Two experienced players — who have never been a starter at Michigan — are duking it out for the starting center job.
The Michigan Wolverines ’ offensive line has been elite over the last three seasons under the leadership of Sherrone Moore. There have been quality players up and down the line, but it is particularly important to have a high caliber and cerebral center who is able to communicate with and snap the ball to the quarterbacks.
With Drake Nugent off to the NFL, the Wolverines will have an in-house center snapping the ball this year for the first time since 2021 when Andrew Vastardis helped the offensive line win its first of two consecutive Joe Moore Awards.
The only question is who, specifically, that player will be. The Wolverines have two veteran options in seniors Greg Crippen and Raheem Anderson, who both came to Michigan as a part of the 2021 recruiting class.
Head coach Sherrone Moore spoke about both those guys at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis on Thursday.
“(Crippen) and Raheem Anderson have a great battle going on right now,” Moore said. “Super excited to see who wins it. Both those guys have been waiting in the wings, they’ve been around really good players. Andrew Vastardis to start off when they were both freshmen, Olu Oluwatimi, who won the Rimington and Outland, and then Drake Nugent who was an All-American. It’s not like they’ve been around players that haven’t been pretty good, so those guys have really sat back in the shadows. And with the world of the transfer portal and the era for them not to leave tells you the dedication and love they have for Michigan. So they both deserve the right to go get this job. They’ve been awesome, so I’m excited to see what happens.”
Crippen is the favorite heading into fall camp for the job. He has much more experience than Anderson (15 games to six), and he also played center in nine games last season as opposed to Anderson’s one game.
Offensive line coach Grant Newsome also had good things to say about Crippen to the media back in April .
“Yeah, I think Crippen has done a great job of learning and maturing, and he’s one of those guys who’s really a technician of the craft,” Newsome said. “He’s in here, sometimes as much as us coaches, watching film, studying, trying to be mentally as sharp as he possibly can be, which is obviously huge at that center position. And I also think it’s awesome that he was a guy who was kind of patient and took his time. In today’s day and age, it’s not common, especially if you’re bringing back transfers at a position for a guy who is as talented as he is to stick around. So, obviously, we’re very, very happy he did that. And I’m excited to see what he does with this opportunity, to go out and try to win that starting center job.”
Obviously we’ll see how it plays out in fall camp, but Crippen seems to be in a good spot heading into fall camp.
Quick side note on the RT job
Elsewhere, junior Andrew Gentry and senior Jeff Persi are in a position battle at right tackle. Moore had good things to say about both those guys as well, but didn’t tip his hand as to who leads.
If I were a betting man — which I am during football season — I would throw some money on Gentry winning that battle, with Persi being the immediate backup to both Gentry at right tackle and Myles Hinton at left tackle.