Tag: Luiji Vilain

Luiji Vilain: Michigan players, coaches galvanized while ‘not ducking the issue’ of race and racism

EXCLUSIVE: The Wolverines defensive end discussed the struggle black people in America face, how Jim Harbaugh has been supportive and more.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On Tuesday morning, it was a diverse crowd that gathered on State St. to march together in solidarity — protesting the killing of unarmed George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis as well as combatting systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.

Among those who marched is fourth-year defensive end Luiji Vilain, a Canada native who finished his high school career in Alexandria, Virginia before coming to Ann Arbor.

Still, though he grew up in another country, Vilain is a black athlete and he’s been vocal on social media this past week, like much of his teammates and the country. He’s shared, via retweet, videos on Twitter expressing concern and dismay for the situation at hand, videos highlighting the negative treatment received by peaceful black protesters by some police, and condemned those in the media who have ‘fixated on looting’ rather than the various peaceful protests around the country — and much more on the topic of racism.

On Instagram, he also shared his own personal message of disdain for the coaches in the college football landscape that haven’t spoken up about injustice and racism over the course of the past week:

“All y’all coaches Making Millions off the back of the players you recruit from black communities, wassup? Y’all have one of the biggest influences in the world of sports, especially at the collegiate level. Fans love and listen to y’all. Hear y’all players out. Have the hard conversations. Learn from these conversations and SPREAD the knowledge!!!”

His head coach, Jim Harbaugh, has been vocal. He spoke to Mike Tirico last week about how ‘horrendous’ the George Floyd killing was, while calling for justice. Harbaugh also tweeted more on Sunday and walked alongside Vilain and his teammates on Tuesday.

There’s civil unrest throughout America, with all 50 states having seen major protests. It’s something that’s needed to happen, Vilain told WolverinesWire.

“As a black athlete, just as a black person in general, I feel like this right here is pretty necessary,” Vilain said. “The protests, all those things I think are necessary for change. As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve never seen it like this, where social media is really taking it to the next level and people are actually doing things – signing petitions, sending out petitions, making phone calls to people, sending e-mails. I think it’s really good and necessary and needed to happen because this type of thing has been going on for too long and it’s time for things to change.”

As far as partaking in a protest himself, Vilain was pleased to see the strong numbers as well as the diversity.

For him, however, it was most meaningful to see his teammates, coaches and support staff marching right there alongside him as the crowd made their way down State Street, to Hill Street and eventually to and through The Diag on Central Campus.

For those who are currently in Ann Arbor and the Greater Detroit area at the moment — the team is relatively dispersed due to the coronavirus pandemic — Vilain says he’s quite sure that everyone made it a point to show up and support the cause.

“I think it was a great turnout as far as people who were there, like my teammates, my coaches,” Vilain said. “I think everybody that’s on the team that’s here right now is there. Obviously, a big thing seeing Coach Harbaugh there. He’s definitely been great throughout this whole process, making sure that we’re good, his players are good. Asking questions, listening to us and just being there for us overall.

“So as far as the atmosphere, I think it was positive.”

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Of course, once the event had ended, Jim Harbaugh’s participation drew national headlines. Which makes sense given his caliber of celebrity as one of the most prominent faces not just in college football, but in all of football.

But it’s not just for show, as Vilain notes. He’s eagerly working to understand, seeing how he can help, and making sure that his players know how much he has their back in these uncertain times.

“He’s listening to us, asking us questions,” Vilain said. “Letting us know that, although he’s never (experienced) those types of things and will probably never truly know – expressing to us that he’s going to be there for us every step of the way. That’s something I feel as a player.”

But, naturally, the team is bigger than Harbaugh. There’s 85 scholarship players and approximately 45 more at any given time, all from different races and different backgrounds.

There have been times in the past where Michigan hasn’t been quite so united in the locker room, but with strong leadership, those times have given way to a much stronger union.

It wasn’t just the black players in town who made the march on Tuesday. WolverinesWire spotted others — like Quinn Nordin, Jess Speight and Nate Schoenle — who walked alongside them, showing their solidarity and intolerance of racism and prejudice. That’s also not just for show, Vilain says.

The team, while not together physically at the moment, has been together virtually. The topic of race, racism, prejudice and systemic disadvantages hasn’t been taboo for the maize and blue. In fact, the cards have all been on the table. Difficult discussions are being had and everyone is working together to make sure they’re all on the same page when it comes to understanding what’s going on.

Vilain says he’s been happy with how thoughtful and productive his teammates have been.

“I think it’s been a good one,” Vilain said of the conversations the team has been having this past week. “Everybody’s just supporting each other. We’re talking about the issue and not ducking the issue. It’s known that it’s a zero tolerance for racism towards black people on our team – we just don’t tolerate it at all.

“It’s been good, it’s been positive. Everybody’s supporting each other. We’re just there for each other like brothers – like it’s supposed to be.”

But what happens next? At some point, the national conversation will shift, as it always does. How does Vilain intend to stay involved? What does he hope to see happen from here?

It’s really quite simple, as he’s calling for that which, at its base, is why the streets of most metropolitan areas across the nation have been flooded with those seeking change.

“First and foremost, it starts with justice of George Floyd – and everybody before him,” Vilain said. “It starts with charging those four officers, in my opinion, better police training and overall more respect and love. No racism and none of that stuff.

“I know people are raised on certain beliefs but there’s no room for that stuff. At the end of the day, there’s no room for that.”

While Vilain has been outspoken on social media about social issues involving race and racism, he hasn’t formally joined or openly supported any organization prior to the events of this past week. However, he does note that he’s 100% behind the Black Lives Matter movement, noting ‘I think it’s a great movement and I think black lives just need to be on the same level as everybody else.’

Who Michigan can expect to see up front defensively in 2020

There are a lot of questions about who the Wolverines will use on the defensive interior in 2020, but Brown feels the whole line is stacked.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If there’s an area of consternation for Michigan fans as the season approaches, the defensive interior is among the chief concerns.

The Wolverines return Carlo Kemp for a surprise fifth-year, but with Michael Dwumfour’s transfer to Rutgers this offseason, there isn’t a known commodity to line up next to him. Plus, the maize and blue didn’t bring in any defensive tackles in an otherwise solid 2020 recruiting class.

That means that Michigan will be relying heavily on a new starter with little experience. But there’s certainly some upside to the players who should be in rotation.

Somehow, many forget about two of the players who will be a large part of what the Wolverines do up front in 2020: former five-star Christopher Hinton and fourth-year tackle Donovan Jeter.

Given that he was an early-enrollee, Michigan native Mazi Smith tends to get the bulk of the attention from the fanbase, but he got little time in 2019. He’ll also be a part of the rotation, defensive coordinator Don Brown says, but with the other two, there’s a lot of reasons to expect them to play a big part this upcoming season. Jeter was highly anticipated as a freshman until he tore his ACL in the offseason. He hadn’t quite returned to form even last year, but he got some playing time. Hinton was worked in slowly and started the bowl game against Alabama with both Dwumfour and Kemp out with injury.

Brown says that late-season experience should help that duo be a major part of what the Wolverines do up front in 2020 — along with the aforementioned Smith.

“When they look back on it, they ended up having to play at the end of the year due to injuries at tackle and at nose,” Brown said. “That’s only gonna end up paying dividends for them moving forward. It would have been nice if we could have had the ability to work in spring practice, but everybody was in that same scenario, so that’s just part of it. But we now have a chance, those guys played in two big games. Obviously, being able to play in a big game is an important piece, now we just need them to take it on an elite level in a big game.

“Christopher Hinton – I’m really excited about his potential. You mentioned Donovan Jeter. Mazi Smith is another guy as well. We think all of those guys, in evaluating and watching them in some of the winter workouts in the conditioning phases, I really feel like they’ve taken their game to the next level in terms of their physical ability, their ability to run.”

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Despite all the hyperbole and expectations out there, Brown looks at the interior defensive line and sees a net benefit.

The push up front, outside of the pass rushers, has been one of the things that Michigan has been somewhat lacking since Mo Hurst’s eligibility was exhausted, though that was one of the central tenets to the Wolverines defensive strategy.

What Brown sees is a group of defensive tackless who now have the bulk to be effective — something that wasn’t necessarily the case in recent years, to go along with the ability. It’s one thing to have solid technique up front, but if you’re undersized, going up against some of the nation’s top interior offensive linemen, it’s not going to do much good.

This group, however, has gotten to where it should be weight-wise, and Brown thinks that will pay dividends come fall.

“Sometimes things get said and the reality is they’re really out of context,” Brown said. “For example: when you have four down linemen, you want each one of those four guys to have the ability to run and hit people. Now obviously, there’s a degree of size in the tackle and the nose scenario. And we have that size. Jeter’s a 300-pounder. Mazi Smith is a 300-pounder. Chris Hinton is a 300-pounder. And all three of those guys are very athletic. We’re excited about them, and obviously we’re very excited to have Carlo Kemp come back because not only will he provide experience, he’ll provide that essence of leadership that we desperately need there. But I’m very confident in the guys we have inside.”

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While Michigan will essentially gain those players via productivity this upcoming season, it also lost a lot on the defensive line.

As mentioned, Dwumfour is gone. So are NFL draftees Josh Uche and Mike Danna — both pass rushers. While they have proven production that made them so successful at the college level, there’s another group waiting in the wings that haven’t had those types of numbers.

Yes, we know about the prowess of starting ends Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye, but Michigan’s success up front has had as much to do with the guys in the middle as it has constantly rotating the starting ends with capable reserves. We saw it in 2016 with starters Chris Wormley and Taco Charlton being spelled by eventual top-end draft picks Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary. The current starters — Paye and Hutchinson — had similar roles in 2018 when Winovich and Gary became the top guys.

Though ‘salt and pepper’ remain, replacing Uche, who was drafted by New England in the second-round this year, means some changes to how the scheme is run. Brown would note that it actually means returning to how the defense was formulated before Uche became a dominant force, which led to more 3-3-5 or 3-4-4 looks, given that he was technically a SAM linebacker.

With Uche’s departure, there are a number of players who are expected to be that next man up. Be it third-year former Florida commit Taylor Upshaw or the re-acclimating Canada native Luiji Vilain — who missed both of his first two seasons due to injury — as well as second-year end David Ojabo, a relative newcomer to football who Brown notes has a lot of similarities to Uche’s skill set.

Brown is excited to see how the group progresses once they’re able to get back onto the practice field given how much talent he has at his disposal.

“Now, last year, we had another set of circumstances,” Brown said. “Well, you’ve gotta play Josh Uche. And in that respect, we needed to play in some of our three-down, 3-3 stack-type structure to get that guy on the field especially on second and third down. And in some of our four down structures, we wanted him in some of the four down guys. I still think our defensive end scenario is really blessed, because we have Aidan, we have Kwity Paye. I’m very anxious to see how Ojabo does. Upshaw – Luiji Vilain in limited reps. I go back and watch Luiji play last year at times, and obviously he was hurt because Mike Danna was there. But, the bottom line is it’s his time now and he’ll have an opportunity to prove what he can do and I think we’re gonna get productive, solid play out of him as well.”

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Former Michigan players react rewatching ESPN broadcast of 2016 OSU game

ESPN re-aired the 2016 Michigan loss in Columbus and a handful of Wolverines reacted on social media to different parts of The Game.

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It was the closest the Wolverines have come in a long while to not only beating the Buckeyes, but making it to Indianapolis and the College Football Playoff for the first time.

2016 felt like a special year for the maize and blue, from the outset with a trouncing of nearly every team Michigan faced with just a handful of exceptions. Even in closer games — Colorado, Wisconsin and Indiana — the Wolverines seemed to be in close to full control, or at least had the games mostly in hand by the end. It even decimated eventual 2016 Big Ten champion Penn State 49-10 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score indicated.

However, everything started falling apart in Week 11, when Michigan not only lost at Iowa, but starting quarterback Wilton Speight suffered a catastrophic injury.

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He missed the following week hosting Indiana, but returned against Ohio State in Columbus. And Michigan controlled most of that game — though not at all in the dominant fashion it had earlier in the season — until near the end, when some costly mistakes, questionable penalties and a Buckeyes comeback saw the Wolverines lose in double overtime.

ESPN replayed The Game on Thursday evening, and several current and former Michigan players tweeted along while rewatching.

Needless to say, while they have fond memories of that season, it was somewhat tainted by what transpired that afternoon in Columbus.

Former CB Channing Stribling

Michigan had stymied the Buckeyes with first-year Wolverines defensive coordinator Don Brown employing a half-man, half-zone concept. Ohio State couldn’t seem to figure it out, and the passing game lagged as a result.

However, things took a turn on OSU’s final drive in regulation.

Michigan’s offense had become somewhat anemic, and after a turnover and a subsequent unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on head coach Jim Harbaugh, the Buckeyes got the game within striking distance.

The Wolverines defense went out to make a stand and started out strong, sacking OSU QB J.T. Barrett on first down for a loss of six yards. On second down, Barrett got 9 yards back, and while it looked like Michigan forced an errant throw on pressure on third down, the refs awarded H-back Curtis Samuel a pass interference call, with the call being on U-M safety Delano Hill.

It was a call that after the game, Harbaugh called egregious, noting that it was ‘uncatchable and by.’

11 plays later, Ohio State had marched down the field and secured the game-tying field goal.

In double overtime, Michigan settled for a field goal as the third down pass to Grant Perry was incomplete — with no flags, despite what looked to be obvious interference. Four plays later, the Wolverines had seemingly stopped OSU on a fourth-and-one — which would have won the game — but the refs signaled that Barrett had made the line to gain, and there was no conclusive evidence either way in the replay.

On the very next play, Samuel marched into the endzone securing defeat for the Wolverines.

Cornerback Channing Stribling naturally still feels hosed by the officials refereeing the game, reacting on his rewatch to how they performed on that late November day.

FB Khalid Hill

One of the bright spots for Michigan that afternoon was fullback Khalid ‘the Hammerin’ Panda’ Hill, who accounted for both of the Wolverines’ touchdowns in regulation that game.

But, on top of Speight’s injury, there were some self-imposed mistakes the team made that kept the game close. A fumble at the goal line and two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, kept OSU within striking distance, and ultimately, it capitalized in the end.

Hill was reacting throughout the re-broadcast of The Game, and while it’s not obvious as to what he was reacting to, he did share the following:

Regardless, he was a bright spot in what ended up being a dreary day for the maize and blue.

Holder Garrett Moores

One thing that gets somewhat left in the dark, especially considering that Michigan lost three of its final four games, is how cohesive the team was for most of the season.

The Wolverines blew the doors off of Hawaii and UCF before finding themselves down 21-7 to Colorado. They fought back and won convincingly in that game. Penn State was a laugher before a close, 14-7 win over Wisconsin. At Rutgers saw Michigan start slow in the rain only to win 78-0 based off an incredible running attack while not letting the Scarlet Knights get a first down until the fourth quarter.

Illinois was over before it started. MSU mounted a comeback, but too little, too late. Against Maryland, Wilton Speight had the best-ever half by a Michigan QB.

But then it all came tumbling down at Iowa.

The Wolverines looked like they were just starting to assert themselves, but a fumble in the endzone and a passing game that couldn’t get off the ground in a cold Iowa City night kept the game close, until the Hawkeyes won the game in walk-off fashion. Then there was the close game against Indiana, Ohio State and a loss in the Capital One Orange Bowl against Florida State.

However the season played out, former holder of the year Garrett Moores recalls how close knit the team was while rewatching The Game. Had it not been for the foibles in the OSU game, the 2016 team would be remembered much differently.

Defensive end Luiji Vilain

Vilain wasn’t actually a Michigan player just yet, just a commit at the time. But on his rewatch of the game, he still had the same feeling about J.T. Barrett’s fourth-and-one rush attempt as most maize and blue faithful do.

Shaun Nua breaks down the progress of his younger defensive linemen

What the Wolverines defensive line coach has seen from the D-line players who haven’t been in heavy rotation as of yet.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After lots of questions coming into the 2019 season, perhaps the most of any position group, the Michigan defensive line group has answered those and more, proving that it can be a dominant unit leading the psyche of the Wolverines defense.

Just two sacks shy of last year’s season total in 13 games — while that’s not entirely on the defensive line, given that the linebackers are also heavily involved — the production is certainly there, with Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson among those leading the charge on that front.

But, what about the younger players on the team?

We know plenty about the aforementioned, but we’re starting to see some of the bumper crop get their opportunities late in games. Defensive coordinator Shaun Nua says that he really enjoys getting to work with the first and second-year players, because they’re eager and putting themselves in a position to be future contributors.

“Yes, yes – Mazi Smith, Hinton, Upshaw, Ojabo, Newburg – all those youngsters,” Nua said. “Because you see the progress. It gets frustrating with them sometimes, because they’re competitors as well. They want to do it right now. But they’re doing a great job and I’m excited. It’s fun.”

Beyond that, here’s everything Nua had to say about the younger generation of players, including Chris Hinton, Luiji Vilain, Donovan Jeter, Taylor Upshaw and David Ojabo.

Chris Hinton

DT Chris Hinton

Often when a team gets a five-star in recruiting, it’s likely that they’ll get into the rotation earlier than later. However, with Michigan having a solid D-line rotation, former five-star Chris Hinton has been able to slowly acclimate, with the coaching staff prioritizing his development.

He’s been in more and more in recent weeks, and notched his third tackle of the season against Michigan State on Saturday.

Nua shared where Hinton is in his progression and development, sharing that he’s not surprised that he’s starting to see the field more often.

“Yes, happy with how he’s progressing, but it’s not a surprise,” Nua said. “He’s a young man that has a good head on his shoulders. And very competitive as well. Not surprised at all. Expectations are still high though, so he knows he’s got a long ways to go as well.”

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