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.]

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.

---------------------

LEFT TACKLE: THE FINAL FREY

RATING: 4

Twice in the last decade, once under Rich Rod and then briefly during Harbaugh's staff-stocking phase, Michigan brought in Greg Frey to coach the OL/tackles. Frey is a guy who believes great tackles start with great feet, and to that end looked for high school tight ends to stash away until they emerged as 300-pound RS sophomores with the agility to go linebacker-hunting downfield.

RYAN HAYES is the last of the second Frey wave, recruited with Mayfield (another grow-a-TE) for the 2018 class that signed a month after Frey departed again. His slam dunk comparison was Jake Fisher, the grow-a-TE from the same high school as Hayes that Frey recruited in his first stint and Michigan lost in the transition to Hoke. He was also a star pitcher with a 90-mph fastball which generated the best thing you want to hear if you're projecting a pitcher to left tackle: ridiculously long arms.

Note: I started counting pass pro minuses in the totals in 2021. Pass pro metric = [Pass snaps-Minus grades]/[Pass snaps]

Hayes was just 252 when he committed, 271 when he got to campus, and had only played tight end, but an early season injury to Runyan forced Hayes into the lineup at the start of his second season. Though the roster claimed he was "299" the early 2019 version of Hayes was out of the oven too early. He looked skinny but very effective against MTSU but Army successfully messed with him. Runyan returned the following week, and Hayes spent the remainder of the season as the 6th OL who occasionally comes in wearing a #80 jersey with no nameplate.

Hayes's 2020 season was a washout. He had a single +2 block against Minnesota but three pass protection minuses, and a similar game against MSU with one impressively agile downfield block out Frey central casting.

But that was offset by too many missed assignments. Later in that game both tackles came up limp; Hayes stuck out the remainder but was shut down the rest of the season.

The prognosis for 2021 was a tackle fully formed, the RS Jr year when your Frey-type finally has enough experience and heft to be a plus in the run game while his foot agility and length owns at pass protection. If you pinged me early in the season, I would have told you he was way ahead of schedule.

Washington came in with a tandem of massive DTs—"Tuli and Taki"—expected to be among the best in the nation. Michigan's plan was to block down on those guys with the tackles and leave the Huskies' not-good DE to Erick All. It's the kind of gambit you try with Andrew Stueber or DeBord-era players with nicknames like "Tree," "Skrep" or "Jumbo." Hayes…was…AWESOME!

(This was the one minus for either RB that day but watch #76, 2nd from the top)

Combos through Tuli were amplified by THE FEET, as Hayes was able to consistently recover from his release in time to catch and lock up or turn out linebackers.

Protection minuses were virtually non-existent, though Michigan rarely had to throw it. "Donkey" was used, as well as the natural comparisons to Great Frey Types of Yore like Mike Kenn, Jake Long, and (Frey-recruited) Taylor Lewan as this behavior continued through the NIU Huskies. PFF wasn't grading him like that, and Brian was confused that the score was coming out so high, so I screencapped the scroll bar when you search for "Hayes" in a UFR and labeled it:

Hayes was the pointman for Michigan's power/split zone offense, and was wracking up points whenever Michigan went into their churnin' mode. Post-Washington:

And that brings us to Hayes. Michigan was mostly right-handed against Western Michigan and Hayes only came in for some agile blocks on linebackers and good pass protection. Perhaps they didn’t want to frighten Washington away from trusting Tuli and Taki to hold up? Anyway, Hayes moiderered them. While the coaches used all sorts of tricks for the kickout side of their gaps, the other side of the gap was more often than not Hayes depositing a DT into the care of Mr. Keegan and taking the linebacker out for dinner.

The only knock was he'd let go too early when blocking on the backside, allowing his defender to scrape down and contribute to the gang-tackle of Haskins or Corum happening 10 yards downfield. (Complaints about the rushing offense were in short supply last September).

Also it turned out Tuli and Taki were just overrated. Rutgers and their Stunt 43 defense stymied Hayes in particular. Hayes struggled to get a grip on the wily, under-slanting players they use up front. While OL coaches on Twitter marveled that Michigan had the agility at tackle to even attempt GT Counters (where you pull a G and a T together), Michigan often missed the payoff because Hayes took too long to identify his targets.

This was an issue in the screen game as well. But when Hayes did know where he was going, he could get there. Michigan didn't run a lot of stretch zone since Andrew Stueber and Trevor Keegan weren't really built for that, but the thing about the Frey types, remember, is THE FEET:

When he got a backup, Hayes took him for a donkey ride, but for (most of) the rest of the season Hayes was an opponent-variant tackle who obliterated the bad players on cat and dog teams, neutralized decent ones, and struggled Nittany Lions, Spartan Dawgs, and that one Bronco I told you about. Never was that more apparent than the Penn State game, where Arnold Ebiketie (38th overall, Falcons) messed Hayes up.

It wasn't just Ebiketie. Hayes had a tendency to set up too far inside instead of committing, and better speed rushers could take advantage.

But that PSU game was particularly miserable, especially at the end. I don't often give out –3s but Jesse Luketa (7th round, Cardinals) forced me to issue one to Hayes, who's lined up on the top in a tackle-over formation:

In the aftermath I wondered if Hayes had won so many reps in practice against Hutchinson/Ojabo that Michigan thought he was more of a star than he was:

Note that Hayes still has no help. We got one instance (ironically against PSU’s backup guy) of a chip from the RB, but here we are in a critical must-survive-two-beats situation and going empty, and by this point Hayes has lost more of these reps than he’s won. I don’t know if he was hurt today or slowed by the conditions or what, but we’ve seen all the myriad ways Michigan’s opponents deal with this problem, and nobody in the country should have more practice at it than the offense that goes up against Michigan’s pass rushers six days a week.

My best guess is they gambled on Hayes and he lost. That’s disappointing considering our hopes were his natural agility and length would result in a first round blindside type. There’s still time for that too. He’s clearly not on that level.

You will not be surprised that Georgia's fleet of 1st rounders was also too much for Hayes—"can get two-gapped by Travon Walker" is a trait Hayes just happens to share with about 8 billion homo sapiens on Planet Earth. But you know who didn't have the athletes to deal with THE FEET? *The* 27s.

I know you don't want to leave the stat box on this opening frame but trust me, watch this one..

"Too athletic for Ohio State defenders" is quite a thing, and speaks to the ceiling of the Frey type. A guy who can leap several yards downfield and win a race to get his body planted with a linebacker is a dangerous weapon in any offense, and the fact that Hayes can downblock like a DeBord OT, reach a guy on a stretch, or pull around the formation gives the offense some remarkable versatility.

Draftniks are projecting him to go in the draft next year, some as high as the first round, but the consensus is more like 6th, with upside, with at least one projecting him to be the highest (eligible) prospect on the team. The Draft Network's Damian Parson broke down what's holding some back:

Cons: Ryan Hayes did not display a quick-twitched first step in his kick-slide or jump sets. Hayes shows average balance when redirecting and adjusting to DL games. His knee bend is less than stellar—he spends more time bending at the waist. As a result, he gives up leverage and his foundation. His feet can be knocked off the spot with speed-to-power rushers. He’s an athletic player, but it does not show up in his routine sets.

The spring talk was that of an established senior who's "gotten stronger"($) and improved his communication with his left guard, which makes sense since injury and timeshares split the position (unequally) between Trevor Keegan, Chuck Filiaga, and Karsen Barnhart.

For a 5th year guy, there's still quite a bit of runway. ID'ing blocks, and better block anticipation in pass sets are developmental skills. With a COVID shirt for 2020, we even get to act like this is his junior year, which feels spiritually correct considering last year was the first time we got to see Hayes fully formed. A reasonable expectation for his second year of starting next to the same guy will probably hit in the All-Big Ten range, but not All-American. It should help that some of the freakiest of the edge freaks from last year are not on this season's docket, meaning an incremental improvement may appear larger in the mirror of his opponent-variant game.

RIGHT TACKLE: NOT EVEN A LITTLE DRAMA

RATING: 3

Checking every box except taller than a Maryland tackle. [Paul Sherman]

Stueber's departure for the NFL cleared the road for one of the tackle prospects in the class after Hayes to finally see the field, setting up a knock-down, drag-out offseason battle between two fourth year players who'd been inching their way towards playing time since 2020. In one corner, the man named last year's backup tackle, and 2021's edition of the lineman in a #80 jersey. In the other corner, the guy the program's been talking up for years, who started the back end of 2020 when Hayes and Mayfield went out, and started four more games in 2021 when Michigan's top three guards were down to two functioning legs and one hand.

TRENTE JONES [recruiting profile], stepped on the field, took one swing…

….and it was over. Around here we're used to covering position battles that go well into fall; one that's settled by coach's first spring press conference is an event without an associated heuristic. We think it's…good?

Jones played just 100 snaps last year, and all of those during charting time were as the extra tight end.

At least those usually went well. Winning back some vengeance on behalf of Hayes, Jones took Ebiketie for a donkey ride late in the PSU game.

#80 on bottom

And two plays later tossed the 2nd round DE into the 2nd round safety and the 7th round DE.

These instances weren't an opportunity to show much more than push. What Jones did demonstrate, quite thoroughly, was his tendency to play through the whistle. Jones is noticeably smaller than the other tackles, but he makes up for it with tenacity.

#53 on the left end

Thus concludes the non-garbage time portion of the Trente Jones preview. Actual tackle snaps were available in garbage time against WMU, NIU, and Maryland. I clipped a blitz pickup where he looked pretty agile.

And a bull rush (from a guy very offsides) where Jones could have used some more length.

That's the extent unless you want to see NIU film.

In 2020 Brian laid out a set of directives you want to see from a new starter, sight unseen:

1. reasonable competition overcome
2. a hammerlock on the job
3. praise from before he was needed

No.2 is a check. For the rest, the chatter coming out of last year was the same, complete with assertions that Jones had secured the backup tackle job so hard that transfer Willie Allen was leaving, and Karsen Barnhart—a non-disastrous starting tackle for most of 2020—was practicing at guard.

That chatter, like his recruiting profile, has revolved around the word "athletic." Jones as a recruit was ranked in high 3-star land when he committed and shot way up, first on 247 but then Rivals, over the course of the cycle. When Adam Schnepp checked out Jones's high school film he came away believing more in the Michigan commit than his 5-star, Tennessee-bound teammate Wanya Morris (NTWM).

It takes less than 20 seconds to see Jones’ upside: he can move. At 00:19 he flies off the snap and targets the correct linebacker, turning the backer and moving him down the line; Jones’ block is directly responsible for at least five of the running back’s yards. He also shows some crazy athleticism (at least for a big fella) at 2:05, leaping over a fallen Archer defensive lineman to go pick off a linebacker. Jones doesn’t get the linebacker squarely, but I’d still give him a plus for being able to jump while diagnosing the target.

Morris ended up a top-25 player, transferred from Tennessee, and was too out-of-shape to play at Oklahoma last year, but is expected to start this one, so the jury's still out. Jones ended up in the Under Amour Game, where 247's John Garcia asserted Jones looks "like a stand-up edge rusher," had the best kick-step of every lineman, and that the edge rushers were using counter moves on Jones because after three days they knew as well as anyone that he "is probably the most athletic offensive lineman out there."

As transitions from drafted starters go, a super athlete recruited to play right tackle assuming the right tackle job in year 4 is how you want it to look.

BACKUP SIXTH STARTER

[Paul Sherman]

The man in the other corner was KARSEN BARNHART [recruiting profile]. As much as the unsuspenseful right tackle competition sounds good for Jones, it's not great for Barnhart, whose coaches have been calling him a "starter" when he's technically a backup since 2020. Neither was the charting last season, played mostly at guard. Working for him is a mountain of confidence from his coaches going back to 2019, a stature and recruiting profile similar to Jones's, and a lot of playing time, including starts at tackle that weren't utter disasters in 2020.

Despite his recruitment occurring post-Frey, Barnhart was a guy Frey would have recruited: a 250 pound quasi-TE with basketball feet and, according to Allen Trieu, "he played with an intensity and nastiness that made opponents hate him." His and Brian's comparison was Jalen Mayfield. 24/7's late move up 100 spots in the rankings was notable for not coming after an all-star game. The senior tape was just that good. The comments, which alternated between "devastating drive blocker" and "athlete playing line," could have been about Jones. The only differences were a reported extra inch (that turned out to be bogus) and Barnhart was playing guard his junior year.

It was Barnhart who emerged first during their RS Fr season of 2020 after Hayes and Mayfield both went out late against MSU. The protection metric (95%) was pretty good. Rutgers had a couple of tough edges that Barnhart managed to mostly fend off; Penn State's were a tougher challenge.

The "bad –2" from the Rutgers game was indeed bad.

#52 at LT

That was also a redshirt freshman on the field for the first time. The first true inkling that targeting issues were more than a kid thing came further in. Last year Barnhart was in the mix for the open LG job that Filiaga and Keegan split until later in the season, but for most of three games in the middle of 2021, at least two of Keegan, Filiaga, and Zinter were unavailable, and Barnhart had to fill in at LG.

Nebraska's Ben Stille was one of the better DTs in the conference and gave Barnhart problems, but when the blocking nobody issue popped up against Northwestern it was a concern.

#52 left guard

Here too however there were signs of what caused the coaches to rave for three years about a guy they weren't playing. Such as when Barnhart blocked two guys on a doomed 3rd and 2:

But "willing" was "aware" and Keegan's excellent on-the-fly awareness was definitely missed when Barnhart was in.

Barnhart then had the misfortune of a face full of MSU's Jacob Slade, for my money the best DT in the Big Ten last year. Of the six –3's I handed out on defense last year half were Slade on Barnhart (still LG #52):

It was a performance worthy of some of the Spartans we've charted for Foe Film in the past. It was also somewhat understandable considering Barnhart was a tackle until forced on the field by injuries, and his mistakes were largely mental—even when he was forklifted 2 yards in the backfield, it was a pad level thing, not strength. A lot of it too was stuff you would not expect from a guy whose coaches gush over him:

The heavy power stuff they clearly wanted to run with an extra tackle did not have much success, and when I went back to see why, I found Barnhart leaving his DT in the intended gap well before Vastardis could establish any kind of control. … This was an unfair test for Barnhart, but the mental bits are likely to carry over if he’s needed again.

Unfortunately the strength part also seemed to be lacking, at least compared to the Dudes Michigan has been running out there. Barnhart's short pull on Buck plays got the job done but there was a noticeable difference between the physics of Barnhart's kickouts and, say, Zinter's.

Warning: fool hurdling, may induce yelps

The thing Barnhart seems to do well but Michigan didn't do much of was zone. This didn't make the charting because it was on the backside of the play, but I remember seeing this reach block from 2020 against IU on TV:

#52 left tackle

If I had to guess what the coaches keep seeing in practice, it's the second level work. As with outside zone, coming off doubles to get to linebackers is an area where Barnhart's exceptional agility and #neverquititude pay off.

Young OL - Keep coming!! (LG/LT) #GapScheme pic.twitter.com/TammsmXQJ8

— Joe Moore Award (@JoeMooreAward) March 17, 2022

His troubles at guard were relevant because he's the first backup there as well as tackle. Harbaugh's midnight depth chart dump called Barnhart literally a sixth starter.

Karsen Barnhart is the sixth starter. He’s the sixth man. He goes seamlessly in it right tackle or either guard, or if we have an issue at left tackle, Karsen Barnhart is the backup, next guy up. Call him a starter, he sits in the front row in the meetings with the other offensive starters because he can play any of those positions as a backup except center.

I am again asking all of you not to question this man known for playing six OL at a time who also claims two starters at running back, six starters at wide receiver, and a role for quasi-OL Joel Honigford at tight end despite eight other guys who are ready to play it. Karsen Barnhart is a starter, okay? OKAY?

As sixth starters go, an experienced guy who can play all over the line is the kind of luxury that more often becomes an essentiality. If Barnhart hadn't gotten the Jacob Slade, we'd be all about him. For the purposes of this article, given the 2020 performance I'm pretty comfortable if a tackle goes down.

BACKUPS

Past Barnhart we're into the realm of recruiting profiles. JEFFREY PERSI [recruiting profile] was recruited after Frey left, but still followed the procedure, converting from tight end as a senior. That was for a major California program whose head coach, Pat Harlow, played OT at USC and in the NFL, and has been developing college dudes ever since. For the latest one, copy and paste all the stuff from the other Freys: frame, long arms, big hands, super athletic, tall, upside is tremendous, feet, attitude, yada yada. He was a 2020, and recently moved to the position, and all of those discussions about his upside came with emphasis on the part about this all being a projection.

… still really far away in his development … still not very strong, so he loses balance, and tends to topple over rather than be able to bend and maintain a base.

The absolute soonest we were expecting returns would be this year. So? Persi played in the spring game and looked shaky. He did some pile-driving by getting under George Rooks on one of the runs that informed our Kalel Mullings takes. He also took two bad beats in protection in a row from Mike Morris, memorably because they were the 2nd and 3rd snaps of the game:

Hopefully that's just something that happens to all college OTs this year. If forced on the field it will probably be something akin to 2019 Hayes: okay in small doses but an issue if someone gets a week to gameplan for him.

Harbaugh hinted that Persi is the official backup at LT, which keeps him ahead of the next long, athletic (played basketball) grow-a-tackle, TRISTAN BOUNDS [recruiting profile]. The RS Fr lost his senior season to a COVID cancellation, so much of that profile is based on Bounds moving pickup trucks in his parking lot, not football. He's huge, a real 6'8" and 311 now according to the Phonebooks. He was also a Notre Dame battle, which (e.g. Zinter) usually bodes well. Here too we're mostly talking about potential. Brian Dohn a year ago:

He has to continue to develop his kick step so he can cover the outside against elite pass rushers. … needs to continue to develop his upper body strength, which is usually the case with long-armed offensive tackles coming out of high school. He does a good job with leverage despite his size but he has to continue to work on sinking his hips so he can stay low and be more physical when driving his legs after being engaged. … Adding strength to his lower body will also aid him. There are times he gets pushed back a little because his base has to be stronger, but he has the ability to recover and still execute the play.

Both projects have been getting fewer mentions in public this offseason than true freshman ANDREW GENTRY [recruiting profile], though I wouldn't put much stock in that since Harbaugh likes to introduce the newcomers when he can. It's more interesting because Gentry is just 18 days younger than Persi. For most of the 2020 recruiting cycle, the Colorado mauler (from Columbine) was a 5-star prospect with a profile like a ready-made Andrew Stueber. Gentry committed to Virginia then went on a Mormon mission, which thanks to COVID was spent doing missionary work with a Spanish-speaking community in Utah. Months before he emerged, Bronco Mendenhall left the Cavaliers, and the Harbaughs managed to infiltrate the mission enough to pull off the flip.

Size-wise, Gentry seems to already be there.

24/7's Blair Angulo led his eval with "broad shouldered frame with thick lower half." At Rivals, Mike Farrell had an article comparing recruits in Gentry's class to players about to go near the top of the draft. #3 Walker Little's comp was Gentry, because "Gentry has a very similar build at the same level and impressive length." Little's draft measurements:

Says Farrell, "you simply won’t find many tackles with his combination of size and talent."

The moment Gentry appeared in team photos during their Michigan tour this summer people were talking about landing planes on his back. Harbaugh then started talking like he's ready to add Gentry to his front:

Good young guys. Andrew Gentry’s really the one that pops the most right now. He’s one offensive lineman that could get a lot of play as a true freshman.

Since that's about a guy who's been out of football for two years and is just now getting into a real weight room, I'm guessing that means the four-game redshirt in blowouts to get his feet wet. Finally Michigan brought in a developmental G/T road grader in CONNOR JONES [recruiting profile] who's a lock to redshirt.