Michigan Football: 5 reasons Wolverines will struggle in 2018
2. Offensive line questions
If there’s been one thing outside of quarterback play that has consistently struggled under Harbaugh, it’s the offensive line. Harbaugh hasn’t had a good group up front yet in his first three seasons, and his recruiting efforts haven’t fixed it. They were bad last year, and it’s hard to imagine enough improvement in just one season.
If mass improvement is going to happen, some of the necessary pieces are there. All but one of the projected starters is an upperclassman, with the lone sophomore being center Cesar Ruiz. Ben Bredeson leads the group and was on the All-Big Ten second team last year. Unfortunately, while the rest have experience in age, they don’t have a ton of actual play experience.
Right guard Michael Owenu is next up, as he started eight games last year. Left tackle Juwann Bushell-Beatty started seven. Ruiz is at four. Right tackle Jon Runyan has yet to start a college football game. The impressive age of the group becomes far less impressive when you look at their playing experience.
Now, a lack of experience isn’t the end all be all for an offensive line. Plenty of green units have been great in the past, and this could be an example of top talent just being buried on the depth chart. Behind some of the worst linemen in the Big Ten for the past three years. That’s not ideal. There’s a reason these guys weren’t starting earlier, and it’s not because the players in front of them were transcendent talents.
Well hey, maybe Ed Warinner can fix this group up and make them solid. He’s done it before, most notably in 2014 at Ohio State. Unfortunately, that was three seasons ago. And he hasn’t been any near that impressive in those past three seasons. Ohio State’s line coasted on talent in 2015 and 2016, and Minnesota’s line was miserable last year.
I just can’t see it with this team. The line derailed the Wolverines in 2016, and while it won’t be that bad this year, I don’t think it’ll be good enough to survive this schedule. This team has to face some of the nation’s best defensive lines this year, and if they can’t hold their own, there’s no way this team doesn’t drop at least three games.