Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL.

BEFORE WE GET STARTED

War never changes, but the preview posts do. We've held onto the idea that a 3-4—really a 5-2 since one of your starting "OLBs" is 292 pounds—is not really a thing in 2022 even if Michigan says it is. They did last year, and we didn't believe them, and then they ran out one linebacker for big chunks of the Michigan State game. Was this a good idea? No. Does it force us to reconsider some things, preview-wise? Yes.

Also. I worked on this depth chart for a month and then Harbaugh … just podcasted it out, with full on OLB/tackle/nose/end Ravens 3-4 nomenclature. So. Here is what we believe will happen with the defense this year:

• ANY SPREAD LOOK, STANDARD DOWN: 4-2-5 nickel that looks bog standard Don Brown pre-snap complete with viper-type person who is either Michael Barrett or Mike Sainristil.
• ANY SPREAD LOOK, PASSING DOWN: Exotic blitz pu-pu platter.
• BEEFCAKE: 5-2-4. Nominally a 3-4 but the SOLB is 290 pounds and the weakside end probably isn't dropping much, so functionally a … yep, 4-3 under.

This means that Harbaugh naming about 16 defensive starters sort of makes sense. Is Mason Graham a starter against Maryland? No. Mike Sainristil is. Vice versa against MSU.

The major difference here is that the nickel adjustment is "remove DT, add DB" instead of the more traditional "remove LB, add DB." Since it's 2022, though, the nickel is really your base and a heftier front is more unusual. We have adjusted our depth charts to reflect Michigan's approach but continue to assume base nickel personnel. Like the rest of football, we've given up on calling things defensive ends: welcome to the "edge" era.

DEFENSIVE INTERIOR: PRESS F TO PAY FOR SPINAL SURGERY

  Depth Chart

STRONG OLB	Yr.	TACKLE	Yr.	NOSE	Yr.	END	Yr.	WEAK OLB	Yr.
Mike Morris	Jr.*	Mason Graham	Fr.	Mazi Smith	Jr.*	Kris Jenkins	Jr.*	Taylor Upshaw	Sr.*
Julius Welschof	Jr.*	Rayshaun Benny	Fr.*	Cam Goode	Jr.*	George Rooks	Fr.*	Jaylen Harrell	So.*
Braiden McGregor	Fr.*	Ike Iwunnah	Fr.*	Kenneth Grant	Fr.	Dom Guidice	Fr.*	Eyabi Anoma	Sr.*

The last couple years this was a pain point, or at least expected to be one. Last year the DTs were expected to be an Achilles heel and were instead decent-to-good. This year Michigan loses Chris Hinton, a solid guy without a lot of upside, and brings back the two biggest bust-out candidates on the team.

This looks like a dichotomy: there's every reason to believe that Michigan will have a couple of stars here, but you need four guys, not two, even when you don't run a defense that effectively has 3 DTs starting. Michigan's going to get plays here, in bunches. The threat is that other teams make plays based on youthful backups if they can stay on the field.

NOSE TACKLE: FREAK TIME

RATING: 5

ENGULF [Patrick Barron]

Dedicated UFR readers knew Michigan had something in MAZI SMITH, but he broke into the wider consciousness only last month, when Bruce Feldman's Freaks article listed him #1 overall:

Smith does 22 reps on the bench press, but that’s with 325 (not 225). He close-grip benched 550 pounds. He vertical-jumps 33 inches. He broad-jumped 9-4 1/2. Smith, who had 37 tackles last season, has clocked a 4.41 shuttle time, which would’ve tied the best by any defensive tackle at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine, and it would’ve been better than any defensive tackle weighing 310 pounds or more in the past decade. His 6.95 3-cone time would’ve been by far the fastest among defensive tackles in Indianapolis. The fastest was 7.33. Smith’s 60-yard shuttle time is 11.90.

The Wolverines do a reactive plyo stairs test, which is a series of seven 26-inch high stairs that players attempt to jump up as fast as possible. The team record is 2.21 seconds. Smith did it in 2.82. To better gauge just how impressive that is, Hutchinson, some 60 pounds lighter than Smith, did it in 2.57. …

“Mazi’s rotational strength is ridiculous,” said longtime Michigan strength coach Ben Herbert, who said Smith is the strongest defensive lineman he’s seen in 25 years in the business. “He is an incredible combination of rare traits packaged into one player. He is just ridiculously strong and powerful.”

Previous Michigan players at the top end of the Freaks article include Kwity Paye(#1) and Aidan Hutchinson(#2). Both were first round picks. It would not be a huge surprise if Smith got there himself. If those numbers have any bearing on reality, Mazi Smith would show up at the NFL combine and crush it utterly. Like, 99.9th percentile in the last 35 years crush it.

His UFR grading doesn't quite live up to that but for a second-year defensive tackle this is heady stuff:

MAZI SMITH

Game	Plus	Minus	Tot	Notes
WMU	5	3.5	1.5	Has a push-pull move. Needs another.
Washington	16	2	14	Um...what?
NIU	6	5	1	Doubles all day.
Rutgers	5	6.5	-1.5	Up and down versus doubles. Couldn't stay on the field.
Wisconsin	8.5	3	5.5	The OLBs kept getting there as he was ripping through.
Nebraska	12.5	3	9.5	…stayed in the game for a lot of snaps.
Northwestern	6	1	5	Won't move on doubles, can't be singled.
MSU	11	4	7	Him too, as much as possible.
Indiana	12	4.5	7.5	Matters which OL he goes against. Next year breakout.
Penn State	11	4	7	On FFFF star watch now.
Maryland	10	3.5	6.5	Was a good day, get that pass rush up to a C+ and star.
OSU	9.5	3	6.5	That plus more pass rush.
Iowa	10.5	0	10.5	Whose idea was it to stretch the wrecking twins?
Georgia	3.5	2	1.5	Mostly avoided. Mostly just a guy.

Context is important here. When your DEs are turning in +20s DTs are going to be putting up more modest numbers. There's only so many points to go around in our grading system, which usually tries to make a 3 yard play add up to every other 3 yard play. For Smith to put up B+ numbers as a true sophomore in that context is eyes dot emoji.

Also, his highlights pop. Smith's explosion off the snap bends guys backwards. If you single block him he is going to send your OL to the chiropractor. This was a consistent feature from early in the year through the end of it. Veteran Wisconsin OL got the business; so did Georgia, at least on occasion.

NT over center.

The number of plays on which he ends up bending a guy backwards without even applying full force jumps out at you. He's able to stalemate Big Ten OL at the line of scrimmage with one hand.

DT just below the hash

He didn't even get a good jump on the snap there; he's a half-beat late, and it doesn't matter.

This ability hit scouting reels across the Big Ten and you could see opposing OL fairly quake at the prospect of dealing with him. That led to guys getting more aggressive in an attempt to stay upright, and that in turn led to a glimmer of Hurst in there. When guys start leaning into you, sometimes you get to swat them to the ground with your giant meat hammer.

NT just above hash

That is just the beginning of Smith taking advantage of his scouting report. There are guys who get scouted and things get worse for them; there are guys who get scouted and just get better. Smith is tracking towards the latter.

As a bonus for a sophomore, Smith is not a naïve guy who tries the same thing every time. He feels block pressure and fights it. Here he feels an attempted down block from the Indiana OL and rips through the guy into the gap, absorbing the puller. He did not go straight upfield:

By late in the season you could hit him with a third down zone stretch and he would not fire straight upfield but flow down the line, whip his dude, and close it down:

DT to bottom inside Hutchinson standing up

And occasionally he'd use the OL's momentum against them. Here Smith sees the RB cut inside after Ojabo eliminates the edge and instead of continuing to flow he simply tosses the OSU OL to the ground and pops up in the gap:

DT above hash

Doubles did get him on occasion. That's an area he no doubt worked on this offseason, but what happened when he did get hammered back was instructive. The linked clip saw MSU dedicate a play long double to him, and it didn't matter because Michigan's other DL closed it down. If Mazi demands doubles Michigan has the DL to make the opposition pay for single blocking the other guys. (Uh… probably.)

But even when you doubled him a lot of the time he was able to hold up anyway. Sometimes this was a half yard or yard on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage, which is still excellent. Sometimes he gave ground and then shed productively. Sometimes he just stoned it right there:

NT on top hash

Josh Ross gets the glory there on a crucial third down stop in The Game, but it was Smith who stood up to that double so that Ross could run through a completely static OL.

"What about pass rush?" the chorus exclaims. We didn't see a ton of it last year—or at least we didn't talk about it much for obvious reasons. I believe it will come. Mo Hurst is unlikely, but if he can do this to a guy who got drafted in the fifth round…

NT over center

He will cause some havoc this year, when Michigan needs him to. His ability to drive guys back in the pocket is not something that's going to create sacks on its own, but when guys are able to chip in with middling rushes around the corner that cause a step-up, or with stunts that don't quite get there, Smith will be in position to wreck house:

It might actually work better with DEs who don't have illusions about their ability to get around the corner. Here Smith blasts his guy back into the QB's lap but Taylor Upshaw has dedicated himself to an unsuccessful edge rush so there's a scramble lane:

A defense built around constricting the pocket and getting there from the interior pays that off.

It is also not out of the question that Smith is able to do more than just crush guys back into the pocket. From time to time last year he flashed legitimate zip-around-you rush.

DT to bottom inside Hutchinson

That guy is so concerned Smith is going to ride him like a donkey into the quarterback that he's vulnerable to a swim move around him.

Smith also had a knack for batting down passes. Michigan occasionally dropped him into a short zone, largely to be mean. This might not be as prominent a part of the gameplan this year because Michigan won't have the luxury of asking the edge guys to meet at the quarterback, but Smith did have 4 bat-downs a year ago. FWIW.

This space has been team Mazi since we put his recruiting profile together—"if I picked a four-star who should probably have been a five-star Smith would be it"—and sees no reason to deviate from stan stance at this juncture. Last year he was putting together the pieces and greatly overperformed expectations in year three. Add the Freaks article on top of that and both his trajectory and ceiling are A+. Smith will blow up into one of the best DTs in the country. Don't expect him back next year.

I GUESS WE'RE CALLING IT END: GO TIME

RATING: 4.

this year: one step closer [Bryan Fuller]

With Chris Hinton's, uh, debatable decision to become an NFL UDFA, KRIS JENKINS [recruiting profile] ascends into a starting spot next to Smith. On the podcast Seth speculated that Hinton might have been worried that Jenkins was coming for Hinton's job; I find that unlikely at a spot that sees as much platooning as DT does. But I do think there might be a little nugget of truth in that. Jenkins finished last season with a surge in limited snaps, scoring a total of +13 against Iowa and Georgia in just 36 snaps. He also sprinkled in quality cameos against Rutgers and Nebraska.

Given Jenkins's odd path to DT—he arrived at 239(!) pounds and has been piling on slabs of muscle ever since—blips like that over the course of year two are highly encouraging. So are the things people are saying. I wonder if Seth kept a little file with his top 5 UFR quotes most likely to make it into the season preview. If so I suspect this was #1:

Jenkins [is] an explosive proto-Hurst

I'm listening, particularly since Jenkins tweeted early this month that he'd finally cracked the 290 mark. The breakout potential veritably oozes.

It's all about momentum here. Jenkins looked exactly like he should last year: explosive, tantalizing, prone to getting blown out because he's just too small:

hand-in-dirt DE to top

This was less of a problem—ie, not one—when Jenkins was not immediately doubled. He ended up taking a bunch of improvised doubles because he'd shoot a single blocker into the backfield and draw attention from a second, allowing a teammate to go thwack:

hand-in-dirt DE to bottom

When he didn't draw a second guy the get-off was noticeable. Jenkins frequently shocked back opposition OL in a fashion familiar to Hurst/Glasgow fans:

hand-in-dirt DE to bottom

You can see it coming. Seth asserted after Rutgers that "the typical Jenkins play is the guy in front of him gets rocked back, then Jenkins gets rocked back," and when that guy in front of him happened to be a tight end Jenkins usually stood him up. Or just whipped him:

More pounds, more rocking larger guys back, more shooting into the backfield, profit. This not an underpants gnomes situation. The path is very clear. Just do what you're doing, but larger. Later in the season it looked like that was happening more often than not. Give Jenkins a straight up single block and he's putting Nicholas Petit-Frere a yard in the backfield:

DE hand-in-dirt to top

Petit-Frere just went in the third round of the draft. Jenkins was 280, tops, when that happened. Just keep incrementing and it's going to happen.

"But Mo Hurst didn't just rock guys back," you're probably saying. This is true. A lot of the time he left them a crumpled wreck begging for their kidneys back. We can't say that Jenkins did that a ton, but he did flash the ability to rip someone's spine from their body:

hand-in-dirt DE to bottom says GERT ORFF

Also once he disastrously shot upfield against an opponent stretch play, opening up a lane for a Kenneth Walker touchdown. This is exactly like young Mo Hurst. So we've got that going for us. At this point I'm not even sure if I'm joking or not.

While we have not seen a lot of Jenkins providing internal pass rush, context is important. He was a rotational piece last year and Michigan had those defensive ends. A blip here and there is enough to think there's something there. Here's that blip:

As the world's leading Kris Jenkins stan I think that's the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Jenkins and the torso of opponent quarterbacks.

Jenkins was a true sophomore last year. Repeat: true sophomore. One year removed from being 239. Already more or less functional as a Big Ten DT. Has added 20 pounds from last year's roster weight and asserted on Twitter that the roster weight was five pounds light—and possibly more by now. All of ths points to a breakout. (Per Seth post-Georgia, he is in fact an "easy pick for breakout player.") Program chatter has concurred:

Harbaugh did give a shoutout to Jenkins on the Jansen pod, saying "very, very, very strong, fast, and quick and he’s improved a ton".

Except insofar as they don't talk about him because he's locked in. After Nebraska Seth was telling people that you should "invest in #94 jerseys before Jenkins adds his last 20 pounds and goes full Mo Hurst." Your author concurs, and not just because he picked out Jenkins as the sleeper of the year a couple years back.

Jenkins isn't going to be Hurst, who was immediately that dude, but something in the Ryan Glasgow range is realistic.

TACKLE: HEURISTIC STRESS TEST AHOY

RATING: 3

I just wish Graham's first name was Ryan or Jordan [Patrick Barron]

This section underwent a last-second rejiggering when Harbaugh's depth chart listed MASON "Ol' Murderglasgow" GRAHAM [recruiting profile] as a starter at tackle. Graham was previously down in a very long section about the two freshmen, because they project as dudes. Now he's up here because Michigan's decided its best bet against the Wisconsins and MSUs of the world is to go with a five man front featuring a true freshman at a spot on the defensive interior.

This is necessarily a bit of a collar-pulling situation. Freshmen DTs do not produce, period. You can be a five star rated in the top ten and your freshman season is an apprenticeship where you're just trying to survive. This situation has several mitigating factors. Two do not directly pertain to Graham. The first is that this is not really a starting spot except in about three games: Iowa, MSU, and maybe Illinois. Second is that he's going to be deployed between Mike Morris and Mazi Smith, so the number of doubles he sees should be approximately zero.

There are various Mason Graham-related reasons to be optimstic as well. One is that he gave the business to Olu Oluwatimi in the spring game, at least on one snap:

Meanwhile I'm almost irritated he's already being proclaimed a starter because he was your author's 2022 recruiting fave-rave—and not just because his name is a Ben Mason-Graham Glasgow mashup. One of the things we think about the recruiting industry is that a lot of the time a guy who shoots up the rankings doesn't shoot up enough (see also: Aidan Hutchinson); conversely a guy who plummets down them often doesn't plummet sufficiently far. Graham is an example of the former. Sometimes the industry itself notes it. Rivals indeed shot Graham up the rankings, but only to #162. He's their #11 DT in the class. And then a few months later Mike Farrell pumps him up as one of three DTs to watch out for going into the season.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Graham profiles as an extremely active penetrator who uses his wrestling background to stay low and get under and through guys. Seth had him at 292 when he did his recruiting profile, and in spring he looked downright svelte. When the phonebooks came out Graham had surged up to 317 pounds—a weight that almost brings into question the "all weight gain or loss is good" mantra we have around here. But not quite, because the things people are saying about him did not change from rapture in the spring. Harbaugh in spring:

"…somebody who can play early out of the freshman class. Really high motor, well thought of, and is already physically strong, but he needs some more strength work, but shows the athleticism and agility to be a really good player. He will play as a freshman. He was playing and playing at a pretty darn high level right off the bat."

Will Johnson at the beginning of fall camp:

"Guys that I would say that have impressed me that I was kind of shocked by a little bit, starting in my class, was Mason Graham … He’s one of the best defensive tackles on our team already, so he’s going to be nice. … If you go back and watch the spring game and watch him go against probably the best center in the country, you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about. Just the way he can hold his own and it just looks effortless for him. It’s crazy seeing him go against seniors."

And Mike Elston this fall on some of the more technical aspects of playing DT:

“He learns well, learns quickly, was taught very well in high school technique … Knows how to block destruct. Understands angles and how to use his hands, which is a huge part of playing D-line. Understands block reactions and picked that up, what we do here, very quickly. He gives us great depth and can go in and play winning football right now."

So that's one "might be good immediately" box checked.

The other thing that holds freshman defensive tackles back is conditioning. Freshman Mazi Smith, Gabe Watson, etc.: they get tired after a couple snaps. They're either too small or too tired. Graham is not too small, and if there's a freshman DT in the country that "too tired" won't apply to it's likely Graham, who started both ways and still had everyone talking about his relentless motor after games against some of the best high school football programs in the country:

…played full time on the offensive line as well and never looked winded or tired, despite playing against a deep and talented Mater Dei line. … When I talked to him after the game and asked how he felt, he said, 'I'm ready to play another one right now in this parking lot.'

Webb recently talked up his "strength, technique, and non-stop motor"

With Graham his strength, technique, and non-stop motor were again highlighted. “You can tell he was a wrestler with the way he will fight you… whoever worked with him in high school did a great job.”

Our deep skepticism about freshman DTs is somewhat mitigated by all of the above. Graham might just be that dude.

And… okay. There's a 15% chance I'm going to bury this take in twenty feet of steel and concrete at some future date, but this feels like Hutchinson:

Graham made perhaps the biggest leap (for me) from his junior year to his senior year. Watching his junior film, I thought he was a slightly undersized, try-hard player who was a decent prospect. He was committed to Boise State at one point, and I thought that was appropriate. But the more I watched him as a senior, I thought he made great strides with his technique. And his high effort continued to be there, despite putting on some weight and starting both ways.

Arrow pointed straight up, massive weight gain coupled with no apparent dropoff in agility—in fact the guy seems more athletic now—, advanced technique, wrestler, insane motor. If he doesn't hit I'll eat my hat and every hat in a 30-mile radius.

What this means in year one is that he'll hang on against top-shelf OL, flash against middling-to-bad ones, and generally hold his own. Don't expect fireworks; neither expect Armageddon. He'll be fine.

BACKUPS

We're going to throw them all in one pile, because realistically most of the season is going to be a nickel with two DTs and folks are going to rotate in at various spots.

loving the whole hair situation here [UCFKnights.com]

There are bodies here but most are too young to be entirely comfortable with as two-deep mainstays. The exception is UCF transfer CAM GOODE [recruiting profile], who is entering his fifth year of college football. He was a rotational piece on an iffy UCF defense last year but as a redshirt sophomore he managed 7.5 TFLs in rotational time and had a major impact as a pass rusher:

His freshman and sophomore numbers back that up—via PFF, Goode got pressures on 10.3% of his rushes in 2020, and 11.8% in 2019. For comparison, Chris Hinton last year was at 5.2%, Donovan Jeter was 5.6%, and Mazi Smith got pressures on 7.7% of his pass rushes. Mo Hurst's 2017 was an insane 14.4%, whereas stay-at-home Bryan Mone was a career 2.1%, if you're wondering how the distribution lies.

That dropped off considerably last year for reasons that are either nagging injury or scheme-related. He was preseason third-team all AAC to PFF entering last season, a ranking that didn't really pan out.

If the injury was a real issue that dented his ability, you can reasonably project an all-AAC-ish player into Michigan's two deep. He's not Mike Danna, who PFF thought was a superhero, but he's also put up considerably more snaps and made more plays than Jordan Whittley, and Whittley was occasionally useful a year ago. Goode should slot in as a guy who picks up 15-20 snaps a game with an emphasis on passing downs, where he's completely adequate.

Benny wears 26 which is immediately endearing [Patrick Barron]

Foremost amongst actual recruits is redshirt freshman RAYSHAUN BENNY [recruiting profile], who was the focus of an instate recruiting tug of war ending in favor of the good guys. It is a thunderous posterization that Benny's 15 minutes of UFR fame came in the Big Ten championship game:

I know this is a weird question to ask about a conference championship game, but did we learn anything about the future from the kids who played in garbage time?

Rayshaun Benny looks like he’s going to be a dude.

George Rooks played DT and was blown off the ball pretty badly. He’s more end-shaped at the moment, so it’ll be a minute. The positive that he got on the field is a stronger indication than what happened once there.

We don't have a whole lot more to go on. Alex has absorbed all the offseason talk and asserted that Benny has "gotten the most buzz" amongst the second year players, and Harbaugh's depth chart dump noted he's "really been happy with the interior defensive line" before naming Benny alongside of Graham:

…he's just coming on like gangbusters. Every practice is is better and better. So I'm really excited about Rayshaun.

He's been passed by Graham but that might actually be ok. There's reasons to believe in both, and worst case it seems like the floor here is relatively high.

There are a number of other redshirt freshman DTs vying for time, but that's already five guys and the freshman Godzilla is last so it's unlikely any of them have anything more than bit parts. (This is not a "getting late early" situation. DTs take time to develop and you need lots of them.) Time for a little lightning round.

Rooks still doesn't quite look like a DT [Patrick Barron]

GEORGE "No Such Thing As Halfway" ROOKS [recruiting profile] was the highly rated guy Michigan was pining for in the aftermath of the temporary Benny defection; they got him and then Seth looked at the tape and saw more of an SDE:

…when I finally got to scout the one we were focused on this whole time it was just “Oh, RVB again.” Which is fine. I just really wanted to say “Ryan Glasgow.”

Rooks is listed at 278 on the roster, which is up from 270 last year but still not viable except on scattered snaps. As mentioned in the blockquote above, when he got on the field against Iowa he got "blown off the ball pretty badly." This is fine since Rooks flashed in the spring game, drawing notice from Webb…

[Rooks] was the guy that really flashed out there, making plays. I saw him blow up a split zone by himself. I saw him slip a block and get pressure. I saw him get off a block and get pressure.

…and Steve Lorenz:

…really, really effective in the spring game, backing up a lot of what we heard throughout early practices.

That chatter has died down in the fall as the freshmen suck up most of the available oxygen—in Kenneth Grant's case, perhaps literally—but give him another year to marinate and he could be a penetrating force. He could have a role on third downs this year. If he's 2021 Jenkins that's a great sign.

The other two members of the 2021 DT class were fliers ranked in the 1000s by the composite. DOMINICK GIUDICE [recruiting profile] actually got a two-star rating from one of the services and was met with general befuddlement from the industry upon his commit. Aside from a passing mention or two nothing has been heard from him yet. He's up to 290, FWIW. IKE IWUNNAH [recruiting profile] was listed by Seth as one of the boom-or-bust guys in the class because he's "way more than just a 320-pound nose" but also "way less ready to play than you’d think a college-sized NT at a major Texas program should be."

This does not yet have to be said about redshirt freshmen, but: never give up on DTs. Also do not expect these latter two to play in 2022.

A RUMBLING DOWN BELOW

This space is exceptionally skeptical of true freshmen defensive tackles, so it's a double-edged sword that Graham and this guy are fielding almost all of the hype outside of the two starters. But, so… Sam Webb recently asserted that "a lot of the focus" after the starters was on the freshmen and said that the "internal expectation is that both will be rotation players this year"; Harbaugh said "they’re both gonna play a lot of football at a position of real need," which… er.

On the one hand, yes, all indications are that Michigan has a couple of major strikes at one of the most important spots on the field. On the other, it's a little ominous until those guys get ramped up. Graham you can kind of get. The other guy, well…

identifying arrows entirely superfluous

Planetoid flavor freshman is KENNETH GRANT [recruiting profile], who I am legally obligated to describe as "mammoth." And, yeah, he's listed at 356 pounds. Mammoth: check. Recruiting sites split on him, with ESPN and Rivals seeing a three-star gap plugger while 247 and On3 were more optimistic—vastly so in On3's case; they put him just outside their top 100. Their justification:

"[Of all the nose tackles this year] he has some of the best reactive quickness. I think the big thing with him is it’s not just the size, but it’s how how quick he moves like his initial burst off the ball, first step all that."

Allen Trieu was similarly impressed, saying that he "shows some very real athleticism for a player of his size …shows the ability to penetrate and make plays in the backfield." Since On3's EJ Holland asserted that he was the only Rivals employee to see Grant in person (and then he left Rivals), the scale here tilts heavily towards optimism.

Then there are the early returns from the program. There was of course Grant's inclusion in Feldman's Freaks article:

At 6-4, 360, he ran a sub-5.0 40, Jim Harbaugh told The Athletic this month. Ben Herbert, the UM strength coach who has trained more than his share of Freaks, said Grant has “incredible traits” and “is likely to be a No. 1 (Freak)” down the line if he applies himself.

Herbert said one of the tests is a 26-inch high reactive plyo staircase, on which receiver Roman Wilson recently set a Wolverine record, going 2.21. Aidan Hutchinson did it in 2.57, which was flying. When Grant first started, he posted impressive times for his massive size, going as low as 3.2, but after a few weeks, he’s done it as fast as 2.77. “Everyone about fell over when they saw that,” Herbert said.

The 360 pound guy is doing the plyo staircase two-tenths of a second behind Aidan Hutchinson. Okay. We are nearing Mike Onwenu realms of implausible mobility. I am feeling demands for Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man edits flow out of my fingers like Sith lightning bolts. Soon. Soon.

For now Grant is likely to be a bit player since I'm going to blindly assert that pad level is an area for improvement. The improvement should be coming, as the program isn't just talking up Grant as a mountainous ballerina but also as a program guy. Harbaugh:

“Kenneth Grant is my favorite. There’s nobody I like more than Kenneth Grant. Ton of personality and not in a show-off way or anything. Good, genuine, down-to-earth guy. He’s a tremendous athlete for any size, really. If he was 100 pounds lighter than what he is, you'd say, ‘He’s a really good athlete. He’s really light on his feet.’ And it's really important to him. He really studies the game."

For his part, Minter said he was "very, very humble" and "very, very detailed."

Grant did not enroll early and there are some fairly hyped recruits in front of him so all of this is very believable. You just want important snaps to start next year, not this year. I could roll out the history of five-star defensive tackles in their true freshman seasons if you want. Suffice it to say that they're bit players, no matter what. If Grant defies that he's either Jordan Davis 2.0 or Michigan's backup tackle situation is iffy.