Most of the offseason narrative surrounding Michigan football has been about Bryce Underwood. It's fair because the team will rise or fall, in large part, based on his development.
Underwood can't do it alone, though. And looking back at the history of Michigan football, or really any championship-level football team, they usually have something in common: an elite offensive line.
At the very least, the offensive line better be damn good, or you can kiss any hope of winning a championship, conference, or otherwise, goodbye.
Everyone wants to focus on the quarterback at Indiana, for good reason, but that turnaround happened in the trenches.
Even though many want to talk about Underwood and whether or not he can live up to the high expectations, one thing that will help is a much-improved offensive line. It was a solid group last season. Michigan was better than most by Big Ten standards, but as Whittigham said at Big Ten Media Days, Underwood got hit too much. It was something that surprised him.
Indecisiveness in young quarterbacks can contribute to that, but the offensive line needed to get better at pass protection, just better in general.
Michigan football O-line has made tremendous improvement
Through two and a half weeks of Michigan football fall camp, that improvement is happening, according to Chris Balas of The Wolverine, who said "those close to it" have said the offensive line has "improved tremendously."
That's not a huge suprise. Michigan finished the season starting three redshirt freshman. Texas tried to steal away two in the transfer portal, Jake Guarnera and Andrew Sprague, while Blake Frazier also played well as a redshirt freshman.
All three players had room for improvement, though. And just like Kyle Whittingham, the first-year Michigan football head coach should be a major upgrade over Sherrone Moore, who wasn't exactly focused on the job, Jim Harding, the new O-line coach, should be an upgrade over Grant Newsome.
Harding is one of the best O-line coaches in college football. He has tutored numerous NFL draft picks, including two first-round picks in 2026, as well as routinely developing all-conference performers.
Underwood's play wasn't good enough in the big games last season. Yet, the offensive line struggled just as much, especially against teams like Oklahoma and Ohio State. If the offensive line has improved as much as indicated, that is one of the most encouraging signs for Michigan football fans coming out of fall camp.
Not just what it means for the offensive line and the running game, but for Underwood.
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