Sherrone Moore, Michigan Football Tasked With Replacing Entire Offensive Line In 2024

As the calendar flips to July, excitement builds for the 2024 college football season. We are just three weeks away from Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis and a little over a month from the start of fall camps across the country.

Coming off arguably its best season in program history, Michigan brings another loaded roster into 2024 in the form of “Team 145”. In preparation for the upcoming year, it’s a good time to break down each position group for the Wolverines with “one thing I like”, “one thing I don’t” and “one thing to watch”. Up next is the unit which has largely become the heartbeat of teh Wolverines program — Offensive Line.

For years, Michigan has been incredibly smart in the way its rotated bodies along the offensive line. The Wolverines will replace all five O-line starters from last season, and yet four guys projected to start in 2024 (LT – Myles Hinton; C – Greg Crippen; RG – Giovanni El-Hadi; RT – Andrew Gentry) have each played extensive snaps in backup roles in previous years. Michigan also added Northwestern transfer Josh Priebe, who was an All-Big Ten selection a season ago and is projected to start at left guard for the Wolverines this season.

Ever since now-head coach Sherrone Moore took over the offensive line ahead of the 2021 season, this unit has been the backbone of the program. We can only expect that to continue now that Moore is the head coach, and his position is being taken over by a rising star in the coaching ranks in former U-M offensive lineman Grant Newsome, the program’s tight end coach over the past two seasons.

Not only did Michigan lose all five of its starters at O-line from last year’s team, the Wolverines’ Top 6 offensive linemen in terms of snap count are all headed to the professional ranks. No matter how good a program is or has been up front, that’s a cause for concern. While Michigan returns a surprising amount of experience among its projected starters (given an entirely new first five), the impact will be felt in the Wolverines’ depth in the trenches.

If Michigan stays healthy up front, this can be another very strong unit for the Wolverines. If U-M loses a guy or two, particularly at the tackle position, then they could run into some problems. With that said, Michigan has done an outstanding job recruiting and developing this position group over the past several seasons.

While we feel pretty strongly that Hinton, Priebe, Crippen and El-Hadi will start from left to right along the offensive line, the battle for the starting right tackle spot will be an interesting one to watch in fall camp. Gentry is the favorite after appearing in seven games for the Wolverines a year ago, but he could get pushed by redshirt junior Tristan Bounds and graduate senior Jeffrey Persi. Competition is a good things — “iron sharpens iron” Jim Harbaugh used to say, and the battle for starting jobs in the trenches often leads to overall improvement.

One other thing to watch is how often Michigan utilizes six or even seven offensive lineman, like it did at times in past years under Harbaugh. As a former offensive lineman himself, it’s not hard to envision Moore wanting to play “bully ball” in the same way Harbaugh liked to. Moore was also the program’s offensive coordinator each of the past two seasons, so it’ll be interesting to see what looks familiar and the new wrinkles Moore and new OC Kirk Campbell will introduce this year.

This article is part of a series examining every position group on Michigan Football’s 2024 roster. You can find the other position groups that Michigan Wolverines On SI has already covered here: (Quarterback, Running Back)

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