Evan Link grows from ups and downs to earn Michigan’s left tackle job

ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines junior offensive lineman Evan Link has won the starting left tackle job out of camp and will be out there for the season opener vs. New Mexico on Saturday night.

Starting at U-M is not a new experience for him. He made 11 last season at right tackle, but the performance was up and down, and he struggled with consistency and confidence.

Now, he has turned the page and is ready to protect freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood‘s blind side. Link is a lot more in control and not experiencing the whiplash he did in his first season in the lineup.

“ I’ve taken a lot of strides in my mental game and physically, a lot of things that were lacking last year,” Link said on Tuesday night. “I think I’ve gotten a lot better at. And I really think that competition in camp helped me get there. [Freshman Andrew Babalola] was really good at some things that I needed to improve on, so having to compete with him and Blake [Frazier] in that regard as well really helped me improve my game and take it to another level.

 ”To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting last year. That was a complete shock. It was a surprise to me. But it was a great opportunity. And I think this year, obviously playing 11 games last year, there’s a lot more confidence. I know what I’m doing out there. I have that confidence that I can compete with the best people. Derrick [Moore] and TJ [Guy] challenge me every day.

“If I can compete with those two guys, I can compete with anybody in the country.”

Link clarified his comments, reiterating that while he was not surprised to have won the job, things happened quickly last year in his second season at Michigan.

 ”Definitely wasn’t out of the blue,” Link said. “I was taking some reps at it throughout camp and I definitely thought I was getting a lot better at it. For me, the surprise was the previous year I played scout team all year. I was behind a lot of great guys in that room and to get that call and tell you that you’re gonna be the strong tackle, it was really more of a surprise in that, ‘Wow, I’m following the footsteps of these guys that I watched play last year who were absolutely fantastic.’

“And it was really more surprising that I had to live up to that. And that’s it’s a challenge, but it’s what you want.”

Link did improve late in the season as the game slowed down, and the nerves calmed down the more comfortable he was at Michigan Stadium. It was the type of stage he had dreamed of, but it took soem getting used to.

 ”I think a lot of it was just getting comfortable being out there and playing,” Link said. “Michigan Stadium… A lot of people out there. And that’s a lot different from what I was used to in high school and even in practice. So getting out there and playing in front of all those people and then playing against people you don’t know… you don’t know what their moves are. You might watch film, but everything’s different stepping on the field.

“So part of that was just getting more comfortable being out there and playing against different people and just being ready for whatever they have to do to you… I’ve been very excited for this first game, especially with the way our unit’s been playing. I’m just excited to see what we can do and just make this offense run.”

Michigan offensive line coach Grant Newsome has set out to improve his communication and messaging, but assistant Juan Castillo, who has a long track record of coaching the position, has been an invaluable resource.

“He tries to simplify the game a little bit more,” Link said. “You can say all these different things about o-line technique, and there are a lot of different things you can say that he really does well. That helps me a lot. I have that habit of overthinking. He kind of just simplifies it all down. So focusing on the footwork I just mentioned earlier, a lot of it’s just kind of counting how many sets you need to take.

“He simplifies a little bit more where it’s not as much of a feel thing. It’s a, ‘Oh, I see this, I know what to do.'”