Michigan football podcast: Balas and Skene on OL vs. Alabama, Lawrence Hattar, more
Michigan finished the season strong with wins over Ohio State and Alabama, but it was the defense — not the offense — that made the difference. The offensive line wasn’t what many hoped it would be this year under first-year coach Sherrone Moore and line coach Grant Newsome, but did just enough to generate a few scoring drives in each game — and that was enough to beat the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide.
“There was some hard hitting going on both sides,” Moore said. “You could hear the pads popping. Our guys delivering their hits, them delivering the hits, 3-yard runs, those dirty runs … those aren’t bad plays. Those are like body blows, and there was a lot of that on both sides of the ball, and physicality.
“But I thought our guys stepped up the most when they needed to. Our offense took a five-minute drive to get down and get a field goal for [Dominic] Zvada.”
Michigan freshman running back Jordan Marshall carried 23 times for 100 yards in the win, breaking lots of tackles and making people miss. They didn’t drop to throw much so there wasn’t a lot asked in protection, but the quarterbacks were kept clean, for the most part.
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Moore was pleased with the line play overall.
“When you rush for over 100 yards against Alabama, it’s good, but I haven’t watched [the film],” Moore said. “I saw some of it and felt like in protection — because those are the things that you can see the most without the detail — it did pretty good.
“As far as the run game, those things we’ve always got to clean up, but it felt like we were getting the movement necessary to get the runs going. And when you have those types of drives when you’re leaning on people and you’re getting five-minute drives, it means those guys up front are doing a good job. So, it felt like they were in a good place.”
Former Michigan offensive lineman Doug Skene joins Chris Balas and breaks down that and Ferris State lineman Lawrence Hattar’s addition in today’s podcast.
