WATCH: Jaden Mangham, Greg Crippen talk Michigan football ahead of CMU

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football senior safety Jaden Mangham and graduate center Greg Crippen met with the media Tuesday evening after practice ahead of their team’s game against Central Michigan Saturday. Watch video from their sessions with reporters below.

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Senior safety Jaden Mangham

Graduate center Greg Crippen

Mangham made his first career start at Michigan, after missing almost all of the 2024 season with injury. He transferred in from Michigan State after playing there from 2022-23.

“It was great,” Mangham said of starting against Oklahoma. “Missing a whole year was tough, batting back from injury. But I just put my head down and worked, and I was able to get back. And the coaches were able to trust me enough to start me in a big game, so I’m forever grateful for that.”

Mangham detailed his decision to come to Michigan from a Big Ten rival like the Spartans.

“Yeah, it was a crazy decision,” Mangham said. “A lot of it had to do with academics and graduating. This gave me the best pathway to graduating, staying on course with all of that, and I felt it gave me the best path to get to the league. It’s Michigan.

“When I was here on my visit, it was amazing. Talking to the coaches — Coach Moore, Coach Morgan — they told me the truth. They told me everything they needed out of me and what they had planned for me.

“Getting injured kind of set me back, but I was just able to work back in the spring and summer, and now we’re here finally. Finally able to get back.”

There was a lot of noise surrounding Mangham’s decision, since Michigan is Michigan State’s biggest rival.

“I knew it was going to be crazy, but you can’t really think about stuff like that,” Mangham noted. “At the end of the day, it is a business. I knew what was going to come with it. I knew what people were going to say, but it really didn’t matter at the end of the day.

“I don’t really pay attention to it. I don’t interact with it, I don’t listen to any of it. Right now, I’m just focused on helping my team win, just staying on track.”