Name: Giovanni El-Hadi Height: 6’5″ Weight: 310 lbs. High school: Sterling Heights (MI) Stevenson Position: Offensive guard Class: Redshirt junior Jersey number: #58 Last year: I ranked El-Hadi #33 and said he would be a backup offensive guard (LINK). He played in fifteen games. TTB Rating: 84
It seems like El-Hadi has been around forever. It seems like he’s been a backup forever. And it seems like a long time ago that he started three games in place of a banged up Trevor Keegan. But it hasn’t been forever. He was a part of the 2021 class and started those three games in 2022. Normally it seems like a player with El-Hadi’s recruiting pedigree and talent would have been playing by at least his second year, but Michigan has had the advantage of having a veteran offensive line room for the past several seasons. El-Hadi’s PFF scores were higher in 2021 and 2022 than they were in 2023, but I wonder if that’s a function of feeling a little stagnant while waiting his turn.
But the time has now come for El-Hadi to be a full-time starter. Keegan and Zak Zinter, both long-term starting offensive guards, have moved on to the NFL. Along with Myles Hinton at left tackle and Josh Priebe at the other guard spot, El-Hadi is one of three solidified positions on the offensive line. The battles have continued at center and right tackle, but El-Hadi was a shoo-in. Furthermore, Sam Webb has been touting El-Hadi this off-season, including saying he would take El-Hadi as the “breakout offensive player of the year.” With the way Sherrone Moore has developed offensive linemen, it might be a good bet that El-Hadi turns into an all-conference lineman this season.
Prediction: Starting offensive guard; Second Team All-Big Ten
2023 Starters: LT La’Darius Henderson, LG Trevor Keegan, C Drake Nugent, RG Zak Zinter, RT Karsen Barnhart Losses: Barnhart (NFL), Henderson (NFL), Trente Jones (NFL), Keegan (NFL), Nugent (NFL), Zinter (NFL) Returning players: Myles Hinton (RS Sr.), Jeffrey Persi (RS Sr.), Raheem Anderson (RS Jr.), Tristan Bounds (RS Jr.), Greg Crippen (RS Jr.), Giovanni El-Hadi (RS Jr.), Dominic Giudice (RS Jr.), Andrew Gentry (RS So.), Connor Jones (RS So.), Nathan Efobi (RS Fr.), Amir Herring (RS Fr.), Evan Link (RS Fr.) Newcomers: Josh Priebe (RS Sr.), Blake Frazier (Fr.), Jake Guarnera (Fr.) Projected starters: LT Hinton, LG El-Hadi, C Crippen, RG Priebe, RT Persi
Michigan went from having a terrible offensive line under Brady Hoke to a decent offensive line at the beginning of the Harbaugh era to one of the best in the country at the end of Harbaugh’s tenure. In two of Harbaugh’s final three seasons, Michigan won the Joe Moore Award for the best offensive line in the country; in the third season, they lost the award but won a national championship. And now most of the key pieces to those awards and accomplishments are either in the NFL or heading there soon.
Much like the quarterback position, nobody really has a great idea of how the position group will shake out. Will it be as good as it was in 2021-2023? That’s unlikely. Could it still be a solid conglomeration? Sure. Four of the starters above (Hinton, El-Hadi, Crippen, and Persi) were 4-star prospects or better, and the only 3-star (Priebe) is a multi-year starter coming from Northwestern. Furthermore, they are all veteran players in at least their fourth year of college.
At offensive tackle, Hinton started one-third of the season before ceding his spot to Barnhart in 2023, so he seems like the most likely to start. On the right side, it could be a battle between Persi and Gentry. Both have looked somewhat rough in limited time, but Persi has two years of experience on Gentry, whose footwork still looked pretty sloppy in 2023.
At the guard positions, El-Hadi is another player who has some starting experience a couple seasons ago as an injury fill-in, so he seems likely to slide right in this season. Priebe is a veteran starting presence who should be able to fend off most contenders, if not all of them.
Word coming out of Ann Arbor about Crippen has been that he’s a potential All-American, but he’s just been blocked by two really good players in Olu Oluwatimi and Nugent over the past couple years. I have some doubts because I’m not sure why the coaching staff would recruit over him if he was that good, but he’s also two years older now than he was when Oluwatimi swooped in, so perhaps his improvement in that time has been significant.
Despite losing six offensive linemen to the draft, Michigan goes into spring with 15 other scholarship linemen on the roster. That’s somewhat mind-boggling to consider, since a team might have carried just 13 linemen a few years ago. In that bygone era of like 2019, we would be looking at 7 returning players and 6 true freshmen arriving sporadically in January and then June. Instead, there are 12 returning players, a transfer, and 2 early enrollee freshmen available for the spring, not to mention further reinforcements arriving this summer.
Some projected backups to keep an eye on are Raheem Anderson, who was reportedly ahead of Crippen early in their careers but has since appeared to be more of a factor at guard; Gentry, who could potentially start at tackle over Persi; and Herring, who’s a powerful offensive guard option that looked good in the spring game in 2023. Aside from Gentry possibly starting, Anderson and Herring are almost certainly backups for this season. Another players I’ll also be watching closely is Tristan Bounds, a behemoth of a player whose balance has been questionable in limited field time.
Name: Giovanni El-Hadi Height: 6’5″ Weight: 318 lbs. High school: Sterling Heights (MI) Stevenson Position: Offensive guard Class: Redshirt sophomore Jersey number: #58 Last year: I ranked El-Hadi #58 and said he would be a backup offensive guard (LINK). He started three games at left guard. TTB Rating: 84
El-Hadi didn’t get much experience as a freshman in 2021, playing in just one game. So it was a pleasant surprise when the coaching staff turned to him to start three games in 2022 when starting left guard Trevor Keegan had some injury issues. El-Hadi stepped in to start against Maryland, Nebraska, and Illinois, and handled himself pretty well. The offense didn’t skip a beat, and he was out there moving people, not just holding his own.
El-Hadi has already exceeded my expectations for 2023, because I think he’s the lone player on Michigan’s roster whose height and weight have both remained the same from 2022. But the former 4-star and top-100 recruit looks like a starting quality player, with the only problem being that Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter both returned for 2023 instead of testing the NFL Draft waters. Aside from being able to fill in this fall if an injury were to happen, El-Hadi’s chances of starting in 2024 are pretty good. So he should be a top backup as well as play on the field goal protection unit.
Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Roman Wilson. It’s only on three total receptions, but this guy has 107 yards and 2 touchdowns. One touchdown was a 61-yard catch-and-run bubble screen against Colorado State, and the other was a 42-yard bomb against Hawaii. Good things happen when you run a 4.37 forty and have ball skills. He’s already playing quite a bit, but the speed and big play ability are really enticing.
Name: Giovanni El-Hadi Height: 6’5″ Weight: 318 lbs. High school: Sterling Heights (MI) Stevenson Position: Offensive guard Class: Redshirt freshman Jersey number: #58 Last year: I ranked El-Hadi #92 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He played in one game. TTB Rating: 84
El-Hadi came into Michigan in 2021 with a need to improve some of his technique and get his body right. He had some bad weight even at last year’s listed weight of 305, and though he’s now listed at 318 pounds, I’m guessing he looks better now. Luckily, Michigan didn’t really need any true freshmen to contribute much on the line last season, so any experience they got – and El-Hadi did play against Northern Illinois – was a chance to get them live reps and experience.
Michigan returns its interior linemen in 2022, except for center Andrew Vastardis – who was replaced by transfer Olu Oluwatimi – and backup guard Nolan Rumler. So there’s not much room to move up the depth chart in 2022, but El-Hadi was a top-100 prospect whom I have high hopes for in the future. Coincidentally, his placement in the countdown coincides with his jersey number. At #58 he won’t be a key piece of this year’s offensive line, but he should see some reps in a few games and may be a guy that can work into the field goal/extra point unit, too.
