The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/152358
Those Who Stay... Fifth-Year Senior Left Tackle Taylor Lewan Is The Latest To Forego The Big Bucks For Another Year At Michigan T By Chris Balas here's not olive oil dripping out of his ears, but there might well be by the end of the season. Ingesting it by the spoonful is only one small part of fifth-year senior Taylor Lewan's new diet, one adopted to help him return this fall in the best shape of his life after he stunned many last winter by announcing he'd return to Michigan. He didn't do it for the taste. "When my friends would be out eating pizza, I'd be grabbing a chicken breast," Lewan recalled. "That killed me." But it worked. By late July, Lewan had dropped 5 percent of his body fat but gained six pounds to get to 315. He ingested 12 tablespoons of olive oil daily for the calories without carbs, along with a dozen eggs and six cans of tuna. While the comparisons to former Wolverine Jake Long used to stop at "they're both big guys and they both wear No. 77," more and more people believe he's destined to follow the same path to success. He's already earned Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year honors, and many believe he'll be among the top five picks in the 2014 NFL Draft should he take care of business this fall. Those are high expectations, but that's exactly the way Lewan wants it. The standard for wearing the No. 77 on the offensive line is the same as wearing the No. 1 for receivers, he insists. So when the time came to make his decision — stay at Michigan for one last crack at a Big Ten title or take the NFL's guaranteed multi-millions as a first-round pick — Long was one of the first people Lewan called. Phoning A Friend It wasn't an out of the blue phone call, however. Long — now with the St. Louis Rams after spending his