Previously: The Story. Podcast 12.4A, 12.4B, 12.4C. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Interior OL. Offensive Tackle. Defensive End. Defensive Tackle.

Depth Chart

VIPER!	Yr.	MIDDLE LB	Yr.	WEAKSIDE LB	Yr.	SAM LB	Yr.
Michael Barrett	So.*	Cam McGrone	So.*	Josh Ross	Jr.*	Ben Van Sumeren	So.*
Anthony Solomon	So.	Kalel Mullings	Fr.	Nikhai Hill-Green	Fr.	David Ojabo	Fr.*
Joey Velazquez	Fr.*	Cornell Wheeler	Fr.	----	--	Jaylen Harrell	Fr.

This is awesome! Just don't look past the starters. The starters are a guy who played at an all-conference level in his second year and a guy who almost played at an all-conference level in his second year. Josh Ross is his brother plus 30 pounds. Cam McGrone is Devin Bush* plus four inches. Josh Ross and Cam McGrone are awesome.

Their backups are true freshmen. DO NOT GET COVID.

*[-ish!]

INSIDE LINEBACKER

RATING: 4

balki-ass dancing is a bonus [Patrick Barron]

It was weird watching CAM MCGRONE [recruiting profile] emerge into Michigan's starting middle linebacker midseason. He was supposed to be Devin Bush, and he was a lot like Devin Bush except for one thing. He made mistakes. This isn't a McGrone problem. He was a redshirt freshman tossed into the most complicated spot on defense. It is a people looking at Cam McGrone problem: our expectations have been so warped by Bush that even a guy who did stuff like this in year two…

…gets an owlish glance because he also did stuff like this:

MLB #44

This happened for a few games and then largely stopped. Giddyup.

[After THE JUMP: also there are vipers]

McGrone got thrown into the fire against Wisconsin, messing some things up but managing to hit zero in UFR grading. He then proceeded to do his best Bush impression. Getting there on a blitz despite starting from four yards deep? Check.

That except against a real team and with a running back trying to pick him up? Check.

Running through OL? Check.

Running through blocks and making tackles near the sideline? Check.

Erasing an edge run that never had a chance? Check.

Starting two lateral yards behind a back and getting him anyway? Check.

McGrone has that critical extra step or two that allows him to disguise his blitzes. Your workaday linebackers coming from full linebacker depth, flat-footed, give the QB an extra beat to get the ball out. McGrone, like Bush, got there so fast the only thing to do was die.  After Iowa:

Cam McGrone is particularly exciting because he's new and young. It wasn't all good—McGrone is our Jonas Mouton Memorial Janus Of the Week—but this is the week the Devin Bush comparisons went from hopeful to… well… let's say "developing." Michigan's zone blitzes didn't actually have to send five guys to get there because McGrone was repeatedly able to time up the opposition snaps and get rabid squirrel pressure despite starting from the linebacker level.

This ability also made So You've Decided To Edge Devin Bush time into So You've Decided To Edge Cam McGrone time. It is so rare that the Awesome Guy 2.0 gambit works out. Even if the guy who's next up is a great player he's not the same great player. But McGrone looks all the world like the second coming of Bush.

McGrone did have his share of dorfs, from busting coverage assignments to failing to understand the context of the defense around him. He'd occasionally fail to funnel to his help:

And he had some bad linebacker heroball tendencies. After Illinois:

McGrone loves to go upfield. Cam McGrone has Young Linebacker Disease where he wants to go upfield of all blockers. Because he's super fast sometimes this works. The fumble he forced: went upfield of a running back trying to block him.

Sometimes this doesn't work, like various Illinois chunk runs when he didn't funnel back to help. Those plays were going to get a solid chunk of yards no matter what, often because Dwumfour had gotten sealed away. They went from solid gains to chunk runs from time to time because McGrone was trying to be a hero on every play.

Por ejemplo:

MLB #44

He got the Mouton award frequently because he'd turn in days like 18.5-10= +8.5 (Iowa) or 16 – 10.5 = 5.5 (Illinois). He was running around doing everything, good and bad.

Encouragingly, he toned it down as the season went along. He had a 8 – 3 = +5 day against Penn State and was +11 with no minuses against Notre Dame. Errors did not disappear—he got lost on an Alabama touchdown and Anthony McFarland stiffarmed him into oblivion a couple times. They did get far less frequent.

McGrone rapidly improved after getting tossed on the field in a tough situation. He displayed elite athleticism while doing so. A year to refine his decisions and get incrementally more terrifying physically should make McGrone one of the best linebackers in the nation. He's not going to be Devin Bush; he's not going to be far off.

[Patrick Barron]

Next to McGrone Michigan is going to attempt to reprise this:

That's JOSH ROSS as a true sophomore. Ross split time with Devin Gil as Bush's WLB sidekick. In just over half of Michigan's snaps he turned in a near-All Big Ten grade according to both PFF and this site's grading:

Ross consistently checked in above zero, which has historically been the cutoff for decent linebacking. He was +33 on the season. Gil was –4. UFR grading is tough on LBs, so that's not a slam on Gil. He was a bit below average as a first time starter. A version of Ross that got as much run as Bush may have had an argument for All Big Ten.

Bush left for the draft, Ross slid over to the middle, and big things were expected. They did not transpire. About 80% of this was the injury Ross suffered in the Wisconsin game. He missed several games and by the time he came back it made more sense to preserve a potential redshirt than throw him in as a sub for McGrone and Jordan Glasgow.

It is true that Ross's brief period at MLB was a bit disappointing. It would be unwise to read too much into it, though. Ross's games as the starter there were:

• MTSU, a team that based its entire offense around the fact that its OL couldn't block anyone and avoided the middle of the field like it was death. Post-game take: "Ross didn't have a ton to do except run to the perimeter and watch someone else tackle."
• Army, an academy triple option. Ross got a stinger and left at halftime. He was hesitant before that ("Ross got cut a lot, and when not getting cut he sat still and ate blocks") but the relevance of that going forward is dubious.
• Wisconsin, a defense-wide meltdown. Ross left after the first quarter either because he was injured or he kept running himself out of the play.

Ross was not good against Wisconsin, but that was the game where Kwity Paye got annihilated and Aidan Hutchinson just managed to hit zero in UFR grading. If we were judging Michigan player solely on the Wisconsin game we'd be panicking. Ross had the misfortune to have that game be a large portion of his 2019 even though he played less than a half.

So we don't have a lot of data we didn't have going into last year. Ross managed a pretty good Bush impression on one of the few plays he was relevant on against MTSU…

…and was repeatedly put in terrible situations against Wisconsin, like "here's a fullback in a hole the size of Arizona":

…or "here's a free-releasing guard immediately":

Ross did go the wrong direction a lot against Wisconsin, apparently keying on the fullback and missing the fact that Wisconsin was sending the fullback away from the play and pulling extra OL to make up for it. That may or may not have been his deal, depending on whether his departure was injury or performance related.

Most of Ross's career is still his very good 2018. That was spent at WLB, where he returns. There's not a huge distinction between the two ILB spots but maybe he's more comfortable making the reads there. He did not come in for decision-making clucking last year. Instead he was decisive, frequently moving quickly enough to get into and defeat those free-releasing OL:

LB #12 to top

He was a violent hitter, blasting blockers backwards:

This doesn't look like the same guy who was too often stationary a year ago. The context there is important. Army and Wisconsin may be the two worst teams in the country for a new middle linebacker to make decisions against.

There's been more talk from Ross than about him since Michigan keeps putting him in front of the media—a good sign in itself. Ross seems to be in the tier where his place on the team, and a quality performance, are taken for granted. This quote from Brown last year should hopefully allay fears that he's more 2019 than 2018:

“First off, it's not a challenge to coach Josh Ross. He's the brightest linebacker I've been around in a long time. Even when he was injured in spring, this guy knows his stuff. You don't have to worry about what kind of a day's work you get out of Josh Ross.

He should return to form and be among the Big Ten's better inside linebackers. The DTs leveling up to keep him clean more often would go a long way.  

BACKUPS

Attrition and a lack of recruiting numbers has left Michigan with little behind the starters. Jordan Anthony, Drew Singleton, Charles Thomas, and (oddly) 2020 recruit Osman Savage all hit the portal. Unless Barrett gets sucked over to ILB in the event of the injury—possible—the rest of the two deep is all true freshmen. Suddenly Michigan taking eight ILBs in this class and the next one doesn't seem so strange.

 

Hill-Green has Ojemudia-level death stare

The three freshmen are NIKHAI HILL-GREEN [recruiting profile], KALEL MULLINGS [recruiting profile], and CORNELL WHEELER [recruiting profile]. Wheeler came in with the rep as the steady, heady guy. He also has the advantage of coming from Ron Bellamy's West Bloomfield, which runs a version of Don Brown's defense. He also had the recruiting quote of the year:

Ron Bellamy: “[Cornell Wheeler is] a physically intimidating kid, for a high school kid. You know, you’re on the sideline as a coach and, by preparation and game planning, you know when the team’s going to run the screen or going to run the draw, whatever it may be. And he’s on the field screaming out what’s about to happen. And you’re just like, "Oh man. Bless these kids that are about to get hit by Cornell."

Wheeler racked up nearly 300(!) tackles as a high school upperclassman. He seems like he'd be the guy to step in in the event a freshman gets the call.

But it's not Wheeler who's drawn the early talk. That would be Hill-Green. Lorenz:

… Have consistently heard good things about [him] … Could be a name to potentially enter the two deep with a good fall camp

Josh Ross also called out Hill-Green as a promising freshman, and EJ Holland reported he was running with the second unit. Hill-Green platooned at a loaded St Frances program and had so little scouting that your author watched St Frances play IMG just to get something on paper. He did not jump out as the immediate impact guy in this class, but the data was so thin there's no reason to hang on to preconcieved notions.

Mullings, meanwhile, is a home run swing who is a year younger than most kids in his class, was limited to four games as a sophomore and junior, and spent most of his senior year playing offense. He's crazy athletic:

His coach:

"prototypical size … hands are enormous, which is an advantage playing linebacker. … runs really well, he’s a track guy, 100-meter dash guy, around 10.9, 11-flat. So for a big kid — he’s 225 pounds, 6-foot-2 — he runs really well. He runs to the ball. He’s a pretty aggressive kid."

Other takes include "very fast, smooth and extremely smart"; "speed to make plays all over the field and does a great job seeing the play develop";  "… very fluid hips … good with angles too. … probably not many guys in the country like that can run down and track running backs like he can." Mullings can go.

He just doesn't know how to linebacker yet. Holland reported that Mullings was already up to 243 and was beating safeties in races, but lifting weights and being fast is about 30% of being a linebacker and Mullings needs a ton of work on the other 70% before being viable.

Any time a true freshman gets in you're bracing for errors. Extended playing time for any of these guys would not be good.

VIPER: FINALLY, A QUARTERBACK

RATING: 3.

Barrett has been the heir apparent since his move to D [Patrick Barron]

This space is irritated that Georgia Tech gave up on being the only P5 triple option school because it makes it much more difficult to sum up guys like MICHAEL BARRETT [recruiting profile] in the future. Barrett's recruitment was a decision between QB at that Georgia Tech or being an athlete in search of a position elsewhere. That paints a picture.

Barrett's low recruiting profile never made a whole lot of sense. Yeah, he was a quarterback with no future at quarterback unless he went to a triple option school. He also shredded the second-biggest level of Georgia football en route to being the 7A player of the year. Steve Lorenz was beating the table for the guy:

...the Khaleke Hudson of the class: a prospect whose recruiting ranking is mystifying if you turn on the film and just watch what he does with the ball in his hands. ...from what we've been told, it appears the staff wants to use Barrett as more of an 'offensive weapon' type prospect.

One loaded running back room later, Barrett is literally Khaleke Hudson's heir.

Unfortunately, this means we have next to no data about him that doesn't come from a quote. Hudson almost literally did not come off the field last year, even deep into blowouts. I don't think that reflects negatively on Barrett; it's just a weird Brown quirk. The only time we've seen Barrett on the field was the spring game two years ago when he was new to defense and mostly deployed in third-string and walk-on time. I did think he had a certain je ne sais quoi:

The interesting guy [at viper] is redshirt freshman Michael Barrett, who was a thumping presence when he entered. Walk-on time was more live contact than the rest of the scrimmage. Barrett took advantage of that to deliver a series of zero-YAC hits.

Coverage is an open question with him. His interception of Milton was a perfectly fine zone drop that Milton did not see. I'm not sure if he can carry TEs down the seam and the like. Hudson and Glasgow look like safeties. Barrett looks like a linebacker. It was in fact really easy to get Barrett and Uche mixed up because they're both #6 and at first glance are not obviously dissimilar body types. Barrett was already listed at 224 last year, which points more towards MLB than viper if any pounds get added.

Only three pounds have been added; he's sticking at viper. As of May, Brown was claiming Barrett was running a 4.51 40 at 220 pounds. That'll do.

There were some rumblings about a genuine competition between Barrett and Anthony Solomon at this spot; this preview thinks Barrett has had the job, or at least most of it, for a while. He was one of Lorenz's gang of four guys who were getting talked up last year, and so far that list has been on point. Talk about a challenge rested on a bit of a slow start for Barrett, since overturned. Jean-Mary:

…he’s been great. Started off a little slow, but the last two to three weeks, he’s probably been the best player we had whether it would be SAM or VIPER.

This is a situation like a couple of the offensive line spots where there was a clear leader for the spot  for a long time and the transition should be relatively smooth despite losing a long-time starter. Specifics about what Barrett's good at or bad at relative to Hudson will have to wait for actual games.

BACKUPS

i really want someone to swap Brown's mustache onto Solomon

Sophomore ANTHONY SOLOMON [recruiting profile] was the only member of his class to burn his redshirt on special teams and little else, which always irritates your author but also indicates that Solomon was relatively close to the field in year one. He drew one take last year from the now-departed Anthony Campanile:

"In the VIPER/SAM-type of role, Anthony Solomon is an incredibly bright type of guy. Just really, he practices his tail off. Again: high motor guy, high character type of person."

This year's quote is from Brian Jean-Mary, who has viper and SAM:

"He’s a guy that’s up and coming, has to learn some of the techniques and fundamentals of playing off the ball, and not just rushing the passer."

That points to another year as an understudy. That's also a bit of a surprise since Solomon's recruiting star fell to earth largely because he was radically undersized linebacker who did safety stuff well but evolved into a tweener:

• David Lake, 247: " is very smooth when dropping back into pass coverage. Changes direction and runs like a safety in the short area."
• Gary Ferman, Rivals: "shines in coverage … going to have to put on a lot of weight … hyper athletic linebacker who's incredibly skilled in coverage … enormous ceiling"
• Corey Long, Orlando Sentinel: "…athletic, active linebacker who goes sideline-to-sideline as well as any player in this class. He is fast enough to match up with receivers in space and will develop the strength to bring a physical presence in the run game."
• Rob Cassidy, Rivals: "moves really, really well and he’s really great in coverage … slight linebacker and does need to add weight … hyper-athletic kid … one of the more active players on a really good defense"

An attempted explanation: he does move really well but that's no longer enough on the college level and he needs some coaching up to take advantage of his athletic gifts. That's probably for the best since he checks in at 212 on the latest roster, which is still 10-15 pounds light for viper.

Solomon was reputed to be in a battle with Barrett. Brown:

"I would say there’s a pretty good battle going on at the viper position between Michael Barrett and Anthony Solomon, so we feel good about both those guys’ ability. Their ability to run, cover, straight-line blitz…"

Talk from inside the program was generally been a lot more positive about Solomon's ability to cover than the Jean-Mary quote above. There's been talk that he could be part of the passing-down package, subbing for Barrett when containing the run on the edge isn't a huge priority.

True freshman WILLIAM "Apache" MOHAN [recruiting profile] is next up. He has a bright future as a viper Michigan pursued like he was a five star. Jean-Mary:

…one of the most explosive young men I’ve ever been around … has that instinct and has that knack of just getting to the football. It’s not always done the right way, but when you look at his production, it’s through the roof. Rushing the passer and just getting to the football, he’s a very unique individual.

This tracks with the recruiting takes, which emphasized that 1) Mohan is a perfect viper and 2) recruiting sites are not appropriately ranking vipers:

"… I’m watching William Mohan go through warmups… not the game… warmups. And I’m thinking, if this kid plays half as hard as he did in warmups, in the game, he’s going to be unbelievable.  This kid plays so fast, and so hard, he’s so explosive, changes directions well.  … He can cover, he can play in the box, he can blitz, he can chase to the sideline, he can cover a running back, down the field.  There are so many things he can do.  I guess the best way to put it is he just oozes athleticism and burst.”

He's got a freebie year to do special teams things and maybe get on the field late in blowouts. If Barrett ends up moving inside because one of the veterans heads to the league I wouldn't be surprised to see him start early in his career. This will be a year to marinate.

Finally, there is redshirt freshman JOEY VELAZQUEZ [recruiting profile]. Velazquez is also playing baseball at Michigan—he was a top 100 prospect in that sport—and hasn't drawn a single mention I can find since enrolling. He's the variety of guy who special teams has a lot of use for; he might start poking his nose through there.

SAM: THIS TIME IT'S OPTIONAL

RATING: 2

VanSumeren swapped sides [Patrick Barron]

Michigan lost Josh Uche to the NFL and doesn't have a freelance sower of edge chaos waiting in the wings, so deployment of the SAM linebacker is likely to drop off a cliff. That goes double because the leader here is BEN VANSUMEREN [recruiting profile], who spent last year on offense. He arrived as a swole 240-pound fullback/H-back sort—he actually set a Michigan state record for receptions—just in time for fullbacks and H-backs to drop out of the offense.

Michigan played him at running back a little bit but his role, such as it was, evaporated after a fumble and Ben Mason's return to offense. Your author kind of hopes that Mason paves an avenue in Josh Gattis's brain that allows VanSumeren to return to offense, where he can be the emphatic counterpoint to all the incredibly fast bastards he's recruiting. For now, he's taking a spin at SAM. Initial returns are encouraging:

"…one of the biggest surprises on the defense has been Ben VanSumeren. … Big, athletic kid, he’s in the 250 range, but runs really, really fast. The big thing you like about him is he’s been aggressive. … big guy that doesn’t mind putting his pads on people. … he’s shown the aggressiveness to be pretty successful."

Josh Ross also marveled at him:

That dude is so strong. You wouldn’t even understand how strong he is. He brings speed, intensity and hard work — he’s always around the ball and never stops.

Maybe that's a thing. Michigan has a Bush facsimile and may be able to use a Noah Furbush to snowplow a route for him. It would help if VanSumeren had the agility to pick a few different gaps to attack instead of Furbush's one; seems doubtful he's going to have a major role after swapping from offense.

BACKUPS

Insofar as there are backups for a spot that may not exist much they're young defensive ends. DAVID OJABO got a mention from Jean-Mary, who called him a "very, very athletic kid who can add to the pass rush." Freshmen BRAIDEN MCGREGOR and JAYLEN HARRELL are also potential fits, though if any of these guys get on the field it is going to be as a glorified defensive end on passing downs. VanSumeren is the only guy who might show up outside a rush package.