From The Road: Thoughts on Michigan OT commit Andrew Sprague at UC Report Camp
The Wolverine made the drive to Lee’s Summit, Missouri, on Sunday to see 2024 Michigan four-star offensive tackle commit Andrew Sprague for the first time in a live setting. He was invited and participated in the UC Report Camp, presented by Under Armour, with a boatload of other in-state prospects and regional athletes from Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. This was the first spring camp hosted by Under Armour in the Midwest with the Columbus camp set for May 7th.
Sprague is coming off of shoulder surgery so he didn’t get reps in the 1v1 competition at the end of the session. Even though Sprague didn’t walk away with an invite to the All-American Game in Orlando next January, he has been selected to take part in the All-American Bowl in San Antonio that same month. However, he hasn’t committed yet. Instead of the 1v1 drill, he focused on the individual testing and individual drills with the offensive linemen.
Testing featured the three-cone shuffle, L-drill, standing long jump, vertical leap and others that used lasers to accurately measure each movement. The times that Sprague and the fellow campers recorded get sent to 68 of the 69 Power 5 programs but in the case of Sprague, his performance gives Michigan a better visual on the junior’s athleticism heading into his senior year.
The various offensive lineman drills dealt heavily with flexibility, bending from the hips, stamina, lateral quickness, kick step speed and staying square in the stance. For a player of his size, Sprague was easily at that top tier when it came to seasoned conditioning. The session for the linemen lasted a little over two hours and it definitely wasn’t appear as if Sprague was struggling to complete it. How a recruit does on a camp circuit showcase is a visible indicator of what that certain person did in the winter. Did they take it easy or did they lived in the weight room and ran whenever the weather permitted?
Sprague’s bend from the waist and the longevity of his fitness once the whistle was blown no question ended up being his most impressive quality from the camp. There was one particular drill where the offensive linemen had their hands raised to the sky and then dropped down to where their knees were at a 90-degree angle. They proceeded to duck walk for about 10 yards, using only the balance from their lower half with no assistance from the upper. Again, for a prospect nearing 300 pounds and standing close to seven feet, Sprague isn’t a development piece and should begin withing Michigan’s strength and conditioning as one of Ben Herbert’s preferred favorites.
Another individual drill done by Sprague that caught everyone’s eye was when he began stomach flat on the field turf, quickly popped up to a blocking stance, and shuffled his feet to either direction that the coach pointed. Each player did the drill for about a 20-to-25 second period so points of emphasis were reaction time, change of direction and having the mental stability to keep pushing to the end. When scanning how Sprague felt every time that he walked away from the drill, the physical and mental affects from going through such a grueling football related HIIT workout were not visible. For Sprague, it was simply get on, get off, move up the line and do it again at the same rate of pace. A true football guy.
Sprague could have easily just not shown up to the camp on Sunday because of his recovery from the shoulder surgery. But instead, he withstood the gail force winds, repped a long sleeved maize and blue athletic shirt underneath his jersey and went to work. He’s not a player who’s content with just being where he’s at currently. He wants to prove his worth and prove why Michigan accepted his commitment in early April. Prove that his size and ranking doesn’t require second guessing.
As for his personality, Sprague is a true down-to-earth person of character. Sprague doesn’t get too high or too low. He’s very in-tune with the moment and looked as if he wasn’t lacking in the friendship category amongst his peers and camp leaders.
The nature of how Sprague presents himself to the public mirrors the kind of person Michigan has landed on the offensive line in the 2024 class. Between Sprague, tackle Blake Frazier, interior Luke Hamilton and tackle Ben Roebuck, there’s an obvious mutualistic bond with the four in terms of common goal setting, reasons for believing in Michigan’s long-term future and their lasting trust to offensive line coach Sherrone Moore.
While it would have been nice to see Sprague go one-on-one with the likes of five-star defensive lineman Wiliams Nwaneri, Top 100 EDGE Marquise Lightfoot and On300 EDGE Jayshawn Ross, there’ll be ample opportunities to see Sprague build off his first-team All-State honors this past season when he became the only non-senior offensive lineman to do so. It’ll be excited to monitor the further improvements Sprague made to his repertoire this summer that’ll supplement his dominating power and technique.
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