Michigan Wolverines Football: Keegan Helped 'Impose Will,' Has Another Gear

Michigan football's offensive line graded out well in a dominant win over Washington, but it wasn't perfect. According to Pro Football Focus, redshirt freshman left guard Trevor Keegan ranked 17th out of 21 on the offense in grading out with a mark of 55.2, a bit below average.

The film showed some good plays but room for improvement, but Keegan wasn't about the individual stuff in assessing the line's performance.

"It felt good. The fans were great; the energy, we picked up on it and just kept going. It was awesome."

And there was no doubt in his mind, he said, that they could put up the 343 yards on the ground they did against the Huskies' line.

"Absolutely. We're confident in our play book; we know our schemes," he said. "We prepared all week, and we were pretty confident in that.

"We'll do whatever it takes to help the team we win. We loved it. We imposed our will on them. They did a lot of things to try to stop the run. They tried blitzes off the edges to ruin our run lanes, but we had answers for it."

As a result, the Wolverines only passed for 43 yards. Some worried quarterback Cade McNamara might not be pleased as a result, but Keegan shot that down quickly.

"We've got his back. We just didn't need to pass, obviously," Keegan said. "We ran for 340 yards, were imposing our will on them and didn't need to pass .They were playing the safeties deep, 15 to 20 yards. We had numbers in the box, so we continued to run. He knows that, and he's all good with it."

As was offensive line coach Sherrone Moore, now a co-offensive coordinator. He and fellow O.C. Josh Gattis communicated throughout the game and found a weakness, continuing to exploit it while the Huskies sucked wind on defense.

As a 'high energy guy,' Moore told the line on day one after taking over for Ed Warinner how he wanted the linemen to be the leader of the team ... to put the team on their back ... and that's what they did Saturday night, Keegan praised.

"The first meeting, he told us we were going to be physical — that we can't do what we did last year, because that wasn't Michigan football," he said. "That that wasn't Michigan o-line work. We took really good pride in that, and I feel like we're on the right track in doing that.

"We all got excited. We knew we had a chance. The room wasn't going like we wanted it to, so it changed."

Led by one man in particular other than the coach. Keegan praised sixth-year senior center Andrew Vastardis for his play and leadership, noting they all just followed his lead.

"He makes all the calls. We jelled really well in the spring together, and we've just been continuing to carry that on," he said. "With his back problems, he wasn't really able to sustain blocks in the spring.

"This summer, he's been doing these erectors, back extensions, and he's just been working his tail off. ll see it follow him. It's just crazy how hard he works, how it's paid off for him this year. He's been playing amazing. It's crazy."

And a great sign going forward heading into Saturday's game with Northern Illinois and then Big Ten play.

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