ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- At Big Ten media days, Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham revealed that the Wolverines' strength and conditioning was subpar when he arrived, but that it's much better now after winter and summer conditioning. And offensive line coach Jim Harding is seeing how that improvement has worked in real time.
The maize and blue are two fall camp practices in, and the offensive line is one unit where Harding can see the dividends of the offseason work paying off. But he says it's not just about being stronger, it's also about the confidence that comes with the players knowing they're in much better shape to handle the job at hand with the season fast approaching.
"Tremendously. Coach Elisaia has done a tremendous job," Harding
said. "Just the strength numbers, when you look at the sheer data that he presents, there's more confidence now. We haven't had pads on yet. Our first day of pads will be -- it's Thursday, so Saturday. So, I mean that'll be where you can actually see it, the functional strength of it. But I think there's more confidence. They know they're stronger. It's certainly not only the physical component, but it's also the mental part that I think it's really they've embraced, and I hope that it shows come Saturday for the first time to actually start hitting people."
That said, most roles are still pretty wide open on the O-line. Harding says that while right tackle Andrew Sprague and center Jake Guarnera are close (but not completely) cemented in their roles, everything is up for grabs. Even though it's best to get a starting five in order relatively quickly, he isn't in a rush to figure out who those five are prematurely.
Still, he has a pretty good idea of when he would like to have some kind of pecking order.
"I don't want to paint myself in a corner and say, 'Hey, on August such-and-such,' but you certainly do want to have, you know, the way that coach runs camp, we'll have essentially two scrimmages," Harding said. "You want to have that thing dialed in as best as you can at the end of the second scrimmage. That will give us a mock game week up until up to Western Michigan, then the normal game week. So approximately two weeks out.
"You'd love to have that solidified, and maybe there's a competition, and maybe guys end up rotating, but you'd like to have that five close to cemented as possible, if it works. Maybe it has to go deeper, but about two weeks out."
Among the candidates, it appears that Andrew Babalola and Blake Frazier are battling at tackle, Brady Norton has that capability, but has worked at guard thus far, while Evan Link, Nathan Efobi, and Avery Gach are all in the running for other interior spots.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan offensive line coach eyes lineup timeline
