Michigan football's Myles Hinton hates hearing about potential, may be the next great LT

If everything goes according to plan, Michigan football's starting left tackle next season will be Myles Hinton.

The 6-foot-6 lineman walked through the Al Glick Fieldhouse looking trim — "high 320s, low 330s" he estimated Tuesday — which is down from the 340 pounds he played at last year and precisely where he plans to be when the season begins in late August.

It was a frame that looked every bit the part his new position coach had gushed about the day prior.

"Any time you have a guy who looks like that and moves like that and has the ability that he does, we always say that God doesn’t make too many people look like that and have that ability," first-year offensive line coach Grant Newsome said Monday. "He’s got all the ability in the world. I think he’s a guy who, potential-wise, has all the ability to be the next great first-round tackle at the University of Michigan.

"Now it’s on myself, his coaches, and on him to make that happen."

Hinton was asked 24 hours later what it feels like to hear that? The question was meant as a compliment; Hinton literally shuddered.

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See, the John's Creek, Georgia, native is fed up with hearing about what should be or could be. After all, when he transferred to Ann Arbor last year from Stanford, he had the potential to win one of the starting tackle spots and then bolt for the NFL; the path Arizona State transfer LaDarius Henderson is currently on.

Instead, Hinton made one start at left tackle and four at right, before he fell out of favor — after playing 168 snaps through four weeks, he played 98 the rest of the season, and more than 21 in a game only once — for Henderson and two more experienced players in the system, Karsen Barnhart and Trente Jones.

That's also not the only set back in Hinton's journey to this point. The younger brother of Chris Hinton Jr., a former U-M defensive tackle (2019-21) who spent last season with the Los Angeles Chargers, Myles was another high-level four-star prospect coming out of high school.

Rated the No. 6 offensive tackle in 2020 by the 247Sports Composite rankings, Hinton had offers from every power house imaginable. He opted to go to Stanford, where he started at left tackle as a freshman, but then moved to right tackle as a sophomore and played seven games while fighting through shoulder problems as a junior.

"Personally, when I hear stuff like that, I'm like, aghhh," Hinton said, shaking his head. "I don't want to hear like 'oh, how good you could be.' I just want to do me and if doing me gets me that good, then it does. Of course I want to be the best player I can be, but like I feel like if I harp too much on it, it's an extra stressor, I'm playing tense.

"So just playing it cool, that's kind of the vibe of the year."

'Get into a flow state'

Even before Hinton knew football was going to be his future, he never liked the idea of putting too much stress on the sport he grew up surrounded by.

The son of Chris Hinton — an All-American at Northwestern and eight-time NFL All-Pro offensive lineman — and Mya Hinton — who played basketball at Northwestern, Hinton always found himself drawn (literally and figuratively) elsewhere.

"I've been into art since I was a kid," he said. "I didn't really grow up like a big sports guy in general."

Hinton has taken art classes since he was in elementary school and still does. His favorite artist is Jean-Michael Basquiat, who he described as, "less constructed ... kind of abstract," and he recently posted a 20-by-24-foot oil painting earlier this month on his Instagram with the caption, "Why Am I Bleeding."

He has another account dedicated to his work that has dozens of sketches; everything from snakes and skulls to shoes and skeletons. Also a former discus state champion in track and field, Hinton said he makes sure to keep up with his art even as he gets deeper into his career, because it's something that helps keep him "grounded."

"No matter what else is going on in life, I can always draw something or sketch something because it kind of racks my mind," he said. "I can get like into a flow state, I can draw for hours and not think about it."

That's the same reason Hinton can often be found at the Argo Dam or in the Barton Pond, with a cast in the line. Fishing is another one of his first loves, and something he has sought for years to keep his mind at ease. Even Monday when the sun peaked out for a few hours and the temperature barely reached 50 degrees, Hinton was on the water.

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It was only a moderately successful day by his standards — two bass, a carp and a pike — but there will be more to come when the weather heats up.

"I enjoy the challenge," he explained. "Especially sight fishing because when you can see them, they're more skittish, so it's more fun to surmount that challenge. For example, the carp yesterday was in really shallow water, so it was kind of cool because it didn't want to bite right away — you had to do the right things to make it want to bite."

'Building relationships'

Though Hinton was on the water alone recently, he doesn't expect that to be the case for long.

Hinton used to go last season with Drake Nugent and has already agreed to tentative plans with transfer guard Josh Priebe when the temperature heats up in a few weeks.

For Hinton, it's not just enjoyable, it's essential. Gone is the offensive line of last year, which had five members who played together for more than four years and formed the core of the unit that won consecutive Joe Moore Awards as part of its run where it won won three straight Big Ten titles and last year's national championship.

They weren't just the nation's best group because of their talent, but their bond.

"We’re working as a group to find our identity as an O-line," Hinton explained. "I feel like the last group kind of had their thing, cause those guys were working together for like five or six years, you know? So it was a tight knit group, so I think we’re on the way to that."

U-M's new group has had a total of seven spring practices. So far, it's Hinton at left tackle, Gio El-Hadi at left guard, Greg Crippen at center, Priebe at right guard, and a battle at right tackle between Jeff Persi and Andrew Gentry.

Though the unit is still learning how to move together, it's not as if it's a bunch of freshmen or entirely new faces. Hinton has played in 33 games with 21 starts (15 games, five starts at U-M) while El Hadi (20 games, three starts) Crippen (15 games) and Persi (12 games) have all suited up for Michigan at least a dozen times.

"There's a lot of starts in that room, so there's a lot of guys who have played football at a high level," Newsome said. "Now it's going to be on them, myself, on us as a coaching staff to find the best five and continue to develop beyond that and find the best chemistry in the room."

It starts with guys like Hinton, taking on leadership roles. He said it's something he has gravitated to naturally so far this year, like when Evan Link sits behind him in film and he turns around him and probes him with a question to test his understanding.

It's also helped that he's felt back "at home" on the left side, after bouncing back-and-forth in recent years. Hinton also had undergone shoulder surgery prior to coming to Michigan, which set him back as he tried to break his way into the playing group last year.

"Just grind, just grind,” he said of his mentality this season. “It’s kind of cliché, but there’s not much more to do. Keep the wheels turning, keep progressing, get stronger, faster, bigger. Lean out, just kind of honing the craft, hone the small details."

Of course, Hinton can hammer those details, but if he doesn't get on the same page as the rest of his unit, the success won't follow. The way he sees it, getting on the same page doesn't just happen when watching film and going over the timing of when a guard pulls on a sweep, or how to pass off a double team on a stunt.

"It comes over time, like anything," he said. "Building relationships with people, caring about them, talking to them outside of football. Inside the building is not the only place you should be talking to your teammates. It’s fostering relationships outside of the room, hanging out you know going fishing, watching movies, stuff like that.

"I feel like you can create bonds that way for sure."

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Myles Hinton has a plan to use fishing to bond Michigan football OL