Pressure Mounts on Grant Newsome to Elevate Michigan’s Offensive Line

Tucked away near the end of his lengthy answer to a question regarding early standouts during fall camp, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore tossed a bone to the newly constructed brain trust overseeing the offensive line, a position group that became the bedrock of the Wolverines’ renaissance during its final few seasons under Jim Harbaugh, whose run was punctuated with the 2023 national title.

Moore began by shouting out second-year offensive line coach Grant Newsome, his longtime protégé as a student-assistant, graduate assistant and leader of the tight ends room during a six-year period that began in 2016 when Newsome, a once-promising Michigan offensive tackle, medically retired after badly damaging his right leg. Newsome was the logical choice to take over the offensive line once Moore assumed control of the program after Harbaugh bolted to the NFL. At the time, Newsome’s promotion was viewed as nothing more than the next step in his meteoric rise through the coaching profession, a trajectory lauded time and again by Harbaugh in the preceding years.

From there, Moore continued his ode to offensive line tutelage by recognizing everyone else who’d played a role in what he described as widespread improvement at that position since the end of last season, an 8-5 campaign in which late victories over Ohio State and Alabama salvaged an otherwise forgettable year. He recognized Nick Gilbert, an assistant offensive line coach entering his second season in that particular role. He mentioned John Morookian, another assistant offensive line coach who is back in Ann Arbor after two years as a position coach at Charlotte. And he referenced Juan Castillo, the senior assistant offensive line coach who spent 2024 coaching the offensive line at UCLA and has nearly three decades of NFL experience on his résumé, not to mention one season as an analyst for Harbaugh at Michigan.

“They’ve invested a lot of time in that group to be really good,” Moore said during a news conference on Aug. 12. “And they know the vision. They know what I want in that O-line. And they know how we should run it as an offensive line. They’ve imprinted [what I want] in that group, and they’ve become closer this offseason. They’ve worked really, really hard.”

What Moore didn’t say, perhaps because it was equal parts implied and understood, was that the reason Michigan added two more assistant coaches to its offensive line room, and why everyone associated with that position has had to work so hard, is because the on-field product last fall came up short of the program’s standard. 

The Wolverines finished tied for 73rd nationally in rushing at 157.2 yards per game, their lowest average for a full season since 2019. They finished tied for 55th in tackles for loss allowed with 66, an increase of 18 from the year prior and nearly double what Michigan yielded in 2021, when its miniscule tally of 34 was the lowest in the country. Their average of 7.7 quarterback pressures per game surrendered was the group’s highest mark since allowing 8.3 per game in 2021. All told, the unsavory performance forced Newsome, who turned 28 earlier this year, to confront what was arguably his first real moment of adversity since entering the coaching profession.

Such a glaring need for improvement along the offensive line would have existed regardless of whom the Wolverines trot out at quarterback this fall following the revolving-door they endured last season. But the arrival of five-star phenom Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 overall prospect in the country, and his seemingly impending selection as Michigan’s starter, has only intensified the microscope hovering over Newsome this fall, given the importance of such a well-compensated asset. And when the program’s other marquee freshman — five-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola, a player Moore said was neck and neck in the competition to start at left tackle — suffered what many have reported to be a season-ending knee injury on Aug. 18, the pressure heaped on Newsome and his cadre of assistants is now compounding. 

“We realize that we weren’t good enough last year as a team,” Newsome said in a news conference on Aug. 6. “And as an offensive line, you have to lead the team. That’s the expectation here. That’s the way it’s been here. Every great Michigan team, the offensive line has led the team. That’s how it has to be. And so [it’s about] embracing that. You can view it as a challenge and kind of shy away from it, or you can view it as an opportunity.”

Michigan’s offensive line brings back three starters in center Greg Crippen, guard Giovanni El-Hadi and offensive tackle Evan Link, though all of those returns come with asterisks. Crippen, now a graduate student, split snaps with fellow center Dominick Giudice for much of last season before the latter transferred to Missouri over the winter. El-Hadi and Link, meanwhile, are both flipping from the right side of the line to the left with new, inexperienced faces still battling to fill their old spots. Moore said sophomore Andrew Sprague, who logged just 73 snaps in 2024, nearly all of which came in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Alabama, is expected to emerge at right tackle, while a four-man competition continues to unspool at right guard.

The area of greatest concern is left tackle, where Link had been contending with a legitimate surge from Babalola, the Wolverines’ highest-ranked offensive line signee in school history. Link, who was a first-time starter last fall, had 30 of the team’s quarterback pressures charged to him in a campaign when no other Michigan player exceeded 10, according to Pro Football Focus. The only Big Ten offensive tackles to allow more pressures than Link were Alan Herron of Maryland (38) and Bryce Benhart of Nebraska (31). Link’s pass-blocking grade of 38 ranked 166th out of 171 offensive tackles who logged at least 700 snaps last season — a scathing indictment no matter what people think of that particular metric.

Though Newsome and Moore have been staunch in their defense of Link since the end of last season — both coaches said his confidence and performance have greatly improved — there’s little doubt that Babalola’s presence eased their concerns prior to the injury. A native of Overland Park, Kansas, where he was the state’s highest-rated prospect in more than 15 years, Babalola arrived at Michigan as the No. 16 overall recruit and No. 3 offensive tackle in the country. He bulked his 6-foot-6 frame up to 315 pounds by working with the Wolverines’ strength and conditioning staff and nutritionists from January through the start of fall camp.

“He’s an incredibly smart guy,” Newsome said of Babalola. “Not just school-wise, but football IQ-wise. It seems like [those traits] would go hand in hand — but definitely not so. He’s 10-times smarter than I was football IQ-wise, especially early in his career. And it’s a credit to him, how much he cares about it, how much he invests in it. But that’s one of his best attributes, obviously, in addition to being very physically gifted.”

For Newsome, who will earn $600,000 this season, landing Babalola gave him a crown jewel for an already strong recruiting profile. He brought three blue-chip tight ends to Michigan during his two seasons coaching that position from 2022-23, headlined by Brady Prieskorn, the No. 130 overall prospect in the 2024 class, and he paired Babalola with two additional high-level offensive tackles in his first cycle leading the offensive line: Ty Haywood, the No. 39 overall prospect and No. 6 offensive tackle in the country; and Avery Gach, the No. 280 overall prospect and No. 15 offensive tackle. Michigan’s 2026 recruiting class, which is ranked 10th nationally, already includes three more four-star offensive linemen. 

Such successful player acquisition is in keeping with the rock-star-style descriptions Harbaugh lavished on Newsome during their time in Ann Arbor, even after Newsome received a one-game suspension for his alleged involvement in recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. Harbaugh marveled over Newsome’s work with tight ends Colston Loveland, AJ Barner and Luke Schoonmaker, all of whom were selected in the first four rounds of the last three NFL Drafts. He gushed about how Newsome would make a great President of the United States. And he constantly reminded reporters that Newsome turned down careers in finance and politics to pursue his football dreams. To Harbaugh, there was nothing Newsome couldn’t do. 

“He is the tight ends coach now,” Harbaugh said of Newsome on the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show in September 2023, “but [we are] already grooming him to be the offensive line coach. And then, once he has maybe a year or two under his belt as offensive line coach, just like Sherrone Moore, he’ll be the coordinator. At that point, when we can’t give him any more money or any more titles, somebody will snatch him up to be a head coach. 

“Mark my words and mark them well: That will happen.”

But first, before any more of Harbaugh’s prophecy can come true, Newsome needs to solidify his standing by fixing Michigan’s offensive line.   

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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