How two key players helped Michigan football’s offensive line spark the run game

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines had a setback at Oklahoma two weeks ago, where, outside of a Justice Haynes 75-yard touchdown run, the rushing attack left a ton to be desired.

A chance at redemption emerges this week with the trip to Nebraska on tap (3:30, CBS). Michigan will look to implement the lessons it learned in its 24-13 loss in Norman.

For the Wolverines, it all starts up front.

“We didn’t play well enough to get the win,” offensive line coach Grant Newsome said on Wednesday. “So that’s the most important thing. I’m included in that because I’m obviously the one who coaches [the offensive line]. 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 [against Central Michigan].

“So a lot to improve on. Just got to keep getting better.”

Michigan’s offensive line and run game busted out in a big way against CMU, racking up 390 yards and 8 touchdowns on 52 attempts. A big factor in that was unleashing freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, who had 114 yards and 2 touchdowns on his own.

Once Michigan put that on film, it opened up more lanes for the Michigan tailbacks. It also changed the math inside the box for the offensive line.

“It’s a math equation,” Newsome said. “All of a sudden, now, if you can either 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 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’ve got to account for that when you’re in your coverages and gotta have responsibility for the quarterback.”

Underwood’s running ability helped Michigan have a big week on the ground, but senior captain and tight end Marlin Klein also had an impact as a run blocker. Those two factors were things U-M did not have at its disposal at Oklahoma.

“He’s huge… have to give a shout-out to Coach Casula and the tight ends,” Newsome said. “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 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… go dominate the point of attack. Coach Casula does a great job of getting those guys ready, and the tight ends have a great mindset. 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.”