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DETROIT — It’s not that Michigan football hasn’t had player-led leadership in recent years, but it hasn’t made much of a difference when it’s come to wins and losses.
The current crop of Wolverines is looking to change that.
Last summer, the maize and blue got lessons on accountability and how to be better leaders from a former U.S. Navy Seal, which seemed appropriate given that former cornerback Ambry Thomas had said after the bowl game that there appeared to be a dearth in that regard. After the debacle that was 2020, some of the leaders on the team — Aidan Hutchinson and Josh Ross — dug in deep, sick of Michigan not reaching its lofty ideals and losing in not just big games, but others as well.
This offseason has seen a different Jim Harbaugh, and apparently, it’s also seen the captaincy take more charge. The newfound attitude has started to permeate the team.
“I felt like the leaders as well as everyone in the program — we can make a change this year,” third-year quarterback Cade McNamara said. “Things have to be different. The way things have been going — whether that’s how we play, how we work or the atmosphere in general, we knew there was change (needed), and we’re doing everything we can to change for the better.”
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So what’s needed to change? Why the team-wide attitude adjustment?
“Nothing really super specific, but I think that our consistency as far as the leaders on the team, we’re able to rely on those guys a lot,” McNamara said. “Josh and Aidan, those are two really reliable guys who have proven themselves and that care about winning. Having those guys with us and being the huge voices on our team, I feel like just that and having guys representing the culture that we want is a big difference.”
Tbe culture change certainly started early in the offseason when Michigan let go a number of prominent and seemingly untouchable coaches from their posts. Now the staff is younger and more hungry, replacing decades of experience with a more collaborative effort on that front.
McNamara says that, as a result, the team has been able to build off of a successful spring stint into the player-led workouts this summer.
“Summer workouts have been good. I’ve always been really excited,” McNamara said. “We’ve built some momentum after spring ball. Summer workouts have been great. We’ll finish those up and then the first week of August, we get back to it, back in the pads and back to football.”
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