ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan football still hasn't been at full strength this season, though almost all of the starters have been able to go at least one of the two weeks. But fans have been impatiently waiting to see two five-stars get onto the field -- one from last year and one from this year.
And it's likely that we'll see one go this week. The other? Well, that might take a while.
On Monday, head coach Kyle Whittingham shared the injury status of freshman five-star edge rusher Carter Meadows and second-year five-star offensive lineman Andrew Babalola, thought to be the 'rhino' in this offense. And while it appears Meadows should be good to go assuming he has a good week of practice, Babalola is a different story.
"Carter should be good to
go this week," Whittingham said. "Andrew, yeah, setback. We're going to have to work through some things, and he will not be available in the near future, unfortunately."
Given that Babalola missed the entirety of the 2025 season after tearing his ACL in fall camp, it's disheartening news to hear that he won't be available, as Whittingham says, 'in the near future.' Does that mean a few games or half the season? We'll find out.
There was another injury that went unreported since there aren't yet Big Ten injury reports (that comes in Week 4). On Saturday against Oklahoma, we saw a reshuffled offensive line, with Nate Efobi at left guard and Brady Norton at the right. But that meant that Evan Link wasn't able to go after playing in Week 1 and warming up in Week 2.
Whittingham shared that it was, indeed, an injury that kept him out and not an on-field decision.
"We shuffled the lineup due to injury, not due to anything other than that," Whittingham said. "We hope to get Evan Link back. In fact, we should have him back this week, barring anything unforeseen. But Nate Efobi stepped in and did a nice job at left guard. You may see a rotation there this week with those two. That's to be determined. But the effort level and the passion and the energy that the O-line played was markedly different than Week 1."
The hope and goal would be that Michigan will be able to get some younger players in this week with UTEP coming to town. The Wolverines and Miners will kick off at 3:30 p.m. EDT with the game set to be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham: Andrew Babalola 'will not be available' soon
