What will Michigan's starting offensive line be against Nebraska?

Michigan Wolverines football has already used two different starting offensive line combinations through three games, with both guards — graduate Giovanni El-Hadi (left) and junior Brady Norton (right) — missing last week’s game against Central Michigan, a 63-3 win.

Associate and interim head coach Biff Poggi said Monday that El-Hadi may need “a couple weeks” before he returns, but that there’s a “good chance” he would be back practicing this week.

“Both Gio and Brady are working through lower-body injuries,” offensive line coach Grant Newsome said Wednesday. “Brady is a little further ahead than Gio is. We’re hopeful that we’ll have them both back for this weekend, but I’ll know more as the week progresses and that injury report comes out.”

Cemented as starters heading into this weekend’s tilt at Nebraska are junior left tackle Evan Link, graduate center Greg Crippen and sophomore right tackle Andrew Sprague.

But, assuming El-Hadi won’t be available, there could be three contenders — Guarnera, Norton and Efobi — for the two guard spots.

Junior Nathan Efobi got the start at left guard, after rotating in at right guard in the opener against New Mexico, battling there with Norton. Sophomore Jake Guarnera, a versatile piece who can also play center, meanwhile, got the nod at right guard. By all accounts, Guarnera shined in his first taste of starting action.

“Jake played really well,” Newsome explained. “He graded out really well. I felt that live in game that he was playing well, and then the film confirmed it. It’s a credit to him.

“I get it, it was Central Michigan, it wasn’t the national championship — but still, to be able to have that maturity and handle that real, live offensive game action, I was really happy with him and really impressed.”

And now that Guarnera has proven it in a game, when Norton is available to play, including potentially this weekend, there’s more competition.

“That’s the great thing about having depth is when those guys are back, it’s a competition,” Newsome pointed out. “It’s, how does Jake play in games? How does practice look? [Michigan head] Coach [Sherrone] Moore always says it, that you’re going to need eight, nine, 10 guys, and we’ve unfortunately already proven that some this year.

“It’s very much, you’ve got to earn your spot back. It’s not just a guarantee that if you were a starter to start the season that you get your spot back.”

Efobi was ahead of Guarnera on the guard pecking order when Michigan initially suffered injuries to El-Hadi and then Norton, but Guarnera could surpass him, too. If Guarnera starts on the right side, it sounds as if Norton could move over to the left side.

“Nate went out and played pretty well against Central Michigan, and he’s going to have to have a good week of practice — he had a good practice yesterday,” the Michigan coach said. “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. Every week, it’s that open competition of who the best five guys are going to be to go help us win.”

All of the guards have experience practicing on both sides of the line.

“We worked all of those guys — Nate, Brady, Jake, [graduate] Lawrence [Hattar] — at both left and right all throughout spring, all throughout camp, in part for this reason, so that if someone goes down, it’s not the first time they’ve repped right or left. So, he had repped throughout that week, the Oklahoma week, at left guard

“I think there is a misconception that it’s just changing which foot is up. It is different, especially at tackle, playing left versus playing right, but that’s where it comes down to having that preparation and make sure those guys have gotten those reps so it’s not brand new to them.”