Michigan Football: Offensive Line Review vs Colorado State

In what is going to be a weekly feature, we take a look at how Michigan football’s offensive line fared in their win this past Saturday against the Colorado State Rams. 

Someone needs to give the offensive line some credit and recognition, and as a former offensive lineman myself, I am going to be doing that every single week here.

This will be a fairly simple exercise: I will be re-watching each game to evaluate the play of Michigan football’s offensive line and assigning grades for each individual offensive lineman, along with a brief summary of what stood out about their performances.

Hopefully this becomes fairly enlightening, as offensive line tends to be the position that the average fan knows the least about, and thus, a bit more of an experienced look into that group is worthwhile here.

This will proceed in the same formula each week, listing all five starters with the following categories:

• Overall Grade: This will be a lettered grade that is based on the percentage of successful plays each player executes. A successful play is simply where the lineman executes the desired aim of that play. So if the aim is to reach the 3-technique, and they managed to reach the 3-technique, then the play is successful.
• Best Play of the Game: Will note a best play for each individual starter. This is likely where we will get into some of the fine tuned scheme and technique pieces of their assignments.
• Other Stats: This will be a spot where we track other OL “stats” such as finishes (pancake block/OL driving the DL into the turf), along with pressures and sacks allowed, and listing any penalties.

After that, especially in early games, where Michigan football will likely be playing several backups in garbage time, we’ll make some brief notes on a singular slide about back-ups, before a quick preview of the upcoming defensive front the Wolverines will be facing.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

LT Trevor Keegan (#77)

Grade: C+ // With Ryan Hayes injured, this was meant to be Karsen Banhart, however an early injury shifted Keegan from his natural spot at left guard to playing left tackle in a pinch. Keegan was not great there, however, there is grace here as he was not expected to play there, and will not be playing there in the future. In a pinch, Keegan was reliable enough to get the job done against an inferior opponent.

Best Play: On the J.J. McCarthy third quarter touchdown run, Keegan finally got to do what he does best: fire off the snap and drive an opponent downfield. Double teaming with El-Hadi, Keegan fired off into the defensive tackles ribs, driving him a clear two yards off the line of scrimmage and turning his shoulders, rendering him useless on the play. Keegan’s block also made it very easy for El-Hadi to slide up to the second level and capture the linebacker, accounting for their two defenders in the pictures, leaving just the one additional defender for J.J. to beat as he scored.

Stats: 2 finishes, 2.5 pressures, 0 sacks allowed