{"id":299286,"date":"2025-08-19T00:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/299286\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T00:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:24:14","slug":"report-michigan-five-star-freshman-andrew-babalola-suffered-potential-season-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/299286\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Michigan five-star freshman Andrew Babalola suffered potential season-ending injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan<\/a> offensive tackle Andrew Babalola<\/a> is feared to have suffered a season-ending injury, per CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz<\/a>. Babalola was a five-star prospect and the No. 3 offensive tackle in the 2025 recruiting cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Rankings.<\/p>\n

Babalola wasn\u2019t expected to start for Michigan this season at left tackle, and would likely sit behind Evan Link<\/a> if healthy. However, he had a strong showing at camp for a freshman and would\u2019ve undoubtedly seen snaps for the Wolverines this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Babalola \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s gonna push for the starting left tackle spot,\u201d Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore<\/a> said earlier this week. \u201cThat\u2019s a day-to-day competition with Evan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore isn\u2019t the only one who\u2019s been impressed by Babalola. Starting left guard Giovanni El-Hadi<\/a> raved about the 6-foot-6, 300-pound freshman earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dHe\u2019s very athletic with his feet,\u201d El-Hadi said<\/a>. \u201cVery strong. And for him being a freshman, he\u2019s so smart, like he knows what a senior knows, and that\u2019s a really good thing for a freshman\u2026 [I knew he was smart when] he was telling me he was a 4.0 [student].<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [offensive line coach] Grant Newsome<\/a> would ask questions to the freshman, he would always know the answer. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Wow.\u2019 I was the one who would not raise my hand and I\u2019ll be sitting in the back [as a freshman].\u201d<\/p>\n

Babalola had a wild journey to the top of the college football world. He didn\u2019t begin playing football until 2023. He\u2019d previously focused on basketball and had spent years on the AAU circuit.<\/p>\n

After debuting his junior year, Babalola immediately gained scouts\u2019 attention with his elite size. In short order, Babalola was one of the most sought-after high school players in the country. Alas, Michigan captured his heart and he ultimately committed to the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the vision,\u201d Babalola said<\/a>. \u201cI have a belief in the program and a belief in Coach Moore\u2019s vision for the program. There have been some setbacks and some things that have to get fixed. But overall, I believe in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in Coach Moore. I believe in Coach Newsome. I believe in their plan for my development. I believe in them getting this ship turned around and getting Michigan back to what it stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n

With or without Babalola, Michigan will kick off its 2025 campaign with a showdown against New Mexico<\/a> at 7:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 30. The game will air live on NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan offensive tackle Andrew Babalola is feared to have suffered a season-ending injury, per CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[56904,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-299286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-andrew-babalola-25-blue-valley-northwest","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115052587634428475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}