26 days until Michigan football: Defensive tackle rotation could be a strength
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan football’s defensive line has a chance to be the engine on that side of the ball this year, mostly due to the interior rotation at tackle. Senior Kris Jenkins leads the way for Michigan but is joined by junior Rayshaun Benny and a pair of sophomores in Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham in substantial roles. Grad transfer Cam Goode will also make an impact.
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter dished on them this offseason and gave the guys returning their flowers. There have been a lot of questions about life after Mazi Smith, but Michigan seems undeterred by his absence.
“Mason Graham, everybody knows the freshman year that he had and excited about him. Another guy that just gets better and better every time on the field. A guy that may be the most improved in the last year since I’ve been here Rayshaun Benny. He’s a guy I thought made some really big plays late in the year, I mean he gets pressure on (CJ) Stroud that causes him to throw a pick,” Minter said this offseason. “All these guys have now made some plays and so there’s just a different level of confidence that they have now that every time that they go out there they feel like they can make plays.
“I think Kenneth Grant’s gonna be a name everyone’s gonna know about, he’s a monster in the middle and has a chance to be a really dominant type of player here. And then I’ve really been really really proud and really excited about Cam Goode and the improvements he’s made since the end of the season that he’s putting himself in a position to really be a contributor here as well.
“So five really good players that could probably all play at a lot of schools across the country. They’re really really bought in to our ability to rotate and keep guys fresh, and so that group they kind of drive our defense. I think this program, the reason we’re good, we’re built on the o-line and d-line, we’re driven by those guys. Some programs it’s their quarterbacks and the receivers and I think here it’s the o-line and the d-line and I think that’s what makes us good on both sides of the ball,” Minter concluded.
Jenkins for now is the only player locked into a starting job, assuming good health. But healthy rotation could make this group one of the standout clusters of players on the roster.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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