'It's my turn': Michigan's Giovanni El-Hadi turned down 'opportunities' to leave, now ready to be a 'dawg' on offensive line

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football senior offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi was praised for being a standout practice performer as soon as he got on campus in 2021. He played relatively early for an offensive lineman, notching three starts as a redshirt freshman in 2022 when others were injured, and he fared well.

But Michigan brought back Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan at guard each of the last two seasons, and El-Hadi had to wait his turn. It’s his time now, though, and he’s ready to seize the opportunity.

“I’ve been very patient,” El-Hadi said, eliciting some chuckles from an audience of reporters who agreed with the sentiment. “I’ve been trusting in God.

“I didn’t want to leave. Didn’t want to go nowhere else. I had opportunities, but I decided to stay over here and be patient. It’s my turn now.

“To be honest with you, it wasn’t an easy decision [to stay at Michigan] with the outside noise, having everyone telling me something different. I just had to trust and talk to God about it a lot. I wanted to stay here. Whenever things got hard before I never ran, so what’s the point of leaving now?”

Zinter and Keegan were both drafted to the NFL last season, two of the 12 Michigan offensive lineman who have been picked in the last five years. El-Hadi couldn’t help but see that while waiting, too.

“Michigan is one of the best places out here. One of the best O-line coaches — we got [head] Coach [Sherrone] Moore, now Coach [Grant] Newsome is one of the best O-line coaches.I just trust in the process. That’s what it’s about.

“We have a standard over here, and we’re gonna uphold that standard every day. That’s what it’s about — getting better and better. We got the two best defensive tackles in the nation; I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

El-Hadi, who’s logged 483 offensive snaps in his career, is looking to become one of the next great Michigan linemen.

“I’m gonna give it my all every day,” El-Hadi said. “I trusted the process this long, trusting in God this long. It’s my time. I’m gonna go out there and dominate and be one of those dawgs.”

Since he last started in 2022, El-Hadi looks quite different, even though he played at an impressive level then.

“This year, I really took the importance of my health, changing my body,” El-Hadi — who lost eight pounds and is now 310 this year — said. “I wasn’t really a chubby offensive linemen, but I really refined my diet.

“Now playing right guard, I was working on the right side of the line this season. Even the left side, too. But every day doing drills, bringing the unit together so we keep going over plays, getting everybody better. Keep getting stronger, faster. That’s what it’s about every year — keep getting better.”

The Michigan offensive line is in the midst of replacing all five starters from last season, so finding the cohesiveness with the new group is important.

“It’s been really good,” El-Hadi said of that process. “On the field, we trust in each other. That’s what it’s about. You have to build that chemistry to be a great O-line; you need chemistry to be a great O-line. Trusting that, working together. 

“Obviously, we have competitions all throughout the O-line, but at the end of the day we know we have to have that standard. We need 10 O-linemen — we don’t need five. We need 10 to be able to play.”

Graduate guard Josh Priebe is set to start on the left side, the reason why El-Hadi made the move to the right.

“Priebe brought a lot of experience,” El-Hadi said of the addition. “Myself, I played in a couple games, started a couple games, but I haven’t started as many games as Priebe. He’s not just coming here and teaching us these certain things, but he’s also being a leader.

“Me, him and [senior center Greg] Cripp[en] and other people in the O-line group lead the O-linemen. He’s doing a really good job. He came here and settled in right away. He was ready. Obviously, the competition is a little different here than Northwestern, and he did a great job and is doing a great job.”