The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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44 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2019 FOOTBALL PREVIEW heights from 2007-09 as the team's offensive coordinator, with a line that he helped establish as the position coach from 2003-04. He continued his ascent at Notre Dame (2010-11) and Ohio State (2012-16) — im- proved line play was considered one of the keys to the Buckeyes' 2014 national champi- onship — and was hired by Harbaugh to have the same effect on a program trying to return to its roots. His 2018 offensive line struggled in its sea- son opener, a disheartening 24-17 loss at Notre Dame. In hindsight, it probably should have been expected. Jon Runyan Jr., now a fifth- year senior, was starting at left tackle for the first time, and then-sophomore Cesar Ruiz was starting his first game at center and in a hostile environment. "There were a lot of wide eyes going into Notre Dame," Jansen, now a communications specialist for the athletic department and a part of the U-M radio broadcast team, said. "Any time you're going into an environment like they were in South Bend, the communication had better be locked down. It starts obviously with center, and it was Cesar's first game there. A lot of times he had his head between his legs because they were in shotgun or on silent count [due to noise]. "After that, your communication has to come from your guards. The tackles are in a two-point stance and can see everything best. They've got to be able to communicate, but at times in the first game guys are not 100 percent sure of what they're supposed to do or what the calls are." But they got better as the year went on. The entire line stood out in a 21-7 victory at Michi- gan State, dominating a very solid defense in playing perhaps the best game by a Michigan line since the Carr era. MSU finished the year No. 1 nationally in rushing defense (77.9 yards allowed per game), but was gashed for 183 yards on the ground. U-M also allowed just two sacks after giving up four to the Spartans the previous year. "There was a noticeable difference under Warinner, and a couple things stand out," Skene said. "No. 1, it appeared the missed as- signment percentages went way down. Guys seemed to understand where they needed to be and seemed to be much more comfortable understanding what they were trying to do. "No. 2, and it sort of dovetails into the first point, in pass protection, the way those guys pass set and positioned themselves before they even touched a defender got enormously bet- ter. They just were smarter about how they set themselves up individually and as a unit to more effectively pass block. "Those two things stood out right away after Warinner was in charge." Simplifying With A No-Nonsense Approach The redemption started with a return to ba- sics, almost like repeating a grade in school. Senior left guard Ben Bredeson stopped short of blaming anybody for the unit's difficulties in his first two years, but he likened it to trying to learn calculus before mastering basic algebra. It was a necessary first step, Jansen said, and it started with communication. "When you talk about simplifying things for the offense and specifically the O-line, it's taking out some verbiage," Jansen explained. "That's one way to make it simpler. Another way is when you build upon skills. It's just like building a house. Unless you've got a founda- tion, you can't put the second level on or even the first level on. "Ed does a great job of allowing guys to explore different techniques and ways of do- ing things, but only after they've mastered the basic techniques." One of the ways to make it simpler, Jansen continued, is to give guys a certain number of things they can work on. When they perfect those, then they can go to the next level. "Ed's done a great job of making guys mas- ter the basics, and when they do, they can move on to some more advanced things in run blocking, pass blocking, combination blocks to make life easier," he said. "But you can't make In Warinner's first year at Michigan, the sacks (23) and tackles for loss (59) allowed decreased by 36 and 40 percent, respectively, from the previous year. The Wolverines ranked 39th and tied for 13th nationally in those respective categories on a per-game basis in 2018. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN