Michigan DL coach Lou Esposito 'would love to see' better DT duo than Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, discusses 'special' edge rushers

Michigan Wolverines football defensive line coach Lou Esposito has the privilege of coaching two of the top defensive tackles in the nation in juniors Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham.

In fact, PFF ranked Graham the No. 1 interior defensive lineman in the country and Grant No. 6 heading into the 2024 campaign. Esposito joined the Michigan staff in March after spending two months at Memphis and the six previous seasons coordinating the defense at Western Michigan.

Through just over two weeks of working with them, Esposito has seen enough to be hard pressed to believe there’s a better tandem out there.

“I haven’t watched everybody else, but if there are two D-tackles better than them, I’d love to see ‘em, playing as a group,” Esposito said Tuesday.

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Graham is a 6-foot-3, 318-pounder who made 7.5 tackles for loss in 13 games a year ago, while Grant stands 6-foot-3, 339 pounds and made 5 stops behind the line of scrimmage in 15 contests. Their skillsets complement each other, too, the Michigan assistant explained.

“They each do something different, which makes them each better, if that makes sense,” Esposito said. “KG is a huge person that has unbelievable feet, unbelievable quickness, but can literally beat you with power at any moment. So you have to be prepared for that as an offensive lineman. 

“And then Mason is a guy where you can see he was a high school wrestler. He plays with great leverage, he understands the transfer of weight and he understands his hands — and he just keeps getting better and better and better. 

“And I’ve challenged those guys every day. You can ask them, they get better every day. It doesn’t matter what you do last year, it only matters what you do today. And I think both those guys have bought into it and done a great job. They’re great leaders on the defense and great leaders on the team.”

Esposito was asked how often Michigan plans to put both players on the field this coming season, to which he replied, with a laugh, “as many plays as we can.”

The edge rushers have also impressed Esposito, with senior Josaiah Stewart and junior Derrick Moore leading the charge. Senior TJ Guy has emerged, as has sophomore Cameron Brandt.

“We have some special guys there, between Stewart and D-Mo and Guy, and then some of those young kids that have come along — Brandt,” Esposito said. “There are some special players there.

“And then the inside kids mixed in there. What it does, when you have a good defensive front, you can’t just scheme one guy. They can’t just say we’re going to go scheme to Mason, we’re going to go slide to D-Mo, we’re going to go slide to Stewart. There are so many guys up there, so it opens everybody else up. And that’s the key to having a deep front. 

“One of the reasons why we won the national championship here last year was because of the depth up front, and that’s what I think we have to keep building, keep building, keep building.”

Michigan building depth along defensive line

Building depth is a key for Michigan this spring and ahead of the 2024 season. The Wolverines have five defensive tackles that played over 240 defensive snaps a year ago, but only three of them are still on the team — Graham (442), Grant (403) and senior Rayshaun Benny (244), who’s currently out with a foot injury but is expected to be healthy by fall camp.

“I don’t know as much going into it; every game plan is different, but you want your best players on the field as much as you can,” Esposito continued. “The interior D-linemen, you don’t want to get their reps too high, because then their level of play comes down.

“You want them playing at a high level, and the reason why we were so good up front is because they were so deep. They could just roll bodies in and bodies in, and not skip a beat. That’s what we’re trying to get to right now.”

Senior Ike Iwunnah (6-3, 313) hasn’t played a single snap in a game during his three-year career so far, but Esposito mentioned him first among those contributing behind the known commodities at defensive tackle. Sophomore Enow Etta played EDGE last season but has slid inside and is competing at both positions this spring, too.

“Ike has done a great job this spring for us,” Esposito said. “He’s played a lot of snaps [in practice]. And then Enow, we’ve had the ability to move him from outside to inside and inside to outside. He’s a 6-4, 292-pound kid that ran an 11.3 100[-meter dash] out of high school. He’s a really, really good athlete.

“It’s just that he has to learn, as you get closer to the ball, the hand combat becomes quicker. It gets on you faster. The further you get away from the ball, it takes a little bit of time and you can use your athletic ability out there.

“The biggest thing with him getting some of those inside reps has really helped him on the edge, because now when you put him on the edge, some of the weaknesses that he had, he doesn’t have anymore in the physicality part, because he’s been extremely physical all spring. He’s a big part of what we’re gonna do moving forward.”