Sherrone Moore on Michigan offensive line health, Kalel Mullings' role for Northwestern game

Michigan Wolverines football has been banged up on the offensive line, but it’s set to get some reinforcements back after the bye week heading into the last two regular-season contests. The Maize and Blue will take on Northwestern Nov. 23 and Ohio State Nov. 30 to round out the year, and head coach Sherrone Moore called the two matchups “must win” tilts while appearing on the ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio show.

Junior right tackle Andrew Gentry, who had earned a starting job midway through the season, is out for the year with a foot injury suffered Oct. 26 versus Michigan State. Senior right guard Giovanni El-Hadi also went down with an undisclosed ailment in the last game at Indiana, and he was replaced by senior Dominick Giudice. Fifth-year senior left tackle Myles Hinton, senior center Greg Crippen, Giudice and others have also missed time, including graduate tackle Jeffrey Persi, who’s working his way back after going down against Michigan State.

“Myles, [graduate left guard Josh] Priebe, Crippen, Gio will be back. And then [sophomore right tackle] Evan [Link],” Moore said of the starting lineup for the Northwestern game, noting that El-Hadi is expected to return. “Gentry is out for the rest of the year, and he’ll be back for the spring. Those will be the starting five.

“And I think Persi is gonna try. He’s been working through an injury. He’s pushing for Wednesday to try to come back to practice, so we’ll see how he does there. Ready for these guys to keep rolling.”

Persi — a 6-foot-8, 310-pounder — has taken 164 offensive snaps in five outings this season, filling in as a starter for two road clashes (Washington, Illinois).

Michigan can still mix and match some linemen, including moving Priebe out to tackle, playing Giudice at either center or guard and inserting freshman Andrew Sprague — a 6-foot-8, 305-pound former elite recruit — at tackle.

“Obviously, we’ve practiced with guys at different positions,” Moore said. “Practiced Josh at tackle if need be. Andrew Sprague is another guy, and Dom Giudice has went in there and played guard last game. I feel like we’ve got some guys that can go in there and help.”

Kalel Mullings expected to have bigger role for Michigan game vs. Northwestern

Michigan graduate running back Kalel Mullings didn’t have any carries until midway through the second half in the 20-15 loss at Indiana last time out, and he seemed caught off guard by it, considering he leads the team with 740 yards and 8 touchdowns on 141 carries. Despite being a back who excels in short-yardage situations, Mullings didn’t get in the game until Michigan’s ninth snap inside the Indiana 10-yard line. On the 10th (and his second), he went over the top for a 1-yard score — the Wolverines’ lone touchdown of the game.

Moore was asked if Mullings will have a bigger role than he did in Bloomington.

“Yeah, for sure,” the Michigan coach replied. “He’ll for sure get more carries. He didn’t get as many in the first half. [Senior] Dono[van Edwards] practiced well, [sophomore] Ben[jamin Hall] practiced well … Kalel practiced well, too. But really was working those guys in, and then in the second half Kalel got more.”

Michigan freshman running back Jordan Marshall played in his second game of the season at Indiana, returning after spending most of his first fall in Ann Arbor dealing with a lower-body injury. He was tantalizing in the kick return game, bringing 4 for 100 yards, nearly breaking his long return of 37 yards the distance.

“I think he’ll get a couple [carries],” Moore said of Marshall’s prospects of playing on offense. “It’s just so hard. There’s one ball for a lot of really good players. You add [freshman back] Micah Ka’apana in there — there’s another one. So you gotta manipulate different ways to get those guys on the field, but we’ll see him at some point during the game.”

Michigan’s offense has been anemic at best this season, ranking 118th in the country with only 20.4 points per game. But last week’s bye provided the team an opportunity to develop, and Moore hopes to see better results when the Wolverines hit the game field Saturday.

“Let’s start up front: Run off the football, play violent, execute at a high level,” Moore said of what he wants to see. “And I just want to see the offense really do a great job on third down, and when we get to the red zone, we get down low red zone, we gotta go score.”