Michigan football: A unique bond between Joel Hongiford, Grant Newsome
Michigan football tight end Joel Honigford will play a sixth and final season in Ann Arbor in 2022. His journey has been a unique one having begun his career as an offensive lineman before transitioning to tight end.
Luckily for him, he has a peer that has been on a similar, but different trajectory.
Tight ends coach Grant Newsome was a player at Michigan from 2015-17 before retiring and joining the staff as a student assistant. Newsome was an offensive lineman by trade and then transitioned to working with tight ends as an assistant to Sherrone Moore. With Moore coaching the offensive line and co-coordinating the offense, along with other shifts in the staff, Newsome was elevated to a full-time assistant this offseason.
Honigford is only a few years younger than his position coach, but he is soaking up what he can from someone who has seen a bit of everything.
“I’ve known Grant for a long time. When I was a freshman here, he was still trying to get back on the field. He transitioned to a coaching role and is now a position coach. I have had the privilege to get to know him in all aspects. He has stayed the same guy through all of it. There’s not this awkward situation in the room where I’m a few years younger than him and he’s telling me what to do. I have respect for him. He has worked under [Sherrone Moore], who used to coach tight ends. The dude just knows so much about the game of football. Just to be a sponge and soak up his knowledge of the game, puts me in a better spot to succeed as well as it does for the other guys.”
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Michigan tight ends coach speaks on Honigford
Michigan has a deep tight end room with as many as eight guys that will see the field this year, per head coach Jim Harbaugh. Honigford is toward the top of that group as a complimentary piece behind Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker. Newsome has seen plenty of improvements from the sixth-year tight end.
“Joel has taken a lot of steps forward,” Newsome said last week. “He’s gotten faster, for sure, and he’s worked on his hands. Is he ever going to be Erick or Schoon? Probably not, but he’s made it so that he can be out there for passes, which I think is the biggest thing moving forward to make sure we don’t have tendencies so that when he’s out there, it’s not just a run to his side.”
“I think it’s invaluable not only for our position room but for our team to have not only Joel but Carter Selzer, two sixth-year guys who I always joke with that they should be eligible for AARP or Medicare,” Newsome said. “It’s invaluable to have those guys and their leadership, and also just having two good football players who know the offense inside & out. You put them out there, they’re going to get the job done to the best of their ability.”
