Michigan football offensive line won’t play scared against stacked Georgia front
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — All year, Georgia’s defense was ballyhooed as the greatest unit that college football has maybe ever seen. That narrative died a quick death when Alabama put 41 points on the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game.
Still, this is a front seven that has combined for 40 of the team’s 41 sacks, the sixth-most in the country. What’s particularly impressive is, unlike Michigan, who has a particular duo in Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, 17 different players have combined for those 41 sacks, starting with star linebacker Nakobe Dean. In fact, Georgia’s four sack leaders are all designated linebackers, while star players like Jordan Davis in the defensive interior has just two.
Naturally, Michigan is on high alert when it comes to protecting the quarterback against the talented defensive front. But, echoing the sentiment before the Ohio State game, this offensive line is not scared of the challenge of either keeping rushers out of the backfield, nor opening up holes for the running backs.
“They’re a really impressive defensive front, defensive line,” fifth-year right tackle Andrew Stueber said. “Their structure is really good, they’re well-coached. They play hard and everything, but I think the biggest thing for us is we play Michigan football, we don’t change too much. We do what we do best. This team has had so much success. The coaches know this, not to go away from what has worked and what will continue to work.
“I think they’re really well-coached, really well-conditioned, but just make sure we don’t play scared, we don’t play timid, come off the ball, play Michigan football. What has gotten here, the success so far, is playing Michigan football and being able to not change who we are. I think the biggest thing now is maintaining that and keep that moving forward.”
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One of the big questions offensively for the Wolverines is how much success will they be able to have against the stout front? We know that the maize and blue want to run the ball, and while Alabama, the sole winner against UGA, did manage over 100 yards rushing in the game, it was through its pass game that it really thrived.
Still, the maize and blue are looking at nuances to see what they can take away from the Crimson Tide and their success. But don’t expect to see any wholesale changes to emulate what Alabama did on Dec. 4.
“We definitely look at that game – that was definitely an interesting game to watch,” Stueber said. “There’s a lot to learn there. I think Alabama did a lot of good stuff but also a lot of stuff that doesn’t really cater to us our offense. Being able to pick apart what worked and what we can transmit into our offense is a big thing. Like I said before, we’re not going to change too much, we’re not gonna cut and copy what Alabama did or any other team that had a little bit of success on them. Being able to pick out what worked and seeing what that version of that in our offense is big. But definitely from a player perspective, individually – Alabama’s a great offensive line, too, so being able to watch them, how they conducted their business is big for us, too.”
Michigan and Georgia will kick off in the Capital One Orange Bowl at 7:30 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium as the latter of the College Football Playoff semi-finals on Dec. 31.
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