- Position
- OL
- Number
- #71
- Pieces here
- 16
On the record
Called Shots →Evan Link starts Michigan's season opener at guard, not at tackle.
Michigan has not publicly identified all five offensive line starters by name and position on or before August 22, 2026.
Michigan starts the same five offensive linemen, the same five men, in each of its first three games of the 2026 season: Western Michigan on September 5, Oklahoma on September 12 and UTEP on September 19.
Evan Link, Nathan Efobi and Brady Norton all appear in Michigan's September 12, 2026 game against Oklahoma, as listed in the official participation report.
Evan Link is one of the five offensive linemen who start Michigan's September 19, 2026 game against UTEP, as listed in Michigan's official Player Participation release for that game.
Michigan beats UTEP by 21 or more points in the September 19, 2026 game at Michigan Stadium.
The five offensive linemen listed as starters in Michigan's official Player Participation release for its September 26, 2026 game against Iowa are a different set of five men from all three sets Michigan has started so far in 2026 (Frazier-Link-Guarnera-Norton-Sprague, Frazier-Efobi-Guarnera-Norton-Sprague, and Link-Efobi-Guarnera-Norton-Frazier).
Written about him
Michigan is 19th, and the team it beat to get there is 24th
Michigan returned to the AP Top 25 at 19th with 382 points, having gone 2-0 with a win over then-11th Oklahoma. It was 16th with 718 points in the preseason ballot, so the same voters now give it 53% of the support it carried in August. Oklahoma dropped 13 places to 24th, which lowers the value of the only ranked win Michigan owns. The schedule ahead moved further than Michigan did: Ohio State lost 24-23 at Texas and fell from 1st to 6th, Oregon lost 39-31 at Oklahoma State and fell from 6th to 21st, and Minnesota lost 38-13 at home to Mississippi State. The five ranked teams left on Michigan's schedule were worth 5,524 AP points last week and are worth 4,280 now, a loss of 1,244 points in a week Michigan played none of them. Ohio State sits 6th at 1-1, ahead of 16 teams ranked below it that have not lost. There is no College Football Playoff ranking until November. Michigan hosts UTEP on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Big Ten Network, with Evan Link and Carter Meadows both expected back and Andrew Babalola out.
Michigan Has Played Eight Of The Nineteen Offensive Linemen On Its Roster
Michigan beat eleventh-ranked Oklahoma 17-10 on September 12 with an offensive line that its own Player Participation release lists one deep at every position. Evan Link, the opening-day left guard, is not on that document anywhere, and nobody said why until Kyle Whittingham's Monday press conference, where he said the staff shuffled the lineup due to injury and nothing else. Link should return this week and may share left guard with Nathan Efobi. Andrew Babalola, a five-star who has still never played a college snap, had a setback and will not be available in the near future. Michigan lists nineteen offensive linemen. Eight have taken an offensive snap.
Michigan Would Not Name Its Two Starting Guards Because Three Seniors Are Going To Split The Job
Michigan's offensive coordinator held his final press conference before the opener on Wednesday afternoon and was asked the question that has followed this offensive line since camp opened. Jason Beck answered it with a number rather than a name. Evan Link, Nathan Efobi and Brady Norton will all play at the two guard spots, at what Beck called fairly similar snaps, and Clayton Sayfie of On3 reported that the rotation may hold for more than one game. The three tackles-and-center jobs are settled: Blake Frazier on the left, Jake Guarnera at center, Andrew Sprague on the right, the last of those hardened by Andrew Babalola's injury. Michigan's own roster still lists nineteen men as OL and nothing else, while it breaks the defensive line into ends and tackles, and on Wednesday the defensive coordinator named starters at both.