tim drevno

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was. A time of innocence, a time of confidences. Long ago, it must be. I have a photograph. [Bryan Fuller]

Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End.

[Bolded player rules: not necessarily returning starter, but someone we've seen enough of that I'm no longer talking about their recruiting profile (much, anyway). Extant contributor.]

LT Yr. LG Yr. C Yr. RG Yr. RT Yr.
Ryan Hayes Jr** Trevor Keegan So** Olu Oluwatimi Sr** Zak Zinter So* Trente Jones So**
Jeffrey Persi Fr** Reece Atteberry So* Greg Crippen So Gio El-Hadi Fr* Karsen Barnhart So**
Tristan Bounds Fr* Alessandro Lorenzetti Fr Raheem Anderson Fr* Connor Jones Fr Andrew Gentry Fr

Tim Drevno put out fantastic, mauling offensive lines at Stanford. The guys they recruited were 3-stars, but they were smart, and didn't have to start until they were redshirt sophomores or juniors, by which time they'd been sufficiently drilled to run Drevno's complicated list of calls and checks. At Michigan he fruitlessly chased after recruits who didn't want his immediate playing time and started a season with Nolan Ulizio at right tackle. The "Drevno Effect" never happened. He's now at UCLA.

Greg Frey, the Rodriguez assistant who recruited tight ends and grew them into Mike Schofield and Taylor Lewan, was brought back for a year. He recruited some more build-a-bears for a year then left for his alma mater. Today he's at Duke.

Ed Warinner seemed like a guy who knew what he was about. Between the first game of 2018 and the 2018 Big Ten season Warinner turned Jon Runyan Jr. from a turnstile into one of the most underrated guards in the NFL. Last year Michigan broomed Ed for a guy born the year Ed coached his first OL at Army. Warinner is now the run game coordinator at FAU.

Sherrone Moore played tackle at Oklahoma in the mid-aughts, and coached tight ends at every stop until Michigan raised him to OL coach. His first line, made of parts acquired by Drevno, Frey, and Warinner, won the Joe Moore Award.

In all that time, with all those coaches, somehow Michigan figured out how to amalgamate all of their philosophies into a stable run of tackles. Runyan graduated and instead of the fanbase collectively chewing their fingers off, a redshirt sophomore Ryan Hayes stepped in. Andrew Stueber graduated to the NFL this offseason and his backup, a 4th year guy, won the job early in spring. Behind him is a classmate who started some in 2020 and 2021. Behind that guy is a 3rd year guy, and a 2nd year guy, and a freshman who's getting talked up even though he's not needed for years. Except for Hayes they're all Warinner recruits, though most are Frey types, and they run Drevno's tackle-pulling gap system. This spring Hayes intimated that Moore was increasing the complexity of their protection calls, since the guys playing have been around long enough to handle more on their plates. Imagine that.

[After THE JUMP: The feet. My goodness THE FEET!]
[Patrick Barron]

Note that we'll have our signing day podcast starting at 5pm, although without yours truly because the only thing I'm good for right now, audio-wise, is rapid-fire coughing. Traditional Signing Day-ish TWO should run tomorrow.

Let's get it out of the way

This isn't the Catch Ohio State class, if such a thing exists. A version of the 2021 class that's spearheaded by 5* QB JJ McCarthy in which he plays pied piper to various other high-end prospects would be more along those lines. The Columbus Death Star will have a top 5 class anyway, and things will likely proceed as they have. Ah well.

Moving on from the omnipresent "but" of Michigan football…

Housekeeping notes

Folks Michigan is waiting on:

  • 4* CB CB Darion Green-Warren, who will announce at his all-star game. Bunch of Michigan crystal balls came in for him but there is USC talk, because who wouldn't want to sign up for the #76 class in the country?
  • 3* NY QB Dan Villari, who appears to be Michigan's CJ Stroud fallback. He's announcing later today.
  • 3* VA OL James Pogorelc. Pogorelc's crystal ball is 100% Stanford but maybe the Cardinal having 12 guys in the portal after a 4-8 season, including four starters, could push him away from what's hopefully David Shaw cratering. He intends to sign late. 

More names may pop up in the late period but if the last couple years are any indication that'll be a whole bunch of nothing. UT DE Van Fillinger is probably ticketed for Utah--not sure Michigan really needs a WDE type in this class anyway.

LOIs still un-faxed:

  • 3* OL Micah Mazzccua. We've heard that Mazzccua won't be signing anywhere today.
  • 3* TE Nick Patterson. Decommit rumors have swirled around Patterson for months and he did take fall visits to GT and Memphis.
  • 3* RB Gaige Garcia. Garcia's school has a ceremony scheduled for 6 PM.

Mazzccua probably won't be in the class, especially given how Michigan was searching around for another OL for the past month or two. Patterson remains a mystery.

[After THE JUMP: I give this class 3.5 stars.]

ostrich man gets played [Bryan Fuller]

Mailbag! Most of these are twitter questions. I'm not answering anything that's directly addressed in the upcoming season preview, so if your question didn't get picked maybe that's why. Maybe.

The Black Pit Of Negative Expectations is not a mental disorder, it is a defense technique based on a rational extrapolation of past feelings to future events. BPONE trades lower highs for higher lows and is thus a wise approach for people who may wander into the streets to rend their clothing and wail without BPONE.

BPONE is therapeutic. Never tweet during BPONE.

To me, "play every game" implies more than some goofy one-off trick plays. If I had to bet, we're going to see McCaffrey get one or two drives per game. This isn't a Henson/Brady situation where the starting job is truly being contested during the season—Patterson is the starter. It is a spot where Michigan has so much faith in their backup QB that it makes sense to get him some meaningful reps in case Patterson is unavailable at some point.

[After THE JUMP: quit asking me about worst case scenarios you BPONE maniacs]

on the other hand, it did irritate Gerry DiNardo 

chicken salad on rye from now on Tim

I say that whenever you can get a guy named Bizzy Bones you gotta do it 

i guess five star basketball recruits are the only people in the world who don't realize that five-star basketball recruits get paid 

chris evans [eric upchurch]

No true Scotsman wouldn't dynamically schedule. Luke Hughes commits. Ben Carter: notable departure. All this and several additional links!