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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — We’ve heard it every year since 2018: Donovan Jeter is on the verge of breaking out.
A fourth-year player from outside of Pittsburgh, Jeter came to Ann Arbor with a lot of promise and showed out in his first appearance as a true freshman in Michigan’s 2017 spring game. However, that offseason, Jeter tore his ACL and was sidelined for what could have been a promising season.
We didn’t hear much about him until bowl prep in 2018, when before the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, his coaches and teammates starting seeing him step up, saying he could be a factor at defensive end with Rashan Gary having opted out. However, he contributed very little, with just one tackle in the game coming in as a reserve.
Before 2019, it was the same story — hype followed by little production. Now a defensive tackle, Jeter played just 93 defensive snaps the entire year, with the bulk of those coming in two of his nine game appearances — against Rutgers and Alabama. Now we’re hearing the hype again, but it’s significantly more emphatic, with defensive coordinator Don Brown saying last week, ‘Donovan Jeter is playing better than I ever could have anticipated he could play,’ and that sentiment being echoed by head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.
So what’s caused him to be the point of praise this fall? How much can we really expect him to be the player we’ve long heard about? Defensive line coach Shaun Nua explained Jeter’s emergence on Wednesday.
“Jeter finally got into the – that comes with a lot of experience and just time – young men finally realizing, ‘I can do this. I can do this on a consistent basis,’” Nua said. “His mindset is part of the thing that’s changed in everything he does. Off the field, on field, with his teammates. Once that happens, everything seems to fall into place. He’s literally took his mindset into a place where it’s helping him produce at a very, very high level. And especially on a consistent basis. He’s in a very good place.”
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Now that this is Jeter’s fourth-year, he has but this and next year to establish himself as a high-profile player if he wants to live out his NFL dreams.
Formerly committed to Notre Dame before flipping to Michigan, with Greg Mattison (who’s now at Ohio State) overseeing his position when he arrived, he could envision himself following the likes of Taco Charlton, Chris Wormley and Ryan Glasgow — Wolverines who were all drafted following the 2016 season.
Knowing that time is running short for him to follow the aforementioned or others like Chase Winovich, Rashan Gary or Michael Danna — other NFL draft selectees — Jeter is pressing forward, looking to make sure he doesn’t squander the opportunity in front of him.
“I think it’s exactly what you said – sometimes all of us, we tend to not understand how fragile and how very, very limited the opportunities are,” Nua said. “He’s probably just sick and tired of not breaking through. It’s a combination of all of that. He’s finally realizing, ‘What the heck am I waiting for?’ There’s a lot of talks, we’ve had a lot of discussions about it and he’s finally seeing the light. Just hoping he’ll stay strong and have a good feeling it is. Once you realize your opportunities are very, very limited, either you fight back or you don’t – and he’s decided to fight back.”
It’s not only now or never for Jeter as it pertains to his own personal goals, but Michigan needs him to step up this year, as well. While there are contenders on the defensive interior, only Carlo Kemp is a returning starter and proven talent in the middle.
There’s competition between Jeter, sophomores Christopher Hinton and Mazi Smith, former walk-on Jess Speight and junior upstart Julius Welschof. The good news for Jeter is that he’s asserted himself enough so far that he’s ensured that he’ll be in on certain packages — whether he earns a coveted starting role or not.
“Right now, we are a little less than two weeks away from it, and the unique thing is we have different packages,” Nua said. “Whatever the situation comes in the game, he might be the starter in one package. That’s the beauty about it. They’re still definitely competing – him, Carlo, Hinton are some of the guys competing for those two spots inside, but it’s a great healthy competition. They all get along, they love it.
“Jeter is taking a leadership role especially within our room, not just for the (younger) guys, and that’s the beauty of it – when you do your job and start to lead by actions, it’s easy to lead. Because everybody’s like, ‘He’s not just blowing smoke and not doing it.’ So he is doing a good job of being a leader to the younger guys and especially to our group.”
We’ll see just how much Jeter has improved in just over a week, with Michigan traveling to Minnesota for the Oct. 24 season opener.
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