The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2025 ❱ MICHIGAN FOOTBALL teams on the schedule. Oklahoma domi- nated the Wolverines up front (though to be fair, the Sooners looked really good in the front seven before and after their win over U-M, too), but a revamped Michi- gan line has come on strong in recent weeks. Graduate student left guard Giovanni El-Hadi left the Sept. 13 game at Okla- homa with a lower-body injury, and transfer Brady Norton followed later. That opened the door for sophomore Jake Guarnera at right guard with junior Nathan Efobi moving to left, and it led to 381 yards rushing (616 total) in a 63-3 win over Central Michigan and 290 on the ground (395 total) in a 30-27 win at Nebraska. "We said at the beginning of the year, and I've always said it, it takes 10 guys, and nobody can be sad or depressed or down that we lost somebody on the line for a week or two," Moore said after the win in Lincoln. "That's how it is. That's what it is. "Those guys have really taken own- ership of that. To watch Nate step up, Jake step up as a [sophomore] who's been playing center, it's huge. There's a lot of trust in both those guys to do their job. They've been extremely impressive." Guarnera was aggressive and played very well for a first start against the Chip- pewas, and he held his own at Nebraska in his first "big" test. Young starting tackles Evan Link and Andrew Sprague have continued to improve slowly but surely, while grad student center Greg Crippen came up huge against the Corn- huskers, opening holes on all three of the Wolverines' long touchdown runs. "Greg Crippen had his best week of practice all week," interim coach Biff Poggi said after the win. "I thought he was probably the leader of the offense this week in practice, and he played his best game. It was really important." Moore took it upon himself to work with the line during individual sessions in the week leading up to the CMU game, focusing on the "how" instead of the "what," he noted. Whatever he did paid off with some good performances from a revamped line, including "getting back to the fundamentals." "Get back to the little things and play with that nastiness, that physical men- tality," Moore said of his goal for them. "That Michigan standard is what it's about. Don't worry about the play. And, again, it's the how. It's the violence of the play. It's the low pads. It's how you move, and those are the things that really win blocks. "It's not the scheme, because at the end of the day, it's one-on-one blocks for a line, whether you get to the first level or the second level. So, those are the things that we really harped on, that mentality, the mental piece of it. And they've really taken ownership of everything. Coach [Grant] Newsome's done a great job with them." With a little help from the head coach. — Chris Balas POGGI PRAISES PLAYER LEADERSHIP Michigan's player leadership, key to turning around the culture from 2021- 23, is in focus while the program works through yet another head coach sus- pension. The Wolverines won their way through that a few years ago and dealt with another absence of their leader on the sideline this year. Head coach Sherrone Moore's absence was part of a two-game NCAA suspension issued in response to the advanced scouting saga. Biff Poggi, now in his third stint in Ann Arbor, sees their in-house leader- ship as the biggest key to success. "We've always had really good player leadership here — 2017, '21 and '22, ob- viously '23," Poggi said during his Ne- braska week press conference. "There's great player leadership here. It starts with our captains, and I would say those guys are the heartbeat of the football team. It's not easy to be a captain, be- cause you have to be willing to be re- spected and not liked, and that's hard for any of us. We all like to be liked, but the leadership is excellent. "Make no mistake about it. It's been this way since Day 1, since football ever started. Coaches do not win games. Players do. It's all about the players, and it's not the plays, it's not who's smart, who's this. It doesn't matter. And we've got great leadership and great players." Michigan players have taken the school-imposed Moore suspension per- sonally, not so much because of the de- cision, but because their head coach is a big loss in the building. It was a rally- ing point as Moore coached the team in practice, and the 63-3 win over Central Michigan was a Poggi-described "love letter" to the head coach. "I will describe Sherrone this way. I have children his age … and we've known each other for a long time, and we've talked constantly over the years and very rarely it's about football," Poggi said. "It's always about life and kids. And I will say this to you, and I mean no disrespect at all to anybody. Foot- ball does not typically attract a bunch of nature's noblemen. Football is a game where most adults in it are looking to get to the next level, the next job, the next paycheck, and may say that they love and care about their players and I'm sure they do. "But this guy, I've never seen any- thing like it in my life. So, when he's out, it is an enormous void in the building because of the heart-to-heart human relationship factor, if that makes any sense to you." Poggi had the main headset on dur- ing the win over CMU and for the trip to Nebraska. Despite having more than four decades of coaching experience, including the 2023-24 seasons leading the Charlotte program, he admitted to some nerves ahead of the victory over the Chippewas. "To be very honest with you, I was quite anxious during the week, and my anxiety was from not wanting to let Sherrone down or any of the Michigan fans down or do anything like that," Poggi said. "As soon as I hit the tunnel, I realized I've done this 300 and some times, and football's football, honestly. Whether you're playing it out back and there's nobody there or you're playing it in the biggest stadium in the country, whether it's Pop Warner or the NFL, it's all just football. "If you're a football guy, it's just foot- ball, and that's the truth." Despite the brief interim head coach stint, Poggi has not felt the pull back to leading a program. This situation was a two-off for him. "I'll just say this, that I want to spend a lot more time with my little grandchil- dren," Poggi said. — Anthony Broome