Michigan Football: How Tim Drevno Can Retool the Wolverines' Offensive Line

Tim Drevno’s current contract with the Michigan Wolverines expires five days after the final game of the 2017 season is played—meaning that he has just enough time to show off his expertise prior to potentially renegotiating for something a little sweeter than $800,000 per year (plus healthy bonuses).

That’s assuming he does what everyone thinks he’s going to do, and that’s assuming he wants to stick around Michigan for an extended period of time. The components are there for Drevno; he just has to assemble them by the time the Wolverines head west to take on the Utah Utes on Sept. 3 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

Ideally, Drevno has his starters and two-deep roster in mind. If not, he’ll have a better idea after playing Utah.

According to Football Outsiders’ advanced metrics, Michigan quarterbacks were sacked during roughly 14 percent of plays in 2014, ranking No. 74 overall. The O-line only allowed 2.73 standard-down line yards, ranking No. 94 in the land.

In terms of adjusted line yards, a measure weighed in the NFL, Michigan ranked No. 50 in the FBS this past season. Basically, Football Outsiders asserts that anything above a rating of 100 is “good”—the Wolverines finished at 104.9.

Also a positive for Drevno, Michigan’s “power success” was a staggering 71.9 percent, good enough for No. 32 in the nation.

That’s a workable scenario for Drevno, a proven craftsman of the trench-dominating types. By following Football Outsiders’ numbers, and by mentally reliving 2014, it's safe to say that the Wolverines’ O-line must better protect during passing downs and make sure to maintain its growing push when it comes to running the ball.

During an 11-year co-coaching relationship, he and Jim Harbaugh had forged stout and sustainable offensive lines along the West Coast, most notably with the Stanford Cardinal and then again with the San Francisco 49ers. In 2014, Drevno left the Bay Area for USC, where he coached All-American Max Tuerk Jr., who was one of three Trojans to earn first-team league honors on offense. 

Today, Drevno’s job is to recreate that past success, in some shape or form, in Ann Arbor, a city that hasn’t seen an elite O-line in roughly seven years. 

Most—if not all—Michigan fans are expecting something similar to what was done at Stanford. They wouldn’t snub their nose at the idea of an NCAA’d version of a 49ers-like O-line, either. If all goes as planned for Drevno, the Wolverines should, at the very least, land somewhere in the middle of that range. If things unfold in a more favorable manner, Drevno could end up having the finest O-line he’s ever had and possibly one of the best at Michigan.

Yeah, ever.

In short, things can get retooled quickly if he keeps doing what he’s doing and builds upon his current roster—one of his guys, if not the majority, should pan out down the road and evolve into an every-Saturday star. That’s the idea, anyway.

Recruiting Staples

Right now, Michigan is in possession of one of the top OL classes in modern history. Four of its top six commits for 2016 are O-linemen, and they’re four of the best in the nation, per 247Sports. Michigan also has its hooks in a few of the best available for 2017, namely 5-star OT Wyatt Davis of California, who has a longstanding relationship with Drevno.

Player	Pos.	Ht./Wt.	Star-ranking	Origin
Ben Bredeson	OT	6'5"/293	4-star	Arrowhead HS (Hartland,Wisc.)
Michael Onwenu	OG	6'3"/365	4-star	Cass Tech (Detroit)
Erik Swenson	OT	6'7"/285	4-star	Downers Grove South (Chicagoland)
Devery Hamilton	OT	6'6"/290	4-star	Gilman School (Baltimore)

In Running Condition

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

In the past, recruiting only supplied hope for better days—but then, later in the season, it dumped a cold glass of reality on Michigan fans, who were left unsatisfied with high-ranking classes that didn’t perform.

Today, a true turnaround seems likely under the new guy in town, and the transition is going “smoothly,” according to former starting center Jack Miller, who spent four practices with Drevno before leaving the game to pursue other personal interests this past spring.

Still in contact with many of his former teammates, Miller has heard “very good things” in regard to the Wolverines’ progress.

In 2013, the line allowed 34 sackings of its starting quarterback, Devin Gardner. In 2014, the line allowed 26, making Gardner, who is now pursuing an NFL career as a receiver, one of the most touched signal-callers in college football for two years running.

Was it due to poor coaching? Was it poor effort on the part of the players? Someone had to be blamed for an ineffective offense, right?

“Well that’s a really hard question to answer, because I don’t think it’s as black and white as that,” Miller said with a laugh. “In your guys’ [the media] world, you’re fortunate that it gets to be, right? And that’s what people want to hear. But the reality of it is that there is no right or wrong answer. It is no one’s fault at all times, at least in our situation during the previous years [under former OL coach Darrell Funk].”

During stretches, the left side would look great, but the right side would flounder. During other times, the middle and right would be serviceable, but the left would struggle. But there were times when everyone was in sync.

There is work to do everywhere, probably more so at the right tackle and right guard positions, but for the most part, everyone upped their level of play this past fall. The 5-7 finish overshadowed those steps, but Drevno isn't inheriting an inept bunch of Joes. 

“Last year in particular we really improved, and it didn’t go noticed—and that’s OK—but it didn’t go noticed as much because of our offensive struggles throwing the ball, which resulted in defenses playing just to stop the run and safeties being able to play up in the box and stuff like that,” Miller said.

“I don’t think it was the coach’s fault, but I would say that it was a player thing at times. I would say for some of the struggles that we had, it was a lack of experience—but I think that this is the first year in how many ever years that Michigan will finally have it to where everybody has played football before, and we haven’t been able to say that for a while.”

With the likes of left tackle Mason Cole—who started 12 games as a true freshman in 2014, heading a group of hungry athletes—Miller sees nothing but forward motion for the O-line in 2015. Although no longer a member of the team, Miller, who is aware of the flood of commitments from recruits, is quite confident that the Wolverines—particularly their O-line—will land on their feet this season.

As a rule, most OL coaches want the same thing. They want to see players improve leverage skills, blocking, footwork and hand placement. None of that should be a problem this fall—at least not as much as it had been in the past, says Miller.

But most of all, they want tough guys.

“Funk wanted that, and Drevno wants that,” Miller said. “They have pretty similar philosophies in terms of technique.”

The Makings

Two weeks ago, Erik Swenson, the first to commit to Michigan’s 2016 class, was at church when he ran into a family friend who used to work for the Philadelphia Eagles. As it turned out, that friend offered sound advice—the same things mentioned by Miller and the same things taught by Funk and, more importantly, Drevno.

“He said that you have to be tough,” said Swenson, the No. 19-ranked OT and No. 177-ranked overall player of his cycle. “Nowadays, everybody’s big, everybody’s good at what they do. There’s so many top-ranked tackles. But some guys can’t handle it mentally or physically—being tough and wanting to grind it out and earn your spot. That can really make a difference between good offensive linemen and average offensive linemen.”

At 6’7” and 285 pounds, Swenson is one huge target for those looking to make a name. Playing for Downers Grove South, an Illinois powerhouse, only increases the opposition’s desire to check him.

That rarely works out as planned, though.

“My freshman year, I was blocking a guy, and I hit him so hard, I threw him to the ground, and as his back hit the ground, he coughed up blood all up into my eyes and all over my nose; it was running down my face—and I didn’t even notice it until I got to the sidelines and my whole white uniform was covered in blood,” said Swenson, who says there are plenty more like him in Illinois—the home of high school lineman combines and the home to six of the top 50 offensive linemen of 2016.

“I’m used to the tough mentality,” he said. “I love run blocking; it’s actually my personal favorite, to be honest with you. There’s nothing more fun than pancaking a guy.” He then followed with a line that every O-line coach would love to hear: “You’re putting him in the dirt or keeping him away from the quarterback.”

Again, on the surface, the “tough” mentality seems pretty cut-and-dried—of course coaches want those guys. They’re not out looking for those who shy away from contact or those who cower from a challenge.

Finding more players with Swenson’s blend of competitiveness, handle and knowledge of the game and willingness to sacrifice limbs for wins will only benefit Drevno as he refurbishes existing parts and orders new ones.

“I really like how they’re trying to bring it back to ‘old Michigan,’” Swenson said of discussions with Harbaugh and Drevno. “Drevno is recruiting really well, the right kinds [Michael Onwenu, Ben Bredeson, Devery Hamilton, etc]. If we can’t run and we can’t just stuff it down their throats, we can’t win a football game—I kind of like the idea that they have, and I’m excited to see how it turns out this season and during the upcoming seasons as well.”

Follow Bleacher Report’s Michigan Wolverines football writer Adam Biggers on Twitter @AdamBiggers81.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and references were obtained firsthand by the writer via press conference, press release or other media availability. All recruiting information comes by way of 247Sports.