Blue Middle

September 2nd, 2019 at 4:43 PM ^

He did look surprisingly good. That said, it looked to me that we mostly ran away from him and gave him less responsibility. 

Still, a great performance and a good sign of what’s to come on OL. 

outsidethebox

September 2nd, 2019 at 5:01 PM ^

I watched Hayes exclusively on the "every offensive play" film. They absolutely did not run away from him-and he did an excellent job of "chipping" and blocking at the second level and on down field. The kid understood his assignments very well and executed. As he matures physically and gets stronger he looks to be a force.

Joby

September 2nd, 2019 at 9:01 PM ^

Hayes definitely looked like knew his assignments. He had a fair amount of TE help, and got bulled back once or twice, but even with that he did quite well. Mayfield did OK, but not great - he got beaten clean by a burly looking DT, but did push him out to 10 yards when Patterson should have probably gotten rid of it. Mayfield did have a couple of cave-in blocks. This is fantastic for a pair of redshirt freshmen. 

Yessir

September 2nd, 2019 at 5:21 PM ^

All of our offseason discussions after discussions and analyzing, etc, etc, etc and I bet none of us smarty pants came up with starters

Hayes, Bred, CR, Big Mike and Mayfield starting and Hayes getting offensive player of the week. 

That's why football is so great... or at least one of the reasons. 

 

Bo Lytle

September 2nd, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^

As a former offensive lineman I can tell you these kids will only get better as the weeks go on. The offensive line is usually a complete mess until week 3 and then watch out. Perhaps he’ll be a stud by mid season. If nothing else huge for next year and beyond. Depth is definitely increasing for this year at least. Congratulations young dude! 

BLUEinRockford

September 2nd, 2019 at 5:41 PM ^

Ryan Hayes is going to be one of those unheralded recruits who makes himself into an all-conference/all-american player. Extremely bright with the length and size of a prototypical tackle. Very promising future for this young man!!

Double-D

September 2nd, 2019 at 6:20 PM ^

Hayes looked agile and seemed to have good instincts and an understanding of his assignments.  

He looks like he could still add 30 lbs.  I wonder if he is strong enough yet for Big Ten play.

I thought Mayfield may have cost us on the goal line possibly which I’m sure will get corrected 

its just awesome to see this depth development all across the OL.  We are getting our identity back  

 

 

S.G. Rice

September 2nd, 2019 at 8:23 PM ^

There was a play in the first half where Hayes chipped a guy, passed him off to another lineman and then smoothly transitioned to blocking another defender.  It looked like he was a three year starter, not a freshman starting his first game.  Super impressive.

Don

September 2nd, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^

In 1997, Michigan started the season with two redshirt freshmen on the OL: Jeff Backus at LT and Steve Hutchinson at LG.

That seemed to work out OK.