Ferris State transfer offensive lineman Lawrence Hattar committed to Michigan.
Hattar was listed at 6'5" and 335 pounds for Ferris State this past season, his redshirt junior year. He redshirted in 2021, played two games in 2022, then became a starter in 2023 and 2024. He played in all fifteen games this past season as the Bulldogs won a Division II national championship, and he was named a Division II All-American.
Coming out of Livonia (MI) Churchill in 2021, Hattar was a 6'4", 280-pounder who wasn't athletic enough for the FBS level. His feet were pretty slow and he tended to lean on people as more of a waist-bender. There's been significant improvement since then, and Michigan will be getting a fifth-year senior with 27 games of experience, as well as the growth and development that comes along with playing for a multiple-national championship-winning program.
I think Hattar is a good depth piece for the program, but after watching some Ferris State highlights of him starting at left guard this past season, I'm not sure he will rise to the level of a starter. He will be limited to playing on the interior of the offensive line, likely competing for time at left guard, a position Josh Priebe is vacating. At his significant size, he may be able to help out on the extra point/field goal protection units. He does not change direction particularly well to find work on the second level, but his heft and strength could be effective on down blocks and at the point of attack.
Hattar is the second lower-level offensive lineman to pick Michigan, following FCS Cal Poly offensive lineman Brady Norton. While they need to replace left guard Priebe and left tackle Myles Hinton, the coaching staff seems to like rising redshirt sophomore Evan Link and rising redshirt freshman Andrew Sprague; Link was a full-year starter, mostly at right tackle, and Sprague started the bowl game against Alabama at right tackle. The program also signed 5-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola and is trying to land blue-chip tackle Ty Haywood in February. The biggest question mark is that left guard spot, because Michigan's next best internal options (Dominick Giudice, Raheem Anderson) transferred, leaving a bunch of totally unproven players.
Michigan has now landed ten transfer commitments for 2025. This is Michigan's first Division II transfer in my memory. Hattar would be the first player from Churchill to play for Michigan since middle guard Rod Vaughn back in 1978.
Thanks for the writeup. It's an interesting situation where it seems like a lot of preferred D1 portal options have chosen to go elsewhere. Hard not to pencil Hattar into the 2025 starting lineup right now given the lack of other proven options.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a lot of portal season left. In my ideal world we would add a tackle or center which would allow Link or Crippen, respectively to slide to OG to compete with Hattar.
Initial OL pecking order in order of confidence:
1. El Hadi OG
2. Crippen OC (or OG)
3. Link OT (or OG)
4. Sprague OT
5. Hattar OG
If Persi comes back he probably slides ahead of Hattar. We'll see if that happens...
Who and where were the second unit guys at the beginning of the OSU game?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure exactly. Giudice should have been the #2 center with Raheem Anderson and probably Nathan Efobi at the backup guard spots. Sprague and Connor Jones were probably the backup tackles.
DeletePersi played 4 snaps as the extra OL against OSU.
DeleteDo we think it's Efobi at LG next year? Anderson was the other guy I was sorry to see move on. He went from "Moving people" to hurt, to gone. I watched him some in spring games and felt pretty good about him.
DeleteI would bet on Efobi or even Link at Guard before this guy ... maybe he'll be the extra Lineman if/when that position is used
Delete