Name: Josh Priebe Height: 6’5″ Weight: 306 lbs. High school: Edwardsburg (MI) Edwardsburg Position: Offensive guard Class: Fifth year senior Jersey number: #68 Last year: Priebe played for Northwestern. He started all twelve games at left guard and was named Third Team All-Big Ten. TTB Rating: N/A
Priebe is a Michigan native who started 29 games for the Northwestern Wildcats over the past four years. He played in eight games as a true freshman in 2020 and has basically been starting ever since. He had a couple rough appearances in 2023 according to Pro Football Focus, but Northwestern is not a good football program. Additionally, offensive linemen are very dependent on what’s going on around them (combo blocks, communication, etc.), so it’s tough to be a good offensive lineman on a bad offense. From what I’ve seen of Priebe, he has the tools to step in and be a solid player at Michigan.
And that’s what I expect Priebe to do. Head coach Sherrone Moore has already announced that Priebe and Giovanni El-Hadi will be the starting offensive guards, and that’s been the situation all camp, according to what I’ve heard. Despite guys like Raheem Anderson II, Dominick Giudice, Evan Link, etc. pushing for playing time, nobody seems to have been able to challenge for Priebe’s spot. There was one insider report that said if Priebe had been at a place like Michigan, he would have been First Team All-Big Ten. While I think that might be going a step too far, Priebe should be a part of a solid interior offensive line in 2024.
Prediction: Starting offensive guard; Honorable Mention 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.
Former Northwestern offensive guard Josh Priebe entered the transfer portal and committed to Michigan.
Priebe is listed at 6’5″ and 310 lbs. He started 28 games at Northwestern, including twelve games in 2023. He was named Third Team All-Big Ten and selected as a captain for the Wildcats, who completed a surprising 8-5 season on December 23 with a 14-7 win over Utah.
Michigan offered Priebe out of Edwardsburg (MI) Edwardsburg back in the class of 2020. Though Michigan made sense in many respects, he was crystal balled to Michigan State for a while before picking Northwestern. He played quite a bit as a true freshman in 2020, which didn’t count because of COVID. He then went on to start for the majority of 2021-2023.
I remember Priebe as a mobile offensive lineman who pulled quite a bit in high school and looked pretty good on the hoof. Michigan is losing both offensive guards – Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter – to the NFL after this season, and Priebe started at left guard for the ‘Cats. He could possibly slide into Keegan’s spot at left guard for 2024, though there’s stiff competition from the likes of Andrew Gentry, Giovanni El-Hadi, and others. A lot can happen between now and next August, but the starting line could look like this:
LT: Myles Hinton
LG: Josh Priebe
C: Drake Nugent
RG: Giovanni El-Hadi
RT: Trente Jones
All of those players have starting experience, and each of them would be in at least his fourth year of playing college football.
Priebe was a 3-star, the #20 offensive guard, and #435 overall in the class of 2020. He would be the first player to suite up for the Wolverines from Edwardsburg (MI) Edwardsburg, though there is a player named Frank Loomis who suited up for Michigan way back in 1891. I can’t figure out when Edwardsburg High School opened or whether Loomis was just from the town . . . or if he attended some now defunct school in the area. Regardless, it’s been a long time since anyone from Edwardsburg has worn the maize and blue winged helmet.
Gilbert (AZ) Williams Field OT Noah Nelson (image via Rivals)
2020
Luke Akers – K – Brentwood (TN) Ravenwood: Akers is a 6’1″, 170 lb. prospect with no scholarship offers, but Michigan offered him a preferred walk-on spot.
Darden Davis – S – Macomb (MI) Dakota: Davis is a 6’3″, 200-pounder with no offers at the moment.
Anthony Enechukwu – WR – Orchard Lake (MI) St. Mary’s: Enechukwu is a 6’3″, 190 lb. prospect with offers from Air Force and a bunch of MAC schools. He’s a 247 Sports 3-star, the #130 wide receiver, and #1522 overall.
Christian Fitzpatrick – WR – Waterford (MI) Mott: Fitzpatrick is a 6’4″, 200 lb. prospect with offers from Boston College, FAU, Illinois, and some MAC programs. He’s a 3-star, the #121 wide receiver, and #704 overall.
Kenny Mestidor – DE – Oakdale (CT) St. Thomas More: Mestidor is a 6’3″, 240 lb. prospect with offers from Michigan, UCLA, and USC, among others. He’s a 3-star, the #17 weakside end, and #500 overall. Mestidor transferred from Ontario, Canada. This is an official visit.
Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco LB Kourt Williams (image via Irish Sports Daily)
2020
Brian Branch – WR – Tyrone (GA) Sandy Creek: Branch is a 6’0″, 180 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, and Oklahoma, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #17 safety, and #227 overall.
Maliq Carr – TE – Oak Park (MI) Oak Park: Carr is a 6’6″, 230 lb. prospect with offers from Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State, among others. He’s a 3-star, the #76 wide receiver, and #428 overall. His crystal ball is a mixed bag right now. While he insists he’s a wide receiver, he will probably outgrow that position in the long-term.
Jaden Dottin – WR – Suffield (CT) Suffield Academy: Dottin is a 6’3″, 185 lb. prospect with offers from Michigan, Penn State, and Pitt, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #60 wide receiver, and #316 overall. He claims a 4.88 forty, a 4.33 shuttle, and a 31.6″ vertical. His crystal ball is 100% for Penn State right now.
Ty Hamilton – DE – Pickerington (OH) Central: Hamilton is a 6’3″, 250-pounder with offers from Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and West Virginia, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 3-star, the #39 strongside end, and #743 overall. He plays for the alma mater of former Michigan defensive end Taco Charlton.
