After a long wait, Michigan Football Senior takes the starting job in center

ANN ARBOR – Michigan senior Greg Crippen was behind a veteran starter at center three years in a row.

In the previous two seasons, the Wolverines football team dove into the NCAA transfer portal to immediately land a starter at the position: Virginia’s Olu Oluwatimi in 2022 and Stanford’s Drake Nugent last year.

But the team didn’t add any reinforcements at center this offseason because the assumption was that Crippen would be ready to step into the starting role after three years as a backup.

It didn’t happen right away, but the former four-star recruit has finally grabbed the No. 1 job. Crippen lost the position battle to an unlikely candidate during fall camp: fellow senior Dominick Giudice, who was recruited to Michigan as a defensive tackle.

“It was tough for me at the beginning of the season because I got injured at the end during camp,” Crippen said Tuesday. “I have pain in my ankle and foot. There was competition at the time, but I felt like it was holding me back a bit. But we feel really healthy right now and, just like the offensive line, we’re continuing to keep getting better and better every day.”

Crippen, who has made three consecutive starts, said it was difficult to learn he didn’t win the starting job out of camp. He once again took the backseat to someone else, but this time it was for a player with less experience. Nevertheless, Crippen made it clear to the coaches that he was ready to ride shotgun when his name was called.

“It wasn’t the best conversation, but I’m going to put my head down and continue to work every day to get better,” Crippen said when head coach Sherron Moore told him Giudice would start the year as the starter. “I believe in the coaches. I believe in them a lot and I know they will make the decision that is best for the team. I told them at the time that I was ready to prove to them that I am the man.”

Although Giudice earned the starting job out of camp, Michigan reopened competition in weeks three and four against Arkansas State and USC, splitting reps in both games between he and Crippen. Giudice then played every offensive snap in the Week 5 win over Minnesota.

Giudice was ruled out for the Week 6 game against Washington, and Crippen has since grabbed the No. 1 job even as Giudice is healthy again.

“He’s a football junkie,” Michigan offensive line coach Grant Newsome said of Crippen on Wednesday. “He’s upstairs watching the tape right now. He loves it, and he cares about it. A lot of guys care, think they like football. It’s another thing to really love it at that level and be willing to invest like he has.

“I think this is a credit to him and his mentality, but also to the guys he has had in front of him. He needs to see what two NFL centers look like and how much they study. Even his freshman year when (Andrew Vastardis) was here. You saw how much Vastardis put into this, physically and mentally, and you understood what it takes to compete.”

Newsome compared the battle at center to the team’s competition at right tackle. Junior Andrew Gentry, a former top-100 recruit who took two years off football after high school to serve a mission through his church, had a shot at the starting job at camp, but freshman Evan Link won it earlier then the season opener. Gentry dethroned Link as the starter against Illinois on October 19, although he left Saturday’s game against Michigan State with an injury.

“Greg and some of these other guys, they had to have the motivation themselves to keep working and understand that you have to prepare like you’re the man so that when you’re the man, you’re ready to go,” Nieuwsom said. “Look at Gentry, even when he didn’t get the starting job in camp, he continued to prepare like he was the guy and eventually started practicing better and then earned the opportunity to go out and be the No. 1 pick. the last few weeks.

“For us as coaches, keep challenging them and keep them engaged and let them compete and push themselves. It’s something we talk about every week. The top five guys are going to play who we think can go out there and give us a chance to win that particular week.

Michigan didn’t allow a sack in Saturday’s 24-7 win over MSU, but will welcome the nation’s No. 1 team in Oregon this week. The Ducks rank in the top 12 nationally in scoring and total defense and rank 13th with 24 sacks this season.

“They are good players and they play hard,” Crippen said. “I think our game plan and just like the things we see on tape, we’re going to prepare for whatever they do. We are going to be ready.”

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