Two Michigan Wolverines named preseason All-American by Sporting News
The preseason accolades continue to roll in for Michigan Wolverines football players. Two landed on Sporting News’ preseason All-America teams, with graduate kicker Jake Moody (first team) and graduate offensive lineman Olusegun Oluwatimi (second team) earning the honor.
A three-time All-Big Ten honoree, Moody was a 2021 consensus All-American and Michigan’s first ever Lou Groza Award winner, which is handed out to the nation’s top kicker. He led the team with 125 points, the second-highest single-season total in program history and most-ever by a kicker, nailing 23 of his 25 field goal attempts with a program-record 56 extra points. He also sailed 98 kickoffs with a 62.8-yard average and 65 touchbacks.
“Moody was a second-team SN All-American last season,” the site’s Bill Bender wrote. “He hit 92 percent of his field goals and was perfect inside 40 yards and on extra points for the Wolverines. Moody hasn’t missed an extra point in four seasons and is a reliable fifth-year option for Michigan.”
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Moody was key in helping Michigan’s special teams unit rate as the nation’s best according to Phil Steele and Football Outsiders, an analytics site.
Oluwatimi, a newcomer from Virginia who joined the team in January and went through spring practices, was a finalist for the Rimington Award (nation’s top center) last season and was one of the top transfer additions in the Big Ten this offseason. He graded out as the third-best run blocker at his position in 2021, per Pro Football Focus (PFF), and was named a season-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America.
Oluwatimi’s situation is a good one with Michigan in 2022. He slides into an offensive line that returns both guards — redshirt sophomores Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter — and has a starting left tackle, redshirt junior Ryan Hayes, in place. Position coach and co-offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore led a group in the trenches that yielded just 34 tackles for loss — which led the nation and was 10 less than any other team — and 14 sacks (fifth in America).
“The thing I loved about him was, he was never, ‘Hey, I was a starter at a Power Five school at Virginia. I was a Rimington finalist. Look at me,'” Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said on a recent episode of the Jed Hughes podcast. “Never a word like that. It was just, went to work and went into spring practices and now is respected by all. Because, I think, his approach, his angle of approach of how he came in and just wanted to prove himself. He helped the team and [is] hungry to help us to get better.”
