The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2011. "My vision from the start is I talked a lot about the Michigan lines of old," he began. "Our goal is to be a big, physical, nasty line that pounds you into submission and wins games up front." With the Big Ten's 2012 Offensive Lineman of the Year at left tackle (fifth-year senior Taylor Lewan) and a right tackle capable of playing at an all-conference level (fifth-year senior Michael Schofield), the Maize and Blue may feature the best bookends in the conference — their 58 combined starts are the most of any anticipated tandem in the league, well ahead of runner-up Nebraska (41). "It's great to have experience and talent on the edge," Funk said. "You have a returning All-American who understands that last year was last year and nothing is guaranteed. He's taking care of business, and you have a guy that can be as good as he wants to be if he improves in a couple areas. So having those guys is huge." The performance of Michigan's tackles has never been a concern — replacing all three interior linemen has caused considerable consternation among the fan base, and was one of the hottest topics at U-M's media day Aug. 11, generating chuckles from the linemen. "You care about the offensive line?" redshirt sophomore center Jack Miller asked, with a smirk. "I think people realize how critical the center position is. Around here to have Dave Molk for four years [200811], that wasn't something that had to be talked about at all, and then last year with Elliott Mealer and Ricky Barnum … it is kind of strange because you usually don't see all this