Sherrone Moore: 'It's a process' in cleaning up early-season OL miscues
Michigan football’s offensive line won the Joe Moore Award last season as the best trench group in the nation. While most of the pieces remain intact, the 2022 edition is still working to hit its stride heading the non-conference finale.
The group is still trying to find consistency snap to snap, which should improve the more reps it gets together. Offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore believes it is all part of the plan.
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“I think it’s a process,” Moore told the media on Wednesday. “We’ve gotta go through the same process every week and it’s going to change. We’re going to play better players, play better competition in Big Ten play and we know that. We’re just excited for the challenge. I’ve seen the progress in practice, even saw more this week. I can see it in the game bit by bit. It takes time. The line we had last year wasn’t what they were in week 12 to week 1. It takes some time for those guys to build that rhythm and chemistry. They’re starting to do it so we see the process going and see the process rolling.”
The Wolverines are still getting game reps together on the field. Fifth-year tackle Ryan Hayes missed the opener, then senior Karsen Barnhart was hurt. That caused some instability in the Colorado State game, but steps forward were taken with the starting five intact against Hawai’i.
Still, Michigan is prepared for all scenarios.
“It’s next man up,” Moore said. “Guys practice like that, we do that in training camp so they’re already ready to make those changes. It’s crazy how calm you feel when you insert some of those guys because of the way we practice and the competition in practice. Those guys are getting work in at practice against our defense. It was good. Just excited about the progress we’re making.”
Trevor Keegan, Giovanni El-Hadi play key roles for Michigan OL
Michigan’s shuffling and a Week 1 absence of Hayes caused guard Trevor Keegan to kick over to left tackle, which caught some by surprise. As it turns out, it was a position plenty familiar to him.
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“Keegan was actually a tackle in high school,” Moore said. “There were times in camp—it started last year. He said, hey, do you mind if I go to LT? I was like, sure. So we’d switch him and see what he would do. The first time we did it, I was like, wow, that was pretty good. Did it throughout camp to prepare him just in case we needed it. We actually did which was really good. We like to switch guys around, move guys around to find the best five. We’ve got great athletes up front, they all think they can play tight end which is a joke. We did that in camp and it’s been really good.”
When Keegan slid over, sophomore Giovanni El-Hadi plugged into the right guard spot for Michigan. Moore has been a fan of his progress in Year 2.
“Gio, he’s just been on the up, and up, and up,” Moore said. “He came in last year as a freshman really didn’t know much and was really kind of lost. This spring and this training camp, you could see the steps forward. He was always a big, strong kid but it was the playbook and the alertness, the fundamentals and all that. That’s where he’s taken himself to the next level. That’s why there’s so much confidence to play him in these games. He’s done a good job for us.”
Michigan will look to round itself into form on Saturday afternoon with the UConn Huskies in town. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. ET from the Big House with ABC handling the broadcast.
