Trevor Keegan on Michigan offensive line: 'We're not really worried about the Joe Moore right now'

Michigan Wolverines football is undefeated at 4-0 with each win coming by at least 24 points. But the Wolverines are a national title contender, ranked second in the country and have extremely high expectations. That bar has been set high on the offensive line, especially, after the group won the Joe Moore Award for the nation’s top line each of the last two seasons. It’s clear the new-look line hasn’t lived up to the hype so far, but it’s close to firing on all cylinders, graduate left guard Trevor Keegan said.

“I feel like we’re playing good ball. We’re starting to really mesh well together,” Keegan said. “Obviously, there are still things we need to clean up, but the way we’ve been gelling in practice, the way we’ve been practicing together, it’s going to click real soon.

“And we’re not really worried about the Joe Moore right now. We’re just worried about winning games. The last two years, we won that, but we haven’t won a national championship — and that’s really the only thing we care about right now, and winning the next game this week.”

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The offensive line was still a work in progress at this time last year, Keegan noted, in a similar situation to the current juncture of this season.

“I feel like the last two years, especially last year, we didn’t play too well the first five games,” the Michigan lineman explained. “I was like, ‘Yeah, there’s no way we’re gonna win it.’ We weren’t playing that well, and then the Penn State game, we were like, ‘yeah,’ and then we just kept rolling from there. It’s going to take a couple weeks for us — we didn’t have spring ball together — but once this thing gets rolling, we’re going to be playing really well. 

“When you have nine, 10 [defenders] in the box, it’s kinda hard to really break out the runs. It’s going to come soon. I can feel it.”

Michigan has rotated its tackles, with graduate Karsen Barnhart starting at left and senior Myles Hinton at right. Graduate LaDarius Henderson has worked in on the left side, in which case Hinton comes out and Barnhart slides over to right tackle. Keegan said he doesn’t “see a difference” between Barnhart and Henderson at tackle, from his perspective as the left guard.

“Whoever’s in there, they’re both going to play good,” he said. “There’s been a rotation. Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to that, but I felt like we were rolling the ball down the field on those guys and I feel like everybody was blocking well. There were a couple errors in communication in pass pro.

“But the way we practiced last week and the way we’ve been practicing, guys are really starting to mesh, and we’re really gonna start to get this thing rolling.”

And to Keegan’s point, neither Hinton nor Henderson — both incoming transfers — participated in spring practices. The same goes for Stanford graduate transfer center Drake Nugent. Keegan and senior right guard Zak Zinter also missed time.

“Just one missing thing is being able to do stuff on the fly,” Keegan explained. “Almost like not even have to communicate, where you just know everything is going to come right at the snap. I’d say that little thing right there.

“Every transfer we’ve had come in here, they come in here, they want to play here, they want to play for Michigan. They join the brotherhood, they click well with everybody, they do everything on and off the field well. They learn the play book, they work their tails off. In the grand scheme of things, it’s just getting reps in practice and pushing each other, and it’s gonna click. It’s coming — it’s coming real soon.”

In a 31-7 win over Rutgers last Saturday, Michigan rushed for over 200 yards for the first time this season, going for 201. The run blocking was improved, the lineman pointed out.

“It was a step forward in the run game,” he said. “The plays where we mess up, it’s one person. It’s one person, and once we get all 11 guys doing their assignments, this thing is going to be special, we’re gonna get rolling. It’s just little things at this point. It’s little things we can correct on our own. It’s something we can meet longer, 15 minutes after practice, little things like that. It’s going to come. I swear, it’s coming.”

Trevor Keegan makes point on new clock rule

The new rule in college football in which the clock doesn’t stop at all after first downs outside of the last two minutes of each half has impacted statistics across the sport. To what extent is still unknown with such a small sample size. However, Keegan — a man who’s in the arena — believes it’s been quite a significant factor.

“Most people don’t realize how the clock rules have changed college football,” the Michigan standout said. “We had, I think, four drives in the first half [against Rutgers]. If you don’t score on one, it’s going to affect something. If you’re not breaking out these long runs, you’re not gonna rush for 300 yards anymore. It’s dwelling on the guys a little bit that we’re not rushing for 300 yards, but those days of that are going to be over just because of the clock rules by themselves.”

Michigan had just seven drives against the Scarlet Knights, including a three-and-out that took only 1:27. Excluding the final possession in which Michigan ran the clock out, the Wolverines scored on four of six drives (3 touchdowns, 1 field goal). One of the non-scoring drives was a 42-yard possession that ended with a missed field goal.

Michigan’s 8-minute field goal drive to begin the third quarter set the tone for the second half. The Scarlet Knights had a late-third-quarter turnover for a score that all but ended the game. The Wolverines had chewed that much clock where it was too late for Rutgers to come back.

“It’s definitely an advantage,” Keegan said of the ability to go on long drives. “I think we had a drive in the third quarter, it was an eight-minute drive. That can change the game. The clock is everything when you have the ball, so it’s very impactful.”