that though, every play they get to save 14 yards — the seven yards to the huddle and the seven back to the line of scrimmage. It made sense to them. "I don't know if that's mathematically ac- curate, but it sounded good." Warinner first coached spread principles Warinner's offensive line paved the way for an average of 203.8 rushing yards per game last year, which ranked 30th nationally, and a total of 5,457 total yards, the fifth-best mark ever at U-M. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN