Offense was yesterday. That has an explainer for the faces.

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Defensive Line

Trying Etta at tackle is good for Etta, bad for the other tackles. [David Wilcomes] 

The question we're asking is: Got any depth?

But they're acting like it's: Do we need any?

What are we hearing? We don't need much talk about the starters except reminders that they're awesome. Jaydon Hood noted they keep terking his jerb.

There's times where I might have a gap, and they might wreck it. Sometimes it's fun. It really is. Just let them work. Either they're going to get it or I'm going to clean up after them.

Probably more fun in a game than when you're trying to win the third LB job. Speaking backups, Rayshaun Benny should be back by fall camp, says Lou Esposito. Trey Pierce, our other backup tackle, was seen on crutches. It doesn't sound too serious if you ask Espo.

He's done a great job. [Since] I got to come here, he's practiced a couple times, he got dinged up a little bit. He's come back and got dinged back up. But he's really progressing. I think the biggest thing for Trey was just realizing what he can do. … He's a sponge. He's been around almost two or three times a week with me one-on-one so he's done a great job. I expect him to have a good fall, and we need him to have a good fall. We've got to build that depth.

In their absence the third team DTs have been getting more run, and edge Enow Etta, listed at 6-4/292, has been asked to try playing inside. Etta needs time to adjust, says Espo:

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 away from the ball, it kind of takes a little bit of time and you can use your athletic ability out there. I think the biggest thing with him is getting some of those inside reps has really helped him on the edge. Now when you put him on the edge, some of the weaknesses that he had he doesn't have anymore in the physicality part. He's been extremely physical all spring, and he's a big part of what we're gonna do moving forward.

An insider thought Etta's "a little too trim" for this. "He's got big legs. No butt though." The only other guy being mentioned by name is the only other scholarship guy recruited to play DT.

I think Ike (Iwunnah) has done a great job this spring for us. He's played a lot of snaps.

It seems they need someone for the Goode role, and are pursuing Kent State DT CJ West for the job. West put up an 85.9 (pro caliber) last year and an 80.1 in 2022. Kent State didn't really play anybody—their FBS non-conf games were UCF and Arkansas—last season but West started against Washington, Oklahoma, and Georgia in 2022, so he's show he can hold up against P5 talent. I'm guessing they don't get involved with back-in-the-portal-again MSU DT Simeon Barrow, nor TCU's Damonic Williams, but those familiar names could help to keep other teams away from West.

As for edge, TJ Guy's name was on the tip of various tongues at Pro Day, adding to a pile of people who see him as the next in line at the DE/LB spot. Esposito's presser was more getting-to-know-you stuff so there wasn't much more to add. An insider said Guy is making it hard to judge the right tackle race because there isn't a substantial drop-off when they get a break from Josiah Stewart.

What it means? It's nice to hear from Ike finally, but they're saying too little for it to sound like he's any more than a warm body at this point. The scholarship name nobody's mentioning is Alessandro Lorenzetti, a 2022 sleeper they bumped over from offensive line when they flipped Giudice to offense. He was always a project, but if it's not happening by spring of Year 3 it's probably not.

It's too bad none of the four DTs in this year's class were able to enroll early, because they'd be getting all sorts of playing time, and we'd have an idea which among them can play. That they've moved Etta doesn't mean much for Etta other than he was willing to do it. It does mean the depth isn't where they need it to be. You can have Grant/Graham soak up more usage, but we're probably looking at a freshman getting in the back end of the rotation, with any injuries graduating that freshman to the two-deep.

Depth Chart: Expecting Michigan to pick up someone in the portal but for now…

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[After THE JUMP: I cannot get insiders to talk about anything but Barham]

Linebacker

Stayed, is champion. [Paul Sherman]

The question we're asking is: Do you guys wanna talk about anyone but Jaishawn Barham?

But they're acting like it's: Dude, did you see Barham?

What are we hearing? The insiders who aren't invested in making us believers are still going on about Barham, even more than the believers. It's to the point where I can't get them to talk about anything else. A sampling of my insider practice reports:

• I'm not here 3 minutes and Barham stands out.
• Barham is going to be special. Yr gonna hate me for this but he moves like Bush.
• They need to stop blitzing Barham it's not fair on the OL.
• Holy shit Barham is a specimen.
• Hard to tell what the offense can do because the D basically stuffs them every play. I'd like to think it's because they're the best D. But the O can't find space against the 2nd team either. I really don't know how you grade these OL in practice when they're facing our first D and they're bringing Barham.
• Barham just blitzed up the middle, defeated Mullings block, and knocked down Warren's pass.
• And Barham comes up the middle again to blow up the play.

I swear these guys were at different practices. They also relayed that Rolder was out. Sam reiterated his thoughts last week on Jimmy Rolder to us on WTKA: "he'll break your heart" because he'll be really playing well and then get banged up again. Sam thinks Rolder's on the path back again.

In Rolder's absence, Michigan put Jaydon Hood in front of the mic, whence we learned that Barham is "a dawg," that Hausmann has stepped up as a leader, and Hood isn't going anywhere.
 

The Hood emergence sheds light on what appears a tepid re-recruitment of re-portaling LB Nikhai Hill-Green, who spent last year starting for Biff Poggi at Charlotte, meant to play this year at UCF until a coaching change shifted that, and was back in Ann Arbor, and via Alejandro Zuniga, wondering why he ever left($).

Confirmed that Nikhai Hill-Green is strongly considering a return to Michigan.

He's evaluating what his role would be in Ann Arbor, both on defense and special teams, and says NIL opportunities are also a factor on where he lands.

Linebacker was one of the spots where Balas mentioned he doesn't like the depth, fwiw.

What it means? Okay, I'm buying Barham now. Hood's decision to stick around probably means there isn't going to be much playing time available for NHG. That's a bit sad because I really appreciated Hill-Green when he was here, but I'll note Hood was also grading out really well in his backup opportunities last year. Ditto Jamari Buddin, a name that will ring a bell with recruitniks as the linebacker from Belleville who went to Penn State amidst that whole Michigan-Belleville tiff with the old-old staff.

Depth chart: The WLB/MLB distinction isn't that important. Moving both starters up to Mr. Blue, both backups are greenish-hued yellow.

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Secondary

Berry isn’t Rod Moore or Mike Sainristil, but he’s the guy they started talking about a lot in those guys’ absences. [Bryan Fuller]

The question we're asking is: How do you replace Rod Moore?

But they're acting like it's: How do you catch a ray upon the clouds.

What are we hearing? LaMar Morgan, who wears a bow tie, wants us to believe in Zeke Berry.

"I think a guy who has really stepped up is Zeke Berry. I think Zeke Berry is going to be a unique player for us here. He's still young and still gotta develop him but he has a lot of those traits. … With the ball skills and all that stuff, that's going to be hard to replace with Mike, but I think Zeke has done a really good job of being a guy that we can move around at different spots, and hopefully he has a really good end of spring and does a really good job in fall."

This came right after talking about Sainristil, so it sounds like they're playing Berry a lot at nickel. One practice observer confirmed, and had some mixed UFR notes:

• Berry out with the first D.
• He got cooked on a slot fade. Ball was a little short though.
• Berry broke up a deep out to Morris from Warren. [Seth: was it accurate?] Yes, good play by Berry.

Morgan also believes he's going to keep running the weird stuff.

Everybody has a different spin on how they run the defense. I reached out to the DB coach of the Giants, talked to him a lot. Jerome there. Just about how Wink's spin on the defense is and how he does things. … A lot of teams back in the day used to do full-field reads. Everybody does so many disguises now that sometimes guys are picking a side and reading half. I just think we have to look into games and see what is this quarterback seeing and that is what we're going to run. … I think we're going to run whatever we gotta run to win the game. We got man, zone, coming after you, dropping eight, four-man rush, we've got everything up there. That's kind of been the volume. … You are right, they did run a lot of the junk Tampa 2's with Jesse, some teams they played man, some teams they didn't. A lot of simulated pressures that he got. A lot the verbiage, some of the tools we use are the same, but a lot of the coverages, pressures and stuff, they're different. When we do install meeting, we might do some of it, it could be one call, it could be Michigan film, it could be the Giants and then it could be the Ravens film. Sometimes there's a lot of stuff that we didn't run here so it's Giants film and Ravens film.

There's a lot more in there about him being awestruck at Will Johnson. As for the rest of the corners,

I think all the corners are doing a good job now. You've got Sug Hill, he's doing a good job. DJ Waller, (Kechaun) Harris. We've just been trying to throw a lot of guys with the ones and twos and rolling reps.

A recent practice insider said Waller was dinged up, which has apparently drawn Jyaire Hill back to cornerback, but both he and McBurrows are still competing at both.

As for safety, Morgan called Rod Moore "Coach Rod Moore" but Makari Paige was mentioned along with Rod and Will Johnson. First, let's let him say his piece about Moore and feel sad:

The guy gets injured and the next day he's the first guy at the front seat at every meeting. He hasn't missed anything. He's asking questions, he's just unbelievable. That's the culture that we have here. On top of that and the talent that we have here, Makari in the back and Will, a lot of these young players I think are really talented, they've just been sitting behind a lot of guys. … Rod is a very unique player. He's a leader, he's at every practice coaching. We're going to miss here. It's going to be hard for everybody here who covers him to say we're not going to miss Rod. A lot of guys are going to step up and I think Rod, once he gets back and is doing all the things he has to do to get back, he's going to be here every day at practice coaching and stuff like that with us. I hate that he got hurt but I am really excited about his future, man. He's going to be a stud.

…which kinda sounds like they don't expect Moore to play at Michigan again. Can we expect anyone to call out plays though?

I think Makari is going to step up. I know Makari, y'all talked to Makari sometimes, he's a quiet guy. Makari is going to step up and he's going to do a great job, I'm excited about him. You've got Q back, you got B-Hill (Brandyn Hillman), you've got Zeke Berry, we've got J-Mac (Ja'den McBurrows) playing some nickel and playing corner. I think there's some guys in that room that are young players that are ready to go or they were reserves, they played 30-40 snaps a game. Now they have to step it up.

Last bit is from a different insider who thought Jyaire was a titch ahead of Ja’den McBurrows at both nickel and cornerback this spring.

What it means? Cornerback is a much better spot than previous winters, with one of Waller, Hill, or McBurrows likely to emerge as a Dude the way Wallace did last season. Safety would look a lot better if it had Rod Moore on the depth chart. I expect them to start Q-Jo and take one of the safeties off the field for a DT when they go to their 5-2 look. Berry’s also going to put in time at safety, though, right? His continued presence at nickel is giving me bad vibes because they should have a couple of other really good options at this point in McBurrows and Hill. What it probably means though is they want to sort out nickel first and feel confident they can fill in around that.

Depth chart: Projecting Oden has to play this year because they’re going to need options next season. Lots of guys now.

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Special Teams

The question we're asking is: Who’s the kicker?

But they're acting like it's: Who’s returning?

What are we hearing? “Don’t kick it to us.” Semaj Morgan’s appearance with Sam’s show was followed by a full presser with the MGo-fave. Said presser is worth watching, because Semaj has a dry sense semi-serious sense of humor that’s dripping with nuance that stenographer-reporters don’t get.

A few of them at least caught Semaj’s reference to the Rose Bowl:

"The sun: It'd be bright. You know what I'm saying?"

Morgan reported that he, Will Johnson (please no), Zeke Berry and Fredrick Moore were competing for punt returner.

What it means? I appreciate the Will Johnson/Charles Woodson crossovers as much as next Xenniel Michigan fan, but let’s not.