Podcast 15.0A, 15.0B, 15.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Interior OL. Offensive Tackle. Edge.

DEFENSIVE INTERIOR: MOES HURST?

RATING: 5

  Depth Chart

HEAVY	Yr.	NOSE	Yr.	TACKLE	Yr.	OPEN	Yr.
Braiden McGregor	Jr.*	Mason Graham	So.	Kris Jenkins	Jr*	Jaylen Harrell	Jr*
Derrick Moore	So.	Kenneth Grant	So.	Rayshaun Benny	So*	Josiah Stewart	Jr
Kechaun Bennett	So.*	Cam Goode	6th			TJ Guy	So*

To review: this is sort of a 3-4 and sort of a 4-3 under and sort of your bog standard 4-2-5. The interior has three "starters" in that there are three distinct roles, but because it is 2023 there will be two DTs on the field on the large majority of standard downs. Realistically the two starters are Graham and Jenkins, with Grant and Benny backing them up. Grant will get bonus snaps on short yardage when Michigan runs a 5-2 out there.

That out of the way: hell yes. Michigan returns Kris Jenkins, who could have been a day two pick in last year's NFL draft if he left. Jenkins has beefed up again, after beefing up last year. Mason Graham, who lived up to every bit of hype this site could throw at him and then some, will enjoy a freshman to sophomore transition after already checking in as one of the league's best DTs as a true freshman.

Behind these two guaranteed stars are a 340 pound man-planet who made Bruce Feldman's Freaks list last year and a highly touted redshirt sophomore who graded out like Graham in UFR a year ago. This spot is incredibly deep all of a sudden thanks to Michigan's ability to scout up-and-comers.

END: POWERED BY TENDIES

[Barron]

When KRIS JENKINS arrived on campus he just needed to eat. He was listed at 239 by 247 and showed up at Michigan at 265. He then added no weight in his first year, alarmingly, before adding 20 pounds last year. He tweeted about it and all the Michigan fans did the little hands emoji at him. This year:

Ngl i got beefed pic.twitter.com/4wUwVYNZNv

— Kris Jenkins (@KrisJenkinsJr1) May 26, 2023

Maybe that's the wrong meat to reference though:

Nah cause they are soo good https://t.co/EF6PNzIXd7

— Kris Jenkins (@KrisJenkinsJr1) August 24, 2023

Someone get this man an NIL deal STAT.

[After THE JUMP: ye gods]

That 20 pounds is probably all Jenkins needs to be capital-E Elite. Even during that sophomore year when he was playing at under 270 he was flashing, finishing the year with a total of +13 against Iowa and Georgia in just 36 snaps. Last year's preview included several incidents where a double team blew him off the ball and several more where he obliterated single blocking. But he was only flashing because of the weight. Seth asserted after the 2021 Rutgers game that "the typical Jenkins play is the guy in front of him gets rocked back, then Jenkins gets rocked back." That changed in 2022.

Now that he's the size of an NFL DT, his freakish strength should be even, uh, more freakish. This goes all the way back to high school, when he was benching 350. Now he's Michigan's top entry on Bruce Feldman's Freaks list:

He did 32 reps of 225 on the bench and did 760 pounds on the combo twist. Only last year’s top Freak, Mazi Smith, some 30 pounds heavier, did more slinging around 800 pounds.

Jenkins recently did a Turkish get-up with a 170-pound dumbbell — the heaviest Herbert has ever witnessed. Jenkins does pull-ups with a 100-pound weight strapped to his waist. He also moves incredibly well for being a 300-plus pounder, running a 7.16 3-cone, a 4.33 shuttle, broad-jumping 9-8 and vertical-jumping 34 inches.

Jenkins’ shuttle and 3-cone times are both almost two-tenths of a second faster than the quickest interior defensive lineman did at this year’s NFL combine. His broad jump would be tied for the best. His vertical jump would be second-best, and only Smith topped his number on the bench press.

“He’s the mutant of all mutants,” Harbaugh tells The Athletic. “He just keeps going and going. He’s No. 1 in our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). He’s over 300. He’s the poster child for enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Watch him become a top-10 pick.”

Also when some intrepid content persons ran around Big Ten media days testing grip strength, Jenkins blew everyone out of the water:

Shout out Coach Herb https://t.co/2L2LdVVEy5

— Kris Jenkins (@KrisJenkinsJr1) July 28, 2023

It would be one thing if we were projecting Jenkins to be good based on all these things; it is another because Jenkins is already very good. He was PFF's #3 Big Ten DT, and the guy who pipped him for #2 only played 250 snaps. (Jer'Zhan Newton crushed everyone by 10 points, FWIW.) Our grading is about as enthusiastic:

Opponent	Snaps	+	-	TOT	Notes
CSU	15	7	1	6	Kept coming through but an edge was there first.
Hawaii	11	10	0	10	Feasted, then rested. Star by midseason.
Uconn	28	14	3	11	Maybe because you want to single this man?
Maryland	51	13	0	13	Effective rusher, often got the job of hanging back.
Iowa	50	11.5	6	5.5	Got it in the face, gave it right back twice over.
Indiana	52	11.5	0	11.5	Other Mazi, absolutely a star.
Penn State	31	10	1	9	Thankfully PFF is a mess so the NFL doesn't know.
MSU	27	13	1	12	Unstoppable.
Rutgers	22	11	0	11	Casually f'd up everything RU prepared for us.
Nebraska	32	9.5	3.5	6	Wrecked stuff, not a defensive end though.
Illinois	54	20.5	7	13.5	Ditto but fought back like a man possessed. Game MVP.
OSU	57	17	3	14	Why they didn't want to run. Played lots of DE too.
Purdue	44	9.5	2	7.5	Consistently got through.
TCU	55	10	0	10	2023 All-America campaign begins here.
TOTAL	529	167.5	27.5	+140

This is not quite Mo Hurst, who would put up +20 on the regular—Jenkins averaged a +10—but given the snap counts in some of these games it's not as far away as all that. By the Ohio State game Seth had to sheepishly apologize because Jenkins +2 events were so common that he overlooked some clips:

…Kris Jenkins was just as good as Smith. Braiden McGregor managed to whip this one down from behind but one of the reasons he catches up to the back is because Jenkins has set up a wall that Trayanum runs into.

#94 the top DT

I just realized that I did that thing I do again where I didn't clip any of Jenkins's +2 events because they're so common. He drew the crucial holding on the 1st & 10 that turned a 23-yard gain into 1st & 35 (not clipped). He stood up a double on a Duo that Dallan Hayden ran for only two yards, getting him pulled for Trayanum (no video in my library). He also shoved a guard deep into the backfield to cut off a stretch run on OSU's first drive (no video). And like Smith, Jenkins was routinely pushing the pocket to turn Stroud's boredom into off-platform throws. I did clip one of those:

#94 the top DT with all the space to his right

I am slightly distressed that the holding call didn't make it, but I've done the same thing with Blake Corum.

JENKINS EXCELLED AS A RUN DEFENDER. His run stop* percentage of 13.7% was third amongst Power 5 DTs, behind only Georgia superstar Jalen Carter and Maryland's Anthony "Tank" Booker, a one-dimensional planetoid sort. Jenkins led P5 DTs in tackles on run plays and stops, and was impactful even when not actually getting the ballcarrier down:

DT #94 to bottom just above standup end

If you single blocked him instead of winning with explosion and then getting rocked back because he was light, like his sophomore year, he stuck you a yard in the backfield and then played both sides of you:

DT #94 to top just below standup end

And if you doubled him he had ways of ducking that contact and then firing into the gap after the second guy left:

DT #94 just to the right of the X

Seth did catch him getting blown out by doubles from time to time, but far less often than 2021.

The main critique here is that his average depth of tackle was 2.6 yards downfield. Jenkins consistently got guys down, but he got them down after a couple yards; he only had 3.5 TFLs on the season, and two of those were sacks. Context is important; Jenkins and Smith being able to get run stops without much help allowed Michigan to leave the safeties back and finish in the top 20 at preventing 20+ yard plays. But that second clip above is instructive. Jenkins gets a yard, controls his guy, and then disengages to tackle from the side at the line of scrimmage. That's always going to be a gain.

Add twenty pounds, add some explosion, and maybe we're talking more about Jenkins blowing through guys and changing second and seven into second and twelve. It's not going to take a whole lot more for Jenkins to fully obliterate linemen and claim his bounty of counting stats:

The technique is there, now it's about those last twenty pounds taking Jenkins from reliable and hard to block to completely unblockable.

*[Stops are awarded when you make a tackle on a run play that is not a "success" for the offense, which I assume means the play had negative EPA.]

PASS RUSH IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, but it is in progress. Jenkins's win rate was 77th amongst 437 qualifying DTs; so was his PFF grade. That's decent and only decent, though it's worth mentioning that Seth thought Jenkins was being deployed as the clean-up guy on most true passing downs:

Where Jenkins differed from Smith—and the reason he wasn't getting a lot of appreciation after—was Michigan tabbed Kris to be the guy hanging back on the pass-rushes. That was unfortunate because Jenkins was able to create havoc when unleashed because of his burst. Here he's upfield before this guard is in his pass rush set and an unfortunate trip over the LT's back foot away from a game-ending sack-strip. The mess it caused still led to a sack and 4th & long.

Now they just have to learn to convert 4th & long to an end of possession.

That was probably the case during his rare pass rush snaps in 2021, when he got zero(!) wins in 67 attempts. That was the Hutchinson/Ojabo year, when DT pass rush was completely superfluous.

This year it seems like Michigan is focusing more on getting pressure directly up the gut, which carries risks when your guys aren't Mo Hurst—bad DT rushes see lanes directly up the gut—but has huge payoffs when they are. Sam Webb noted Jenkins as one of the most disruptive guys on the defense and quoted a source that said Jenkins is "a dude" and that Michigan fans should expect more four-man rushes.

It's encouraging that Jenkins came on late. OSU, TCU, and Purdue were three of his five highest-graded games at PFF, and he got critical rushes in both of Michigan's biggest games of the year. It was his pressure up the gut that gave Mike Sainristil time to make the play of the year:

NT #94 

Pairing Jenkins with Mason Graham, about whom more in a second, makes it even more likely that one guy's pressure leads to something productive.

Mazi Smith was a decent rusher but does not have Graham's upside. This pairing, like Hurst and Glasgow, makes both rushers more effective and tilts the equation even further in favor of gung-ho go-get-em instead of waiting at the line of scrimmage in case something goes wrong. Jenkins is likely just beginning to explore his ceiling here, and reports from practice that he's a problem against this interior OL, well... I'm buying whatever hype you're selling. 

Jenkins shot up ten points in his PFF grading a year ago after 20 pounds of good weight; with another twenty pounds and all of the Hutchinson arrows-straight-up stuff I would expect he adds another ten points and challenges guys like Newton for the best DT in the Big Ten; All American level performance is likely and a first round draft slot is close to a lock. Jenkins's profile is such that he has a ton of upside left to explore despite already being one of the best DTs in the Big Ten. 

TACKLE: NO IMPROVEMENT NECESSARY

ow [Barron]

Last year's preview listed MASON "Ol' Murderglasgow" GRAHAM as a starter because Michigan announced that depth chart with three starting DTs (and three linebackers and five defensive backs, etc., etc., etc.), severely testing this site's heuristic that if you've got a freshman DT anywhere near playing time you're gonna die. We decided this did not apply in Mason Graham's case:

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 … 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.

I am not burying that take in twenty feet of steel and concrete. I am going to get a billboard in Times Square that says I WAS RIGHT SUCK IT RECRUITING INDUSTRY. I know the reason that Graham was not a five star is because he looks too much like that kid from The Sandlot and now I have the grading to prove it.

Right. Graham was almost certainly the best freshman DT in program history. He did not start-start because he (probably) had two first round picks in front of him, but he did rack up 300 snaps over the course of the season, where he was more than serviceable. Seth's charting:

Opponent	Snaps	+	-	TOT	Notes
CSU	19	6	0	6	Powerful debut. Got his when the DTs weren't first at the bowl.
Hawaii	34	9.5	1	8.5	Got something here. Show me against a real OL.
Uconn	18	3.5	4	-0.5	Finally a freshman moment. But don't single this man.
Maryland	17	5.5	1	4.5	High impact, probably ready for bigger role.
Iowa	30	7.5	4.5	3	Learned on the job, couldn't get him twice.
Indiana	21	5	0	5	Very loud day for how short it was.
Penn State	23	2.5	2	0.5	Met a new caliber of double, still got pressure.
MSU	16	2	1	1	Half-points vs backside single blocks + a Fr moment.
Rutgers	10	3	0	3	Got in late and let 'er rip.
Nebraska	19	12.5	3	9.5	Total carnage. Lane integrity an issue.
Illinois	25	7.5	3.5	4	Showed up when it mattered, quiet mistakes.
OSU	27	6	2	4	Played angry.
Purdue	31	4	0.5	3.5	Motor motor motor.
TCU	17	0	2	-2	Barely noticed.
TOTAL	307	74.5	24.5	+50

Meanwhile at PFF, Graham was in a virtual dead heat with Jenkins, Smith, and three OSU rotational DTs for the second-best DT in the conference behind Jer'Zhan Newton.

If Mason Graham does not improve at all he should be an All Big Ten player. I am using lots of italics right now. This site is collectively the WTF guy from Maryland Girl Crushes Beer:

Seth spent much of the year in UFR saying things like "are we sure this is a freshman" because you just do not see freshman DTs do stuff like this:

DT #55 attacking Illinois center

The guy Graham dumps to the ground there was the second-team All Big Ten center, per the coaches. And then there's a suite of opponent-independent stuff, like this ridiculous swat, redirect, beat block, tackle thing against Nebraska:

Sometimes okay you ran over a guy playing for Hawaii. Sometimes it does not matter who you are playing or whether they are butt at football. Sometimes the ability to string a lot of highly athletic plays together while also being 320 pounds just pops off the screen and you know that guy is a dude. This is one of those clips. Seth was saying similar things after the Hawaii game:

… even with the competition caveat I'm ready to declare Mason Graham is a thing that is happening. Put him out there with Jenkins, Smith, and Morris (with Harrell at SAM) and he's one of the guys (see #55, second from the top in the play above) in a line giving off 2016 vibes. … I'm putting the kids' college funds into MG55s. When they have grad school covered in four years I can tell my wife this was because we stayed for the whole game and I was still charting deep into the fourth quarter instead of helping with bedtime.

The ability to go WOOP in the hole like you're Blake Corum is real no matter the opposition:

DT #55 just above bottom hash

Next year Michigan will expect this sort of thing to happen and will not fling a linebacker up in a gap that Mason Graham is already dominating.

WHEN OPPONENTS GAVE GRAHAM THE MEAT he held up better than he had any right to. Almost anyone short of Kenneth Grant is going to give ground on a play-long double team, but Graham was able to fight through them productively fairly often:

NT #55 just above bottom hash

Michigan has 5.5 guys in the box there so someone getting doubled for a long time; Graham mostly sticks and is able to help tackle after a meh gain. This one is even more emphatic; he anticipates when the second guy is going to leave and then rips him past, using that momentum to burst upfield and tackle:

That is crazy. I cannot even express to you how hard that is. It is like watching a six-year old girl crush Through The Fire and Flames on Guitar Hero.

Singling him up even against good OL was often unwise. This is against Isaiah Adams, a guy who's second team All Big Ten to Athlon and Phil Steele's preseason magazines and the #2 run-blocking guard in the Big Ten according to PFF:

NT #55 just above C

The power to hold up, the agility and technique to get free, and the short-area burst to not just delay or harry the back but to TFL. If Michigan did not have Mazi Smith is he first team All Big Ten? Maybe.

GRAHAM'S PASS RUSH could be one of those things that gets sung about in, uh, song. Last year he checked in with an 11% win rate and a 73 PFF grade, which are approximately on par with a redshirt junior Ryan Glasgow. The next year Glasgow leapt up to a 17% win rate and an 89 grade playing next to Mo Hurst, who slightly bettered those numbers. DT pass rush is almost always immediately apparent, because only a certain subset of DTs have a prayer of holding up inside and the explosion to do something like this:

NT #55 just above Nebraska C

Graham's push-pull is also a weapon as a rusher; here he puts an Iowa OL on the ground before swallowing Petras:

That WOOP we saw on the run play above is also present in Graham's rush. He can swim past a lot of guys. Here he attacks the gap between the C and G and turns the pocket into a no-go zone:

DT #55 just below C

This kind of surge up the middle is going to complicate things for opposing QBs immensely; often it takes two guys getting pressure to sack, and it really helps if one of them is moving up the gut of the pocket because that prevents the QB from stepping up and hitting Colston Loveland for a 45 yard touchdown. You know, hypothetically.

I mean… this is a Taco Charlton speed-to-power rush except he's doing it at DT.

As the man above mouthed but did not dare to say: WTF. Graham discards that guy like he's the freshman.

Negatives for Graham were about half of the usual suite of freshman errors. He'd get out of his rush lane sometimes and let the quarterback scramble, okay. Whatever. It happens. I hesitate to even suggest that is a real problem since he showed excellent awareness for most of the season; you couldn't even fool him on a screen pass.

Chatter from inside the program is almost irrelevant. I dumped the [recruiting profile] from Graham—probably a first for a true sophomore non-starter—after I realized I was going to be embedding a dozen plays from last year and not referencing anything about his high school career. But for what it's worth, Sam Webb just posted that the two most disruptive guys on the defense were Jenkins and Graham, and Graham told the assembled press that he's improved the most in his pass rush.

If that's true, look out. Seth spent last year comparing Graham to a ready-made Ryan Glasgow, but I think he has the ability to be Mo Hurst. Probably not this year, when he'll be about as good as Jenkins and should be in the running for All Big Ten, but in 2024 he could be the best DT in the country. As far as goals for 2023 go: get to the passer, get that win rate up to 15-18%, get a little stronger, and eat the opposition alive.

NOSE TACKLE: HE'S SUPER FREAKY

that's no moon [Barron]

KENNETH GRANT [recruiting profile] arrived as a man-mountain with some burst last fall, and then people started talking about him. He landed in the 2021 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.

…and from there the hype train started going choo-choo. Grant did not end up being Mason Graham, but he is a different variety of DT. Guys with several captured comets orbiting around them don't just pop into big roles, because doing anything makes them tired immediately. It takes time to get those guys into game shape. See Mazi Smith, who entered Michigan with a reputation as a bear and checked in as last year's #1 Freak but did not see more than scattered snaps until his third year on campus.

Grant is actually ahead of Smith's pace. He got on the field for just over 100 snaps a year ago, which is not enough to bother with a UFR chart but is almost double what Smith did in his second year on campus. FWIW, PFF issued Grant a 73; context is important here because a bunch of his snaps were in garbage time.

While on the field Grant turned in a couple plays of note. Here he does his best Willie Henry impression by giving some ground and then rudely dismissing the man blocking him:

NT #78

Seth on this play in the Ill,inois UFR:

Illinois is up by 4, in the 4th quarter, in Michigan territory, and one good run away from field goal territory. Illinois has to have seen it too because they got this stretch playcall from the sideline, and stretch is THE PLAY that freshman DTs screw up all the time. But Grant's arms are so long the center can't even get his hands on the shoulderpads his coaches are teaching him to grab first. The only yard given up is Grant extending those arms to remain in control of the situation. And then he gets those feet moving and swallows up Chase friggin' Brown, ultimately running him sideways and chucking him down one-handed.

Promising. Meanwhile here he is executing the platonic ideal of what you want your nose tackle to do on third and short:

There were even some events against stretch plays, which a freshman guy checking in at 360 should be abominable at defending. Both events were against UConn, but I like Grant's awareness here; he controls his blocker and checks both gaps.

NT #78

The other one was just physics; Grant ragdolls his man into the back:

You just don't see freshman planetoids make these kinds of plays too often, especially without a bunch of bad ones interspersed. Grant did pick up some scattered minuses, but nothing like you'd expect.

Grant has shed close to 20 pounds from last year's phonebooks and is now a hair under 340, which is a step in the right direction. During fall camp he said that has had a major impact:

On how he’s changed as a player in Year 2 after the weight loss:

It changed me a lot. I could be on the field a lot more. I have a lot more stamina. Our conditioning test, that really helped. I passed it with ease, to be honest.

That's already had some on-field results. Sam Webb noted his play in the spring game:

Kenneth Grant was the no. 1 pick in the spring game draft. The sophomore-to-be was felt throughout the game, and not just in the run game where his size makes him tough to move. Also noteworthy was his off-snap quickness. The impact of Ben Herbert’s strength & conditioning program is obvious when looking at Grant standing on the sideline, but is more apparent when watching his improved get-off.

Jaylen Harrell:

Every play I see him out there, he’s somewhere in that backfield, whether it’s pass, run, he’s getting back there. He's causing havoc. He's making a lot of disruptions. KG is gonna be a dawg for sure this year. … KG lost some good weight. He’s moving around well. He was moving well at whatever weight he was at before, because he’s a freak, but he’s still moving good.

All that said, Grant's probably a year away from being fully actualized. Developing these extra-jumbo DTs is usually a two-year process, and Michigan has a couple of okay-to-decent options in front of him. Good goals for this year are to get up to 300 snaps and crush opposing souls on short yardage. The program talks like he can get to the passer some, too, but if that does translate to the field it'll have to be next year.

BACKUPS

Michigan has a fourth DT who could reasonably be projected to perform at an All Big Ten level, and that's redshirt sophomore RAYSHAUN BENNY [recruiting profile]. UFRs generally go out of their way to get clips from guys who are just beginning to see the field, and Benny did see the field for three games as a true freshman. Our clip was not from CSU or Hawaii or UConn, though… it was from The Big Ten Championship Game. Get wrecked, Ferentz.

As a redshirt freshman Benny emerged into a rotational piece, picking up a bit more than 150 snaps, most of them outside of garbage time. These went well:

Opponent	Snaps	+	-	TOT	NOTES
CSU	12	4.5	3	1.5	Couple of fixable mistakes. Tracking towards excellent.
Hawaii	17	6	2.5	3.5	Deserves his sack back, going to be so evil vs zone teams.
Uconn	18	8.5	2.5	6	Oh you want to run stretch huh?
Maryland	9	4.5	0	4.5	High impact, might be ready for bigger role too.
Iowa	4	1	0	1	One drive, got held on a stretch play.
Indiana	18	1.5	0	1.5	Even got to edge rush once.
Penn State	15	6	3.5	2.5	Gets moved then rips his way out of it.
MSU	10	3	0.5	2.5	You tried to stretch Benny how did that work out for you?
Rutgers	8	3	0	3	Also ripping into backfield late.
Nebraska	9	3	0	3	Kinda ridiculous.
Illinois	0	0	0	-	DNP
OSU	13	4	1	3	Upshaw's interception was gonna be Benny's sack.
Purdue	19	4	2.5	1.5	One great play, one Belly lesson.
TCU	4	1	0	1	Barely played.
TOTALS	156	50	15.5	+34.5

PFF graded him out as a 74, which is not Mason Graham territory but is heady stuff for a guy at this stage of his career. He ranked 14th in the Big Ten, on par with various redshirt seniors and behind only OSU's Tyleik Williams and Michael Hall Jr amongst second-year players. In a world where Mason Graham doesn't exist, Benny probably triples his snaps, looks very promising doing it, and enters this season with close to the same level of hype that Graham does.

Even in this one he looks like a keeper. He does some things that are Mason Graham-adjacent, like that push-pull move on pass rush:

DT #26 on bottom hash

Or the ability to quickly swim over a gap and toss an OL out of the way:

DT #26 to right of C

It was Benny who forced the CJ Stroud interception to all but seal The Game last year, and while that was more persistence and awareness than a thunderous pass rush event, those are good qualities to have.

The burst to get there is not something all DTs have.

Seth particularly liked Benny's performance against outside zone, where his quick feet and agility made him extremely hard to handle:

…Benny is fun to watch because of the way his feet keep him in a zone battle that you think his upper body might be losing.

#26 is Benny, #55 below him is Graham

There was in fact a very long discussion of how Benny was a lot like former MSU DT Raekwan Williams after the UConn game:

Speaking of exciting developments, I recall you wanting to see Rayshaun Benny against a team determined to run zone on him.

So let's explain quickly what a "Raekwan Williams" is. Michigan State had this dude with long arms and ridiculous feet, and because, being not fast in the racing sense, he only had one sack, he annoyingly wouldn't frickin' leave college zone teams alone. Zone teams want to combo through DTs or at least get them stuck somewhere they can't keep closing gaps you're trying to open.

#99 DT, 2nd from the top of the formation

It was massively important to win Rayshaun Benny from MSU, because it denied them another Raekwan in addition to giving us the antidote to the world's favorite running play.

#26 DT second from the top of the formation

See what I mean? This was a very good game for Benny because Stretch is UConn's best run play. There's no good answer for a guy like this. If you double him he'll transport the double wherever the back is going. If you move downfield and leave him single-blocked, now he's the lineman wherever the back is going.

Benny actually graded out better on a per-snap basis than Mason Graham here but our grading can have some quirks too; while Benny was promising I did not have to agonize about which clips were going to make it in the post like I did with Graham. When he attacked half a man and surged up the pocket against Purdue it was productive…

…but it was not as explosive or violent; ditto incidents where Benny dealt with double teams. He did so very well for a redshirt freshman; Graham did so very well for anyone.

Benny is less pigeonholed as a short yardage guy than Grant and will probably see more snaps than him as a result; he is a reasonable option on passing downs. Graham being both excellent and a potential ironman means that Michigan might rotate less than you'd think in the big-boy games, but Benny should see 300-400 snaps and progress from a year ago to the kind of player you can slot into the starting lineup after Jenkins goes to the NFL without a second thought.

[Barron]

Past Benny things drop off considerably. CAM GOODE [recruiting profile] returns for a sixth season after transferring in from UCF a year ago. He got 49 snaps last year, most of them late in blowouts. PFF graded him out pretty well, FWIW, but context has to be heavily considered. FWIW, Goode was said to be "asserting himself" in one of those Harbaugh depth chart dumps. Seth did clip a few Goode events, most notably his sack against Rutgers:

The sparse snaps he did get suggest that he's not passing the top four any time soon.

Last year I thought that his path to the field was as an interior pass rush specialist since he had some pretty nice win rates for a DT, but with both Graham and Benny matching his AAC production in the Big Ten that door appears to be closed. Goode should once again function as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency veteran option.

Nobody else has seen the field. This is largely because only one guy was even 1) on the roster and 2) playing DT last year. That would be junior IKE IWUNNAH [recruiting profile]. Iwunnah came to Michigan as a deep sleeper/huge project ranked outside of the top 1000 on the 247 composite and it does not appear he has been mentioned a single time since he enrolled. Academic All Big Ten, though, so that's nice. Never give up on a DT, keep working, he's got the size, etc. Scout team again.

Two offensive linemen have flipped to defense largely to make up the numbers, it seems. This makes sense since there is a 0.0% chance either was going to be needed on offense this year and Michigan's post-Benny dropoff is going to be relevant in 2024, when Jenkins is in the NFL. Might as well take a swing with an athletic guard. REECE ATTEBERRY [recruiting profile] was on the two-deep at guard and is the more meaningful switch since he could be in line to start there next year. So far, so good after the media got wind of his position switch thanks to a Tweet from Michigan Football's official account where he was clearly playing D:

“He came in the room like a week ago. He's doing really good,” defensive tackle Kenneth Grant said. “I think he said he played D-line in high school.

“He’s already moving up the depth chart. He's doing really, really good.”

Meanwhile, things have been quieter about ALESSANDRO LORENZETTI [recruiting profile]. Harbaugh's one mention of him to date was last fall but it was pretty positive:

Alessandro Lorenzetti is doing a really good job. Talk about the athleticism. Kind of reminds me of Runyan when Jon was first here those first couple years. Super athletic, it’s gonna take a little bit of time to put on the strength and the bulk.

He hasn't drawn mention this fall. See above about giving up on DTs.

True freshmen TREY PIERCE [recruiting profile], CAMERON BRANDT [recruiting profile] and BROOKS BAHR [recruiting profile] have not generated anything like the Graham/Grant hype last year and can be safely ticketed for redshirts what with five functional DTs on the roster ahead of them. Pierce is a Wisconsin flip who had a tremendous senior season and a Graham-esque senior rise—Allen Trieu literally said Pierce's senior season "looks like Mason Graham's high school tape"—that probably didn't go far enough. He is one to keep an eye on for the future. A dollar says he gets his four games.