Zak Zinter dishes on 'high expectations' for Michigan's offensive line
Michigan’s offensive line was the driving force in last season’s Big Ten Championship run, and there is plenty of reason to believe it could get better. The line loses Andrew Stueber (tackle) and Andrew Vastardis (center), but brings in Rimington Award finalist Olu Oluwatimi on the interior. The staff also feels good about its right tackle battle between Trente Jones and Karsen Barnhart.
Sophomore guard Zak Zinter is set to return to his starting role at right guard. He spoke with the media on Monday and sees a line that has picked up where it left off in spring practice.
“I mean, we’ve been rolling,” he said. “We’ve got high expectations for ourselves and this offense this year, and I think we’re gonna have a really good offense.”
Momentum is good, but Zinter and the Wolverines do not want to coast off of it. Spring football brings about an opportunity for a fresh start and foundation. He wants to make sure a tone is set that last year is in the past.
“A lot of what we’ve been saying is we don’t want to live off last year because you had these high expectations of freshmen,” he said. “Some of the early enrollees, they don’t know what we went through during the COVID year.
“So I think not living off the high of last year and still knowing we’ve got to put the work in this year to be the team we know and we want to be.”
New pieces on Michigan’s offensive line
Michigan’s offensive line may have continuity, but there will be new faces on each side of Zinter in the aforementioned Oluwatimi and either Jones or Barnhart. The key to keeping the train rolling is to keep playing together.
“I think just practice,” Zinter said. “This spring we’ve gotten what five or six practices in so far? I think just getting the reps and practice, that’s the biggest thing.”
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Oluwatimi has been an early standout of spring practices but is still battling for a job with sophomore Greg Crippen making a push.
“Olu and Cripp, they’ve both been doing great,” Zinter said. “Olu’s been a great addition. He’s smart, strong, physically wise, but I’ll be interested to see how the competition plays out between him and Cripp.”
Michigan could do much worse than replacing Vastardis with a player some believe would be one of the best interior offensive linemen in the 2022 draft if he declared. His experience makes him a logical plug-and-play option for Michigan.
“Honestly, for him, he’s experienced, he’s got that college experience,” Zinter said. “Just learning our offense and how we do things is the biggest thing — which he’s been picking up really well, has been making all the right calls, so he’s doing really well.”
Michigan’s offensive line has a few more weeks of practice before showing itself off in the spring game, which is set for April 2 from the Big House in Ann Arbor.
