Skip to main content
michigan logo

Michigan OL Nathan Efobi 'got better in the shadows,' believes 'this has to be the year for me to break out'

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•04/16/25•

CSayf23

Nathan Efobi
Michigan Wolverines football offensive lineman Nathan Efobi was a four-star recruit in 2023. (Photo by Lon Horwedel / TheWolverine.com)

Michigan Wolverines football junior offensive lineman Nathan Efobi has taken countless snaps on State Street but has seen action on only 2 career plays in games.

Efobi is a 6-foot-3, 307-pound guard from Atlanta Ga., who sat behind NFL players Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan his freshman year, then Josh Priebe and Giovanni El-Hadi as a sophomore.

This is Efobi’s time, he believes. He stuck around, improved behind the scenes and — as of late in spring practices — is a projected starter at right guard.

“This has to be the year for me to break out,” Efobi said. “I’ve done my time here, seen Zinter and all those guys before me, and it’s time to break out. I’ve had a good spring, been feeling good, team’s looking good. It’s all good.

“I really take it as a blessing. I know other people see that as, ‘oh, I should’ve played freshman year.’ But I was next to guys that are in the league right now. So I just learned from them, took pieces from their game, and I’m using them right now.

“I think if I would’ve played freshman year, I probably wouldn’t have been ready. It probably would’ve looked like I wasn’t good. But I waited my time, got better in the shadows and people are going to see that I am who I say I am.”

That’s what Efobi is hoping to prove this weekend, when Michigan takes the field for its annual Maize vs. Blue spring game at The Big House.

“Prove that I am who I say I am, prove that what my coaches say is valid, and that I can be one of the best guards that ever comes out of Michigan,” Efobi stated of his goals.

Efobi said playing with more “violence” is a piece that he’s taken from the likes of Zinter and Keegan. Last week, junior left tackle Evan Link admitted that there was a drop-off in leadership last season, after Zinter, Keegan and others departed. But Efobi insists that the Wolverines have made big strides in that area this offseason.

“It’s definitely coming back,” he said. “Guys know that last year wasn’t us. This year, we gotta be more vocal, more about it, more about that action. We got the guys for it.

“Just gotta come together, really. It was a long year [in 2024]. We had a lot of draft picks, all new faces, a new team, really, under [head] Coach [Sherrone] Moore. It’s our year to bounce back and do what Michigan has always done.”

Sophomore right tackle Andrew Sprague is another along with Efobi who plans to step up. Efobi has enjoyed playing alongside the massive (6-8, 305) tackle.

“I love playing next to Sprague,” Efobi said. “That’s my boy. Very talented, very level-headed, very calm. He’s got a voice, too. He likes to talk that — I can’t say it, but you know. But he’s about it. He’s bringing that culture that I’m describing, that violent culture, to Michigan. I love him for that.”

The hope is a revamped right side of the Michigan line will perform at a higher level in 2025, and Efobi seems confident that will come to fruition.

You may also like