The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1506222
SEPTEMBER 2023 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 21 the guys have, from the young guys up to the old guys, I think it's special. I'm excited to see where it takes us this year." Next year will surely take him to the NFL, along with fellow linemen like grad Trevor Keegan and a cavalcade of other Wolverines. But for the time be- ing, Zinter insists he's right where he wants to be. "It goes back to the culture, the broth- erhood we have here," Zinter assured. "It's fun to play here. When the offsea- son came, talking to all the guys like [se- nior tailback] Blake [Corum], Trevor and C.J. [grad wideout Cornelius Johnson], Mikey [Sainristil, a grad defensive back] just saying, we want to run this thing back. We have goals here we haven't ac- complished. It's always been a dream to go to the NFL, but it can wait another year." Getting some cash out of name, im- age and likeness deals didn't hurt either, Zinter acknowledged, but it wasn't his main reason for getting back to The Big House. "I'm not struggling to get the rent, or go get some food somewhere, which is definitely nice," he admitted. "It's a nice change for the years that we've had it. But it's not a huge part." Michigan's offensive line will be a huge part of any championship run. It features stalwarts such as Zinter and Keegan along with a host of other veter- ans, supplemented via the transfer por- tal by free agent maulers such as Stan- ford grad transfer center Drake Nugent and Arizona State grad import LaDarius Henderson at tackle. Zinter can't imagine a deeper offen- sive line anywhere in the nation, the core of which is coming off two straight Joe Moore Awards as the top O-line in the country. "This offensive line is definitely go- ing to be special," Zinter insisted during fall camp. "We've got 10 dudes in there right now who could start anywhere in the country, damn near. Our two-deep O-line, we're rotating guys in and out everywhere, just seeing who jells, who meshes. It's been a lot of competing lately, so it's been good." Offensive line coach Sherrone Moore will now be calling all the plays as of- fensive coordinator. Moore certainly ap- preciates the line Michigan constructed to make way for the offensive onslaught to come, and he sees Zinter as a crucial component. "The way he studies the game now is at a different level," Moore said of his 6-foot-6, 322-pound right guard. "He's taken his off-the-field study to a differ- ent level. And he understands what the goal at hand is — for him individually and as a team. He's played at a really high level, and you can see he has started where he left off and is playing super confident and having fun and having the time of his life right now." He's also part of an iron-sharpening- iron matchup with senior defensive lineman Kris Jenkins every day in prac- tice. Zinter is confident he won't face a tougher challenge all year long when battling against other teams. "Those are some physical battles," Moore marveled. "Those are some grown men — two guys that are going to be playing at the next level for a long time. They're battling, and it's give and take. It's give and take as a whole — of- fense, defense, individual battles. It's physical. It's not combative, it's com- petitive. So, it's really awesome to see. One guy will win one, one guy will win the other. But they're always just bat- tling each other, working, so it's awe- some to watch that competitiveness in practice. And I'm happy on game day that we're not going to have to deal with Kris." Zinter insists the front wall stands ready to roll again. "As an offensive lineman, we say in our room, the team is only going to go as far as we go," Zinter emphasized. "The offensive line runs the team. If we're sprinting onto the field for practice, the receivers, the quarterbacks, everyone is following us, sprinting out there. We take pride in leading this team and set- ting the tone." He didn't make any bold prediction about Ohio State this year. He didn't have to. "I don't think anything can beat the first time, in 2021," Zinter mused. "Go- ing into that [2022] game, we knew, and expected to win that game. The '21 game was more of that sensational feel, but going into the '22 game, we knew what we had to do and wanted to do. That was just another game for us, where to get to where we wanted to go, we had to win." ❑ Teammates Marvel At Zinter's Leadership, Prowess J.J. McCarthy will get the lion's share of the atten- tion on Michigan's offense this year. Don't think for a second that the junior quarterback isn't thankful for the raging phalanx of elephants directly in front of him, planning to trample everything in their way. Senior Zak Zinter enters his final season in a winged helmet off a consensus All-Big Ten campaign in 2022. McCarthy insists Zinter does much more these days than his own direct assignment. "We've been talking about 'Zint' for two or three years now, four years," McCarthy pointed out. "He's never gone anywhere but up, when you talk about the physicality, when you talk about the strength, when you talk about the quickness. All that has been amazing. But what I've seen out of him this year is, he's really taking that balcony view look as an offen- sive lineman. He's not just thinking about his job. He's thinking about, OK, why am I doing this, so I can be the most successful for the play at hand? "That's the biggest step he's going to take. When you have all those physical tools and you have that God-given ability, it's the little stuff mentally that is going to make you great. He's really embracing that wholeheartedly." — John Borton Zinter and his linemates paved the way for the Wolverines to average 458.8 yards of total offense per game last season, includ- ing 238.9 yards on the ground. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN