Michigan OL starter reveals new group mantra heading into 2024 season
ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines are known for their “Smash” mentality under new head coach Sherrone Moore, coined while he was molding the offensive line into the culture-setting group it has been the last few seasons.
While that is expected to remain as long as Moore mans the sidelines in Ann Arbor, senior Giovanni El-Hadi said his Michigan teammates are adopting a new mantra heading into the 2024 campaign.
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“We have to build our own identity,” El-Hadi told the media on Monday. “We have to uphold the standard. We don’t need five guys to play, we need ten. And we all have to be on the same page. We all have to be ready whenever our name is called up. People are going to get hurt. That’s how it goes. It’s football. And whoever is up next, you got to go out there and play well.”
According to El-Hadi, teammate Myles Hinton dubbed the group as “Invictus,” a Latin term for triumph over adversity and being “unconquerable and unbeatable.”
That is the standard Michigan wants to continue to live up to.
“As we thought about a name for ourselves, he brought up ‘Invictus,'” El Hadi said. “None of us knew what that meant at the time. And then he told us a little bit about the word being unconquerable, unbeatable. And I feel like that’s what we are.”
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The “Smash” mantra is not going anywhere either, per El-Hadi.
“No, trust me…we still smash,” El-Hadi said. “We still we still say the word smash, but it just kind of defines who we are as a position group. So yes, Invictus has been running around a little bit more than usual. It’s been all good thing. Once [Myles] said Invictus, we thought was pretty, pretty spot on. So we stuck with that.”
Michigan went out and set that standard on its own last season en route to a 15-0 campaign and College Football Playoff National Championship. But titles do not carry over into another season and the Wolverines have moved on.
“It’s a complete reset,” El-Hadi said. “That was last year. There’s nothing to do with this year. It’s crazy that we’re starting a new season. Don’t get me wrong, but everything happened last year. It doesn’t define us anymore. We have to make our own history now.”
“We always have a target on our back, but now it’s even bigger than ever,” El-Hadi said. “We know what we have to do. We know what our job is. We know how big that target is. We [are going to be] everybody’s Super Bowl, and we have to treat it the same way, too.”
