Michigan football commit Giovanni El-Hadi excited to learn OL play from Ed Warriner
The past, present and future are working in unison to drive the football life of Sterling Heights Stevenson and Michigan football commit Giovanni El-Hadi.
The past is on El-Hadi’s mind because he and his Stevenson’s teammates still haven’t forgotten last November, when Stevenson let a 27-12 second-half lead slip away in a 34-27 overtime state seminal loss to Davison, the eventual Division 1 champ.
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“Last year, we were up (15) points against Davison, and we just messed up,” El-Hadi said. “There’s no other way to put it.”
That loss was a driving force all offseason, leading up to Stevenson opening a season full of expectations with a 7-3 win over Eisenhower on Friday.
Stevenson has the ability to make another deep playoff run thanks largely to the presence of El-Hadi, a 6-foot-6, 300-pounder who dominates on offense and defense.
The Titans won’t be catching anyone off guard this season after going on a playoff run following a 5-4 regular season, but like everyone else, they are just happy to be playing after this roller coaster of an offseason.
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This season is also driving El-Hadi to the future, where he will head to U-M, after committing in May, to play offensive lineman. He hopes to enroll early.
“Me and Michigan talk all the time,” he said. “They want me to stay at tackle. I’m pretty sure they want me to stay at left or right tackle. I’m just not sure which one yet. They are happy with my weight now, but when I go there they want me to add 20 or 30 pounds of muscle.”
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El-Hadi can’t wait to play for U-M offensive line coach Ed Warriner, who helped four offensive linemen off of last year’s team get drafted into the NFL.
“I was really excited to see all those guys go to the NFL and know that Ed Warriner has taken a lot of guys to the NFL in his career,” he said. “It’s going to be all younger players I’m going to be up against, so that might give me a better chance to start.”
It wouldn’t surprise anyone at Stevenson to hear El-Hadi’s name called in a future NFL draft.
“He’s an athletic big man, which is rare,” said Stevenson head coach Justin Newcomb. “You normally don’t find people of his size that athletic. But I think the things that really separate him are his toughness and nastiness. He wants it more than you do.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football commit Giovanni El-Hadi ready to learn from Warriner
