Olu Oluwatimi identifies Michigan D-Line standouts, more
Michigan center Olu Oluwatimi figures to be one of the best pieces on an offensive line that might be better than last year’s Joe Moore Award-winning unit. He was “the best I’ve gone against since Cesar Ruiz,” senior defensive tackle Mazi Smith said this fall — and Oluwatimi had just as high praise for Smith and some of his defensive line mates.
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Those who have seen the battles between the former Virginia standout and Michigan defensive captain have called them “epic.” It’s absolutely the case of iron sharpening iron as head coach Jim Harbaugh likes to say, and it’s not limited to just Smith.
“I’ve seen a lot of great things from our front seven. But obviously, the leader of that front seven is Mazi,” the Michigan grad transfer center said. “He’s a big, strong individual. There are great daily battles.”
Smith told him when he first arrived at Michigan that was going to be the case, Oluwatimi recalled. He embraced it, and both have grown from it.
He’s every bit the “freak” athlete he’s been described, Oluwatimi continued.
“When I first got here [to Michigan], Mazi told me how happy he was I came — the daily battles we were going to have,” he said. “Sometimes this spring I’d tell him, ‘okay — I’m trying to work setting left today, so one on ones lines up on my left. And he always asks me different questions about double teams, things of that nature. He’s trying to pick my brain so he feels like he has an edge on game day facing double teams or different things.
“But we see it [from Smith] on a daily basis. Winter, summer, through spring ball and fall camp. I remember a funny play during spring ball where he ended up kind of tweaking his hamstring. But it was a screen play, and he chased the running back for 40 yards. The next play he was dead tired. You saw him open it up and get out there.”
In short, he said of the Michigan senior …
“Mazi is a freak.”
Other Michigan linemen impress Oluwatimi
There are others. Michigan freshman Kenneth Grant runs a sub-5.0-second 40-yard-dash at 350 pounds, and he’s been referred to as a “gift from the football gods.” Fellow freshman Mason Graham, however, has beaten him out and will start in base packages.
“Mason is a beast for being a young 18-year-old freshman,” Oluwatimi continued. “He plays with his hands, which a lot of young linemen don’t. He plays with great pad level, so he’s one of the toughest people to move off the ball in our front seven.
“Also, [junior] Kris Jenkins — when I first got here, I didn’t think too much of him because he was a little light. But he put on a lot of weight in the offseason. When we started spring ball, his strength definitely shows itself on tape.”
They’ve all made each other better heading toward the Michigan opener Sept. 3. The Wolverines have been itching to get at somebody else, and Colorado State is up in five days.
“The first game, you’re trying not to make it too much about the opponent and about you,” Oluwatimi said. “The jitters are going to be there and all that. I just want to just go out and execute what we’ve been running all camp, all spring. We’re going to try to make it about us on game day.”
And bring back a season-opening victory.
