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Always one of the more interesting questions of every off-season is not only how a team will mold itself but who will step up beyond the obvious?
Sometimes, we have answers early, but often, guys come on later in the season. Still, we generally get a feeling of who they can be, based off contributions in spring ball and fall camp. Players such as Josh Uche and Cam McGrone were players mentioned early as potential impact defenders, but it took some time in each’s rise before they proved their mettle on the field.
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Michigan is finishing up winter conditioning with spring ball set to begin in less than a week, defensive coordinator Don Brown is gathering some conclusions from what he’s seen in workouts. Speaking with Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast, Brown shared what each position group looks like coming out of winter workouts, naming both the obvious contributors and those who very well could take a big step forward this year.
“Where do I see the defense? Well, first off, it starts with your book ends at defensive end – Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye,” Brown said. “Really feel good about (them). We’re developing depth there with Luiji Vilain – who I think is coming along – Taylor Upshaw – who is definitely talking strides. He ran very well during the winter testing. And David Ojabo. And David has that type of what I call hybrid type ability, somewhere between a linebacker and defensive end. Very similar to Josh Uche. A little bit different body-type, but hopefully similar results. It starts with those guys on the edges.
“Christopher Hinton, really doing a good job (at defensive tackle) obviously. We got Carlo Kemp back for his fifth-year. Mazi Smith, in my opinion, is now ready to challenge for playing time, which is good to see. Jessie Speight has had time. Really happy with Donovan Jeter. He’s had a good winter, and just continues to impress.
“So, up front I think we’re much deeper, in terms of that. We’ve got Aaron Lewis here, who’s here and learning, but we’ll also get Jaylen Harrell and Kris Jenkins will join us. So, there will be a number of guys vying for time. And I like the way Gabe Newburg ran around during winter workouts as well.
“At linebacker, it really starts with Cam McGrone, Josh Ross, Michael Barrett. Those are three guys that we feel really, really good about in terms of experience, in terms of their ability to make plays. I thought McGrone really matured well during his redshirt freshman campaign. We just gotta keep Josh Ross healthy. And obviously get meaningful repetitions here this spring. And feel solid there. We got a number of guys coming in there, led by Kalel Mullings.
“Secondary-wise, we really feel tremendously, like we built the depth there the way you’d hope to. Vincent Gray – obviously Ambry Thomas is the leader of the corner group. DJ Turner continues to impress. Gemon Green and his brother both had good winters. Sammy Faustin. But Dax Hill, Brad Hawkins – so you’re talking about a number of guys, which is good. Because you’re creating competition, but at the same time, we feel good about the amount of guys that we can insert into different roles.”
That’s without getting the true freshmen that didn’t enroll early into the fold, but now we have a decent idea of what Brown and Michigan are thinking in terms of who should be key contributors in 2020.
We’ll get an even better idea come April, when Michigan takes the field for its annual spring open practice.