INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Michigan offensive line won the Joe Moore Award for being the best offensive line unit in all of college football in 2021. The Wolverines return three of the five starters, but they lost Andrew Vastardis and Andrew Steuber from that prolific offensive line.
At the right tackle position, replacing Steuber won’t be easy, but Michigan has two viable candidates that can get the job done. Trente Jones appears to have the inside track of getting the starting nod, but Karsen Barnhart will be battling to get the job during Fall camp.
Jim Harbaugh went transfer portal hunting to find a replacement for Andrew Vastardis at center and found an excellent one. The Wolverines landed Olu Oluwatimi from Virginia. The former Cavalier was a Rimington Award finalist in 2021, which is an award given to the nation’s best center. Oluwatimi was also an All-American and he took the most snaps of any center in the ACC last year with 910 snaps.
Oluwatimi has the experience and grit to step right in as the starter on day one for Michigan. Of course, he has three years of starting experience at Virginia and he has made 32-straight starts.
On Tuesday, during Big Ten media days in Indianapolis, we heard a few players talk about the new starting center in Ann Arbor. Mazi Smith was one of the players that Michigan took, and he shared his excitement to line up against Oluwatimi in practice. Smith said it’s nice to go up against someone that won’t lay down.
“He a monster man, like me, so it’s fun you know iron sharpens iron and we kind of adopted the definition of that when he got here,” said Smith during Big Ten media days. “We talked about it and I haven’t had a center to go up against like him since Cesar Ruiz. I’m just like I love going against guys that that ain’t gonna lay down like Olu. He’s athletic, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s competitive, he’s everything that you want in a center. He’s going make that o-line so much better you know and he gonna make me so much better.”
It’s also important that the incumbent starting quarterback has a good comradery with the starting center. On Tuesday, Cade McNamara was asked about his relationship with Oluwatimi. He shared that Olu has been McNamara’s roommate on the tour of Michigan trip that the team has taken, and Olu has taught him a few things.
“I think our relationship has done nothing, but just continued to grow,” McNamara explained on Tuesday. “On the…