Everything Michigan OL coach Grant Newsome said during his pre-Nebraska press conference

On Jake Guarnera’s game against Central Michigan and weighing more playing time for him

Yeah, Jake played really well. You know, he graded out really well. Felt that live in the game that he was playing well, and then the film confirmed it. So it’s a credit to him. I get it was Central Michigan. It wasn’t the national championship, but still to be able to have that maturity and be able to handle that. And it’s first real kind of live offensive game action. Was really happy with him, really impressed. And it’s a great thing about having depth is that when those guys are back, it’s a competition. How has Jake played in games? How has practice looked? Coach Moore always says that you’re going to need eight, nine, 10 guys. And we, unfortunately, already proven that some this year. So no, I mean, it’s, it’s very much, you know, you got to earn your spot back. And it’s not just a guarantee that because you were the starter to start the season that you get your spot back.

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On Brady Norton’s potential return and figuring out the right guard starter

Sure. So obviously Biff said it on Monday, but both those guys are working through, both Gio and Brady are working through lower-body injuries. Brady is a little farther ahead than Gio is. We’re hopeful that we’ll have them both back for this weekend, but, just like you guys all kind of know, more as the week progresses, and that injury report comes out.

On Evan Link’s performance this season

Always stuff to clean up, but miles ahead of where it was last week, last year, three weeks in. And part of that’s just him being more comfortable, trusting himself, playing with confidence, being a little more comfortable on the left side than he was on the right. But I’ve been happy with how he’s played so far, but obviously, he’s got to continue to improve just like everyone does week to week. I feel like you’ve got a really good third tackle right now, and Blake Frazier is going to continue to push both those guys. I’ve been happy with it, but, always stuff to improve.

On the purpose of Sherrone Moore spending more time on the OL room last week

He spent some time, more time, with us on the field. He’ll come around on a normal week and watch O-line indy. Obviously, that’s his baby and what he played, what he coached. So he’ll spend time on a normal week with us, but his message for the entire team last week was just getting back to the how. So just to the fundamentals and we really embraced that in the offensive line room, and just getting back onto the chutes even more than we normally do in a normal week, and focusing on pad level, hand placement. Less about the plays or what the defense is going to do, more just about stuff we can control.

On evaluating the OL play against Oklahoma and the lessons taken into Nebraska

Obviously we didn’t play well enough to get the win. So that’s the most, most, most important thing. And I say that, I’m included in that because I’m obviously the one who coaches them. So it’s a joint effort and I thought we protected pretty well overall. It wasn’t a bunch of pressure, but we didn’t run the ball consistently enough. We had a couple of the big explosives, but just didn’t consistently provide lanes for the running backs in the way that we need to, the way that we did on Saturday, this past Saturday. So a lot to improve on. Just got to keep getting better.

On Nebraska’s top-ranked pass defense impacting the gameplan

No, I mean, I think Coach Lindsey’s going to, obviously, you study each opponent and have a lot of respect for Nebraska and the defense they have. And obviously, that’s been a hallmark of their program for a long time and rightfully so. So I think you have to — every week we look at, hey, what do these guys do well? What do they maybe have issues with? And you try to attack that, but at the same time, I think Coach Lindsey’s continued to press on us to just do a great job of just doing what we do. Sometimes you can get caught up in chasing this part of this defense or this. And sometimes you can stray away from what we do best. So I think it’s always a balance.

On what Nebraska’s pass rush does well

I think it’s a combination of things. I think obviously they’re going to challenge you with man coverage, having a defensive coordinator who’s a secondary guy, he’s going to have the secondary dial it in and credit to them. They do a really good job. They’ve got a bunch of experienced players who have started a lot of games and really talented in the back end. And I think they did a great job of going out and getting two talented edges who can generate pressure with four. Even if they haven’t gotten home quite as much, they have talented edge rushers. So it’ll be a good challenge for us both in terms of the back end and the pass rush. So we’re looking forward to the opportunity.

On how the OL performed with physicality against CMU

It was much better to be able to run the ball for seven yards a carry or whatever it was. It was consistently better, especially with a couple of the two longest runs in the day being called back. And that’s something, obviously, we got to improve upon in our room. We can’t get that hold on the pin and pull touchdown in the second half. But overall it was good. Always stuff to improve. I thought we started a little slow running the football, but really kind of hit the groove, kind of mid-second quarter, especially in the second half. It was encouraging that there wasn’t any drop off when the second group and then the third group, we played every single guy who was dressed in the offensive line. So to be able to consistently move the ball with guys kind of coming in and coming out was encouraging to see, but then we know there’s a great challenge in front of us this week. So we got to embrace that opportunity.

On how to coach players to be more physical

I think it starts in practice as it always does, just making sure our pad level is good. Our hand placement’s good. That we’re finishing through the echo of the whistle in practice. Cause it’s obviously, as you guys all know, it’s not a type of thing you can just turn on in-game. You have to practice that. You have to develop those habits. You know, like I said, just getting back and spending — we always spend time in the chutes every week, but spending extra time. Last week I think we went to chutes every single day. We’ll do it again this week. Just getting back to kind of the basics and less concerned about necessarily the specific looks and more just about us and our fundamentals, our finish, pad level, all those things.

On why work with the chutes is important for an offensive lineman

I love the chutes. It’s kind of the genesis of the origin of everything we do upfront, just cause it focuses so much on your pad level and firing out as opposed to standing up. And when you can come out with a flat back and low pad level and play with tight hands, good things tend to happen. Obviously, defenses do a good job of moving and stunting and blitzing to try to get you off of those kind of one-on-one blocks or off those combination blocks. But at the end of the day, you have to be able to move men to generate a rushing attack. And, obviously, we have a stable of talented backs. So if we give them space, we get them up to a second or third-level player, they’ll make a miss. They’ll take care of the rest, but we got to do our job and open up those holes. So it all starts with pad level.

On how much flexibility Greg Crippen has to dictate what the offense does

He’s the quarterback of the offensive line. And we put a ton on the center in this offense, just as we have for years and years. He does a great job of kind of being the commander up there and getting everything set, making sure we’re locked in and everyone’s got the calls. It’s a great opportunity this week, much like Oklahoma, Nebraska, their fans do a great job. It’s a tough place to play. So, again, we’ve got to do a great job in practice of preparing for that and then embracing that opportunity, embracing that challenge on the road, because they’re just like in the last three or four times we’ve played there, they’re gonna make it tough.

On Bryce Underwood’s scrambling ability helps with numbers

I mean, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, it’s a math equation. All of a sudden, now, if you either can get the running back out wide and you pull a hat out that way, or you get the running back as an extra blocker, either way, you’re starting to square up your numbers. We’re now playing with 10, they still have 11, but we have 10 instead of 9 or 8 instead of 7, however many blockers you have in the scheme. I also think Bryce did a heck of a job of just extending plays. I guess, kind of funny part, however you want to look at it, I think of those rushes, I think one of them was a called run. The rest were him just kind of making plays and the stuff we’d seen since spring, stuff we’d seen since since fall camp. Obviously he’s a dynamic athlete as well as a great quarterback. So he’s got that ability to, if he doesn’t like it, take off. And I’d imagine it makes it tougher for a defense because you got to account for that when you’re in your coverages and gotta have responsibility for the quarterback.

On what the staff saw in Guarnera as a recruit

I have to give Coach Moore credit because he was the one who Jake committed to out of high school. But I think there’s kind of a misconception sometimes in the recruiting services and the ratings. And I know I have, for as long as I’ve been a position coach, I know Coach Moore has, I know all of us feel strongly that you got to watch the tape. You know, a lot of times the rankings match up with what you see on tape, but there’s plenty of times where a guy’s rated really high and you don’t see it. In our personal opinion, there’s a lot of times where a guy may be underrated, so to speak, like Jake was, and you turn on the tape and you see those traits, you see the characteristics both in terms of their physical traits, physical abilities, how they play, but also the kind of intangible things, how they finish how their body language is between plays, all those things that can kind of start to tell you or give you indication of how they’re going to be. That’s obviously before you start being able to talk to them and get a sense for their personalities. How do they learn? What does their high school coach say about them? What do people in the school say about them? All those kinds of things that can give you an indicator of how this person’s going to be. And Jake, to his credit, even last year, you got a sense that he was going to be ready sooner rather than later. And he had a good training camp this fall, and we felt, immediately going into the season, that we could put him in and feel really good about it. So I’m happy for him that he’s gotten that opportunity and excited for him to continue to do that.

On whether he has a story about blocking inanimate objects with Jim Harbaugh

I mean, I don’t know if I need good ones. There was a period where Coach Harbaugh became very obsessed with pass setting and liked to pass that down the hallways. But you’ve been here 11 years, like I have. There’s a lot of technique demonstration that goes on, and that’s part of what you love about the job is we get to coach football. It’s hard not to love it.

On balancing having a lot of resources in the OL coaching room and not being overwhelmed with too many people

Sure, I think it’s a great question. And I think there’s kind of two ways to look at it. The one way it would be like, all right, no, hey, we have to do it my way. It’s gotta be only my voice. It’s gotta be this, it’s gotta be that. Whereas I take the other view of why not use the resources? Now, obviously, with Coach Moore, he’s what I learned under. So there’s a ton of similarities in terms of how we teach the language. I mean, it’s all the same. So, and then, bringing in a guy like Juan, who has an immense amount of experience, not only in college, but obviously decades in the NFL. There’s a lot of carryover anyway, but it’s a great resource for our guys. It’s a great resource for me to be able to say, hey, what do you think about this? Or, hey, how do you like to coach this technique? So instead of viewing it as a threat or a challenge, I like to think of it as a great opportunity for our players, great opportunity for me to be able to have an incredible resource on our staff. And then I think to answer your original question, just comes down to making sure that, I may say something differently, in terms of specifics than Coach Moore would, or Juan would, or Coach Gilbert, or Coach Marukian, who are oour great, out two other great offensive line analysts. But we’re all saying the same common message. And I think that’s a great thing. We’ve all had teachers in school where two teachers can say the same thing, and they’re saying the same general principle, or they’re saying the same information, but you may learn better from this person, or you may like how that person explains it better than this person. It doesn’t mean that one’s better than the other. It just means that, just the phrasing is slightly different. So, no, I think it’s an awesome attribute for our guys, and it’s a great help for us.

On Nathan Efobi’s move to left guard in Gio El-Hadi’s absence and whether he gets another start

We worked all those guys, Nate, Brady, Jake, Lawrence. We worked them at both left and right guard all throughout spring, all throughout camp, in part for this reason, so that if guys goes down, it’s not the first time they’ve ever taken a snap at left. So he had repped even throughout that week, the Oklahoma week at left guard. Some of the misconceptions are that it’s just changing which foot is up. It is different, especially at tackle, playing on the left versus playing on the right, but that’s where it just comes down to trying to have preparation, make sure those guys have gotten those reps so that it’s not brand new to them. It goes back to what I said earlier about Jake, Nate went out and played pretty well against Central Michigan, and he’s got to continue to have a good week of practice. He had a good practice yesterday, and if he does that, then he’ll be the starter. If Brady’s back, and Brady’s playing better than Nate, then Brady will be the starter. It’s every week, it’s that open competition of who are the best five guys who are going to help us go win.

On the importance of having Marlin Klein back

He’s huge. I mean, I have to give a shout-out to Coach Casula and the tight ends. They do an unbelievable job. It’s a center point of our offense, not just throwing the ball, but being able to have tight ends who can block, and block not just at an okay level, or they can maybe cut off a C gap or went out every now and again, but where we feel like, hey, you know, most weeks we’re going to like our matchup, and we’re going to feel like we have an advantage here, putting a tight end who can also go run. Whenever Marlin would run and catch seams and wheel routes and do all the things our tight ends do a great job of in the passing game, but at the same time, not just be okay, or not just hold up at the point of attack, but go dominate the point of attack. So Coach Casula does a great job of getting those guys ready, and the tight ends have a great mindset of, they consider themselves an extension of the offensive line in the run game. They really take a lot of pride in that, and I think it shows up, and it helps us, because all of a sudden, teams have to defend multiple different things when you have tight ends attached to the core.

On what Juan Castillo is like during practice

He’s a very enthusiastic guy. He’s very enthusiastic, very energetic, but like I said, it’s been awesome to have him, and obviously have Coach Marukian back back from Charlotte, where he was with Coach Biff for the last couple of years. As well as Coach Gilbert, who’s been on staff the last couple of years. Again, I’m very, very fortunate to have the amount of O-line knowledge we have in the building, and especially coaching a position where every single player can have five, or as you guys see for us, sometimes six or seven guys on the field at the same time. It’s a huge help, because I may see something with Link that I want to go hit with him, but all of a sudden, now, Juan or John or Nick can hit something that happened with Sprague, or Efobi. It’s just, again, I view it as a complete positive for us that we have five guys in our room, or in our building, excuse me, who’ve been division one offensive line coaches.