Previously: Jim Harbaugh, Kyle Kalis, Brian Cole, Chase Winovich, Drake Harris, Jabrill Peppers, Royce Jenkins-Stone

[Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog]

Willie Henry has always possessed incredible physical talent, but consistency issues have limited his playing time over the past two seasons. At Media Day he discussed taking stock of his strengths and weaknesses and what he chose to work on in the offseason. This was a one-on-one interview, so all questions below were asked by me.

What were your goals for the summer individually and as a defense?

“To be a better player than I was last year, of course. Get down, cut body fat. Come faster off the ball, quicker twitch, play-action reads so reacting to the play action fast than I did, which I feel like was a weakness of mine. Working on a lot of weaknesses and also sharpening the skills I thought I was good at, whether it was bench press or coming off the ball, explosion, stuff like that. So I tried to work on a little bit of everything this offseason.”

How do you go about working on things like play-action reads?

“Play action, a lot of times we’d do hand drills with each other. Timing with each other, work off a quick move or something like that off a quick set, or moves with the offensive line and how they come off the ball on play action. So a lot of times it’s like seeing something to get used to seeing and reacting to it. A lot of times we’d do reaction stuff to see and react to it, stuff like that.”

Going into fall camp, what goals do you have for yourself?

“One is to be as best as I can be to help the team be as best as we can be. Everybody wants to come out here and be a starter, so that’s the goal is to come out here game 1 and be a starter. So I go out here every day to compete and challenge and may the best man win. I’m quite sure everybody’s going to be out here giving it their all.”

You have a very deep defensive line. Do you see anybody who’s poised for a breakout year in that group?

“To be honest, everybody. Everybody’s been working their butts off this whole offseason. Everybody’s dedicated, everybody’s got a whole different mindset. Everybody’s been grinding. You know, a lot of people been in the weight room doing extra, on the field doing extra, doing extra stuff just so they can be the best that they can be so there’s a lot of people that’re going to come out here in fall camp and compete for a starting job. I’m not thinking that since I’ve been playing a lot it’s going to be handed to me because everybody out here wants to play. A lot of people competing for playing time with new coaches.”

We’ve heard a lot about multiple fronts with this defense. What positions have you been playing?

“Three [tech] and the end. I can play a little nose. I play a little bit of everything, to be honest, so it’s good to be versatile. I play a little bit of everything on the line.”

What are your team’s expectations for this season?

“To win every game. To be the best in the Big Ten and be the best in the country. That would be our goals.”