After two Joe Moore Awards and then a national championship season, the Michigan football offensive line went back to the drawing board. In 2024, the Wolverines’ front wasn’t exactly blowing defenders off the ball, but some of that might have been due to one player who struggled playing a bit out of position.
Despite having played his entire career at left tackle, from high school up to his freshman season in Ann Arbor, Evan Link started every game he appeared in — except for the ReliaQuest Bowl against Alabama — at right tackle. For Link, that was a big adjustment, one that he never quite fully acclimated to. But once he went up against the Crimson Tide at his native left tackle, it was a much easier proposition for him.
“In all honesty, it was a lot easier than actually playing right,” Link told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches Podcast. “I’ve been playing it for the whole year, but I grew up playing left, right? My entire freshman year — as soon as you get back into it, it’s like, oh yeah, I remember how to do this. Like, it feels pretty good. But yeah, no, getting to play left was definitely an honor just because (of the prestige of it at this university), what left tackles have done, right? And what that means.”
The Alabama game still had some challenges
That doesn’t mean that the game against the Crimson Tide wasn’t without some challenges.
In spring ball, Link acknowledged some of his struggles a year ago, but how the Ohio State game gave him some confidence. But Alabama also threw a lot of things at him that he had never seen before.
“That Alabama game was, there was some stuff they were doing, and it was just like, what is going on, right?” Link said. “It was like first-and-10. It’s like double-mug, and we’re trying to run the ball. I’m like, never seen this before in my life. Like, what am I doing…
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Publish date : 2025-05-21 16:45:00
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