Michigan almost lost its entire offensive line to the portal... then got every single one of them back

New coach, same building, and for a few days in January it looked like Michigan's offensive line was about to walk out the door entirely. Andrew Sprague and Jake Guarnera both entered the transfer portal after Sherrone Moore was fired. Kyle Whittingham's staff wasn't even a week old. then, one by one, both linemen pulled their names back out. that retention fight is the real story of Michigan's 2026 season — not the quarterback everyone's already writing about. The scout The tackle room is where this gets interesting. Andrew Babalola was the five-star recruit who could've started at tackle as a true freshman in 2025 — until he tore his ACL in fall camp and missed the entire season before playing a snap. as of last week, he's confirmed 100% healthy. pair that with Evan Link (18 career starts at tackle), Blake Frazier (six starts at left tackle in relief last year) and the returning Sprague (13 career starts at right tackle), and new O-line coach Jim Harding — who followed Whittingham from Utah — inherits a room with five to six players who've either started already or were on track to. Guarnera, meanwhile, is the anchor: Big Ten honorable mention and the Dierdorf-Hutchinson Award winner as Michigan's top offensive lineman in 2025, now cemented at center. this isn't a rebuild like Clemson's. this is a retention story with a former five-star finally healthy on top of it. That line exists to protect Bryce Underwood, and it needs to be better than it was. the nation's top recruit in his signing class threw for 2,428 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions as an 18-year-old true freshman, and the offense finished 131st nationally in passing, 68th in scoring — including 13 points against Oklahoma, 13 against USC, nine against Ohio State. Pro Football Focus charted him pressured on 127 of 399 dropbacks, nearly one in three. new offensive coordinator Jason Beck, who followed Whittingham from Utah, has finished top-two nationally in rushing yards per game in each of his last two seasons calling plays — and the plan now is to actually let Underwood run, something the old staff was hesitant to do. Whittingham has already named him the starter for the Week 1 opener against Western Michigan. On defense, Jay Hill is installing a 4-2-5 that leans hard on the secondary — by design, since Whittingham himself called the linebacker room "little thin" on accumulated reps heading into fall camp. that's not a weakness Hill is hiding from; it's the scheme adjusting to what Michigan actually has. and what Michigan has in the back end is real: Jyaire Hill posted the highest PFF grade among returning defenders (77.6 overall, 83.4 in man coverage), Zeke Berry is an All-Big Ten second-teamer who nearly left in the portal before reversing course to stay, and Utah transfer Smith Snowden arrives with 24 career starts and a 37-tackle, 11-pass-breakup, two-interception 2025 season. Hill's BYU defenses led the country in interceptions in 2024 and finished tied for ninth in 2025 — takeaways are the identity, and Michigan just built a secondary specifically suited to create them. Fantasy · IDP · dynasty Jordan Marshall is the safe dynasty asset here — 932 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025, running behind a line that now has actual continuity instead of scrambling for bodies, in an offense that's finally going to feature designed quarterback runs to take pressure off him. Andrew Marsh is the buy: a true freshman who didn't even crack the starting lineup until midseason and still finished with 651 yards and four scores — his target share should only grow as Underwood settles in. Underwood himself is the classic freshman-to-sophomore dynasty QB bet — bad efficiency behind a bad line last year doesn't mean bad quarterback, and both variables (protection, scheme) got fixed in the same offseason. on IDP, Jyaire Hill is the value add — a corner with a top coverage grade already, entering a scheme literally built to get him the ball in his hands more.