The Michigan Wolverines’ offensive line is currently taking shape with position battles at both tackle spots and right guard. The starting left guard, graduate Giovanni El-Hadi, sees promise at left tackle, one of camp’s most hotly contested competitions. Junior Evan Link and freshman Andrew Babalola, who was a five-star recruit and early enrollee, are duking […]
The Michigan Wolverines’ offensive line is currently taking shape with position battles at both tackle spots and right guard. The starting left guard, graduate Giovanni El-Hadi, sees promise at left tackle, one of camp’s most hotly contested competitions.
Junior Evan Link and freshman Andrew Babalola, who was a five-star recruit and early enrollee, are duking it out on the left side. El-Hadi says Babalola is far more advanced at this stage of his career than he was.
“Link and Babs are doing a really good job,” El-Hadi told reporters during a media session on Monday. “Link and I played on the right side and now we’re both on the left side, and it just feels very natural there. And Babs is amazing. He’s a really good freshman. So smart, I was not that smart when I was a freshman, I’ll tell you guys that right now. It took me a lot longer to learn the playbook, and he already knows it. Just with the natural abilities he has, he’s going to be a superstar.”
Babalola, who stands at 6-6, 315 pounds as a first-year tackle, comes from a basketball background and has impressed Michigan with his athleticism and smarts thus far.
”He’s very athletic with his feet,” El-Hadi said. “Very strong. And for him being a freshman, he’s so smart, like he knows what a senior knows, and that’s a really good thing for a freshman… [I knew he was smart when] he was telling me he was a 4.0 [student]. When [offensive line coach] Grant Newsome would ask questions to the freshman, he would always know the answer. “I’m like, ‘wow.’ I was the one who would not raise my hand and I’ll be sitting in the back [as a freshman].
Babalola will have to earn his role, just like fellow five-star prospect Bryce Underwood, who is in the mix for the starting quarterback job. El-Hadi says Underwood has already shown his Michigan teammates that he is capable of leading the program and is a born leader.
”He’s very confident,” El-Hadi said. “He has that natural leadership. He’s loud, he calls something he’s confident in, if it’s right or wrong, and that’s all I like about him. You gotta be confident to be a quarterback. Not cocky, but confident, and I really love that about him.
“He’s 17 years old [and] he’s playing with 21, 22, maybe 25-year-olds. God knows how old people are nowadays, but he just has that ability to lead us and the ability to talk through stuff just like all the other quarterbacks. They, have that ability to talk through things in the right way. And for him to do that at a young age is so impressive.”
Category: General Sports
