Reece Atteberry’s path to Michigan, outlook for 2022

Sherrone Moore has an embarrassment of riches in his offensive line room. From veterans like Ryan Hayes, Trevor Keegan and Olu Oluwatimi, to newcomers with tons of potential like Greg Crippen, Giovanni El-Hadi and more, there is talent up and down the depth chart.

This is what we call in the industry a “good problem to have.” The more talent, the better the competition. And when you are one of those younger guys behind the more talented, veteran players, you should be ready for battle when your name is called. Should, considering you paid attention to what those older guys did to prepare and what they are doing on the field.

That’s the hope for Reece Atteberry, one of the many backup offensive linemen for the Michigan Wolverines. Today, we will highlight how he got to Michigan, his career so far and what the 2022 season could look like for him.

The story so far

Atteberry came to Michigan as a three-star recruit out of Aurora, Colorado in the 2020 class. Ranked No. 438 overall and the No. 9 center in the country, he was a highly sought after recruit with other offers from Arizona, Cal, Iowa, Colorado, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, USC and more.

He was a highly successful student in high school, which was among the reasons he inevitably chose Michigan on June 23, 2019, just five days after taking an official visit to Duke, another school known for strong academics.

As a freshman during the pandemic season of 2020, Atteberry played in just one game on special teams against Minnesota. He was also named the Scout Team Player of the Week leading up to the Minnesota game. He got a bit more work last year as a redshirt freshman in 2021, appearing in eight games and playing right guard in four of them.

Outlook for 2022 season

Atteberry is destined for another backup role this upcoming season. With Keegan, Oluwatimi and Zak Zinter holding down the interior of the offensive line, there is little-to-no playing time to be had for anyone else. If one of the guards go down with an injury, Atteberry would likely be among the first to come off the bench.

The good news here is that if one of those guys does go down with injury, I believe Atteberry would be more than capable of rising to the occasion. With the experience he’s gained over the first two years of his collegiate career — specifically last year on a championship-winning squad — he should be good to go if that were to happen.