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Beyond the entire defense, Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown works specifically with the linebacker corps, a position group near to his heart, as what the LBs do makes his defense run.
Yes, the pass rush is arguably the most important aspect to Brown’s defense, as his packages are all about getting pressure, but without stellar linebacker play, his scheme wouldn’t work quite the same.
Michigan is retooling on that front, with starters Khaleke Hudson and Jordan Glasgow graduating. Devin Gil announced on Tuesday that he’s transferring for his fifth-year, so some new players will have to step up. However, given that Josh Ross is returning from injury, and Cam McGrone cemented himself in his stead last season at middle linebacker, it gives Brown’s unit some options.
Like, moving Ross back to WILL linebacker and keeping McGrone in the middle. But he’s excited about the prospects of the position group as a whole, as Brown told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast this week.
“I do feel good,” Brown said. “Josh Ross is a worker. Even when he was down, whatever he could do mentally to work on his craft, he was doing. Obviously, if you get the rust on, it’s hard to get it back off after you’ve missed eight weeks. But he’s had a tremendous winter. He’s a tremendous leader for our guys. And, putting him next to Cam McGrone, I think that will be a strength of our program for sure.
“The nice thing is McGrone is kinda settled in at the MIKE position. Josh is one of those unique guys that can play MIKE or play WILL. He’s stout, strong, so he can play like an inside linebacker, he is mobile. Uses his strengths to his benefit in both run and pass. We feel really good about him.
“Nikhai Hill-Green is a young guy, but he’s here. So he’ll get coached every day. He’s a bright, bright guy. So he’ll benefit from those two guys (McGrone and Ross) as inside linebackers and utilizing them as role models.”
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With McGrone in particular, he’s come a long way since he arrived in Ann Arbor two years ago. But even more so, he’s gotten better and better since he started.
Brown notes how he’s improved as of late, and added another that should tantalize Michigan fans about his potential budding likeness to Devin Bush Jr.
“The biggest thing with Cam was the development of confidence in the utilization of his hands,” Brown said. “And you say, ‘Why is that important?’ Your ability to get off blocks and to strike people, strike the 300-pound offensive linemen is a big deal, it’s a big part of it. In high school, a lot of those guys are able to run through gaps or utilize their athleticism – which he does, to his benefit. But now he’s coupled that with playing with strength. He’s 233-pounds and ran a 4.4 40 the other day, so he’s an exciting guy.”
Beyond the known quantities, Michigan has to replace Khaleke Hudson at the VIPER position and Josh Uche at the SAM position with players who haven’t seen much game action in those roles.
Brown has a couple candidates in mind in those two spots, including a freshman early-enrollee who just got to campus in January.
“Michael Barrett and William Mohan – we call him ‘Apache’ – we feel really good about those two guys, along with Anthony Solomon – just gonna let them battle it out,” Brown said. “The nice thing with Michael, he can play SAM, he can play VIPER. He ran a 4.51 this winter. He’s in great shape. He’ll obviously get first dibs. But the nice thing is we have guys behind him that can give them jobs in different packages — that can help develop confidence as they’re going through the learning curve of the VIPER position.”