The Wolverine

December 2013

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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A Building Process Michigan's Offensive Line Has Struggled At Times While Developing Its Young Players On The Interior S By Michael Spath urrendering a national-worst 9.2 tackles for loss per game through the first 10 contests, Michigan is on pace to set a school record this season for negative plays allowed (120). The Wolverines are also averaging only 135.7 rushing yards per contest — their lowest pergame average since mustering 121.8 yards on the ground in 1999. Opponents are feasting on the Maize and Blue, racking up 31 quarterback sacks, with Michigan State and Nebraska tallying seven QB takedowns apiece in back-to-back U-M defeats. Desperate times … so desperate that Michigan made modern-era history (generally considered after World War II ended) this season when it started a redshirt freshman and a true freshman on the offensive line in the same game (Michigan State, Nebraska and Northwestern). That had never occurred before. Only once has U-M had both a true freshman and a redshirt fresh- man start on the same offensive line within a single season: Dean Dingman started three games as a true freshman in 1987 and Tom Dohring started six games as a redshirt freshman. However, the two did not start any game together. Over the previous 20 years, only 12 true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or true sophomores have started for the Wolverines, with just six — Jeff Backus and Steve Hutchinson in 1997, Jake Long in 2004, Justin Boren and Steve Schilling in 2007, and Taylor Lewan in 2010 — starting eight or more games. This season, Michigan has started two redshirt freshmen — Erik Magnuson and Kyle Kalis have both appeared at right guard — and introduced true freshman Kyle Bosch to the mix against the Spartans. Only twice in the last two decades has U-M started two first- or second-year players along the line in the same season: 1997 with Backus, Hutchinson and David Brandt; and 2007 with Boren and Schilling.

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