Previously: Podcast 11.0A, Podcast 11.0B, Podcast 11.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. Defensive End. Defensive Tackle.

Depth Chart

VIPER!	Yr.	MIDDLE LB	Yr.	WEAKSIDE LB	Yr.	SAM LB	Yr.
Khaleke Hudson	Sr.	Josh Ross	Jr.	Devin Gil	Jr.*	Josh Uche	Jr.*
Jordan Glasgow	Sr.*	Jordan Anthony	So.*	Cam McGrone	Fr.*	Michael Barrett	Fr.*
Michael Barrett	Fr.*	Charles Thomas	Fr.	Jordan Glasgow	Sr.*	--

You don't replace Devin Bush. Not with one guy, anyway. Maybe you can replace him if your budding star steps up and your knife-man resumes his knifery and your other knife-man gets to play more than 20% of the time and maybe a fourth knife man emerges from the two deep.

It is in this way you might replace Devin Bush: with many knives.

INSIDE LINEBACKER

RATING: 4

big Charles Matthews energy [Patrick Barron]

One of the most baffling subplots of last season was "why is the WLB battle a thing?" JOSH ROSS and Devin Gil split snaps almost down the middle for much of the season; by the end of the year Ross had maybe a 60/40 advantage. This resulted in a season-long carnival of complaints in UFR, because Ross kept doing things worthy of exclamation points…

LB #12 to top

…and kept splitting snaps with a guy who did not keep pace.

[After THE JUMP: "cry havoc and quit dropping me into coverage" –everyone]

And yet:

• Post-Nebraska: "Ross inche[d] towards the clear starting WLB job. Both in performance and snaps. Occasionally feels pretty Bush-like."
• Post-Northwestern: "Gil's day is encapsulated above: two real bad plays on the first drive and then one other drive. …Ross did well with his time …He's the starter by snaps if not by actual starts; probably time to make it official."
• Post-Rutgers: "It would seem to be Ross time. I've said this at least six times and it doesn't happen so it's probably not Ross time. But it would seem to be!"
• Post-Indiana: "I officially Do Not Get the WLB rotation anymore. Ross was PFF's player of the game, at least on a per-snap basis, with a whopping 88 rating. My opinion isn't far off that."

In these situations you start to wonder if your football knowledge is air and that you are an imposter. Then Ross gets installed as the Bush heir, with no challengers, and you get to breathe a sigh of relief. It is now Ross time.

Ross was already an upper-tier Big Ten linebacker a year ago, both by your author's reckoning and PFF's:

Meanwhile in UFR Ross consistently checked in above zero, which has historically been the cutoff for decent linebacking. He was +33 on the season. Gil was –4. UFR grading is tough on LBs, so that's not a slam on Gil. He was a bit below average as a first time starter. A version of Ross that got as much run as Bush may have had an argument for All Big Ten.

Ross brought oomph to the position.

LB #12 backing off line to top of formation

Here he's on the LOS and has to flow down it against an OL and still stops the RB dead in his tracks on contact:

This H-back didn't know what he was signing up for:

#12, LB to top of screen

He was able to stack and shed.

And while he's not Devin Bush on occasion his ability to suck up ground felt Bush-like:

MLB #12; Bush motions but he stays stationary pre-snap

His quick reads allowed him to get to the sideline decently well. This isn't Bush range but the ability to feel that a blocker is coming outside of you and shuck him without looking at him until late is familiar:

LB #12 to top of formation

He had his screwups, like all linebackers. He'd occasionally get too aggressive and check the wrong gap or get out of his lane on a blitz. Almost all of it felt like stuff a true sophomore getting his first extended time is inevitably going to do. There wasn't any pattern; there's nothing that we can point out as a clear weakness.

It's now go time for Ross. He has the enthusiastic endorsement of Brown…

“First off, it's not a challenge to coach Josh Ross. He's the brightest linebacker I've been around in a long time. Even when he was injured in spring, this guy knows his stuff. You don't have to worry about what kind of a day's work you get out of Josh Ross.

…and no challenger for his starting spot. He already graded out as one of the league's better linebackers a year ago, by multiple reckonings. This is stardom-track stuff. Ross should be an All Big Ten player, with an outside shot of being more or less indistinguishable from Bush. More realistically he'll feel like Ben Gedeon, a heady guy who's clearly an NFL athlete but is not the best LB in the history of the program.

Gil didn't have the range of Ross or Bush [Patrick Barron]

The spot next to Ross has been more of a battle, but it seems like DEVIN GIL has maintained his lead. As discussed above, Gil checked in with a –4 on the season in just under half of Michigan's snaps. That's actually decent for a sophomore first-year starter. Gil's main issue was that Ross got the other half of the snaps and was a dude.

Where Ross occasionally felt like a one-for-one replacement for Bush, Gil turned in some plays that indicated he was a certain downgrade. A big chunk of this was awareness. For a guy who got talked up as the heady, reliable option at linebacker he ran himself into nowheresville a lot. Here he's closer to the POA than Bush at the snap but ends up burying himself in the line while Bush plays it right:

LB #36 to bottom

Gil was one of a few different defenders responsible for that long Rutgers touchdown, as he pursued so hard to the frontside that he had no shot at even slowing the back when the play cut to the backside. And when sideline-to-sideline ability was tested Gil was more McCray than Bush.

LB #36 to top

And then there was some very frustrating stuff.

LB #36 on LOS to bottom

Gil turned in some nice plays, too. He was frequently able to thunk a blocker and either move him into the rushing lane or make the play himself. He hit people:

Sometimes these people were free-releasing Wisconsin guards:

Here he gets a free releasing G on the first play and stands him up to erase the iso gap this play wants to hit:

#36 ILB to bottom

The fullback ends up zipping through a hole that doesn't exist; he falls and becomes dust. If Mone is able to hold his ground or Kinnel reads the gap better this is a minimal gain.

That's only one aspect of modern linebackery and Gil didn't really have a whole lot of positives in other departments. This space did not get his deployment last year, which felt a lot like Joe Bolden starting over Gedeon because Bolden was good in spring practice when he knew exactly what to expect. Whatever Gil did last year to boot one of the better Big Ten linebackers off the field for almost half the snaps was mysterious.

You can probably tell that this space is dubious about a potential repeat. Gil doesn't seem to have the physical upside of a couple of his chasers and didn't improve much over the course of last year. If he kept playing then, he's likely to keep playing now. And he'll be fine. He was fine last year, more or less. It doesn't seem like he's got much more upside than that.

BACKUPS

Brown and Anthony Campanile both seem positive about the whole linebacker room, to the point where it wouldn't be particularly surprising if Gil again rotated or even got passed midseason. Brown:

"Ross, Cam McGrone, those two guys, Glasgow, Devin Gil and Jordan Anthony—those five guys—can play at a lot of places in this country. They're very good football players. I feel like we've got five guys. This is probably the most depth I've had"

Competitors come in two flavors.

EVIL KENNY G CUMONG [Patrick Barron]

Flavor one is veteran walk-on/Glasgow JORDAN GLASGOW, who's hovered around the threshold of serious playing time for three years now. WLB talk is a bit of a surprise since Glasgow has bounced between viper and safety for the bulk of his career, but coming out of spring he was reputed to be the stiffest challenge for Gil. Sam Webb:

"(Glasgow) was the best guy at WILL in spring ball,” one team member told me recently. … I expect he’ll at least be a rotation player there."

He's probably losing ground on a daily basis to the gazelle types we're about to address, but if he's the most consistent guy there's a role for him.

Glasgow got bits of a number of different games thanks to Khaleke Hudson's two targeting ejections. He was perfectly fine—not an impact player but also not a major dropoff from the relatively sedate 2018 version of Hudson. In fact UFR said Glasgow was "completely fine" and that he did "fine" in consecutive weeks when he got approximately a game's worth of action between the second half of the SMU game and the first half of Nebraska.

Glasgow's best moments were when he displayed hard-nosed run defense that belied his defensive back stature. Here he knocks a pulling OL clean over:

viper #29 standing to top of LOS

That's unlikely to happen again unless Michigan gets a lot of MAC-backup-quality tackles on the schedule this year but Glasgow continued to show the heads-up awareness and ability to shed that first won him acclaim when he shut down an OSU fake punt in 2016:

viper #29 over slot

The Kovacs vibe is real, except Glasgow is listed at 226 on the roster. That's a hair light; it's not so light that Glasgow can't overcome that by being generally Glaswegian.

Entering last season Brown was up-front about Glasgow's coverage being a problem at safety. Even when he was praising Glasgow there was a certain thing missing:

"He’s a good blitzer. He’s strong enough to play in the run game. He’s a smart guy. Sometimes I’ve gotta punch him in the nose and say, ‘Stop talking!’ And he’s a good run defender."

Coverage became less of an issue when he moved to viper. Coverage snaps were still scanty but when called into action against TE/superback types he looked up for it. Here he bites outside on a route and is still able to get in +1 position by the time the ball zings by:

viper #29 standing up on LOS

His other coverage event was also a plus as he made an immediate tackle on a drag route. Against a guy from Northwestern who probably runs a 4.6, not a guy from OSU running a 4.3. Expectations should be kept within reason. If Glasgow does end up playing WLB he'll be drawing running backs a lot of the time, which seems like a reasonable matchup as long as there aren't any Saquon Barkley types out there—and Gil isn't likely to be better if there are.

Michigan used a few double-viper formations last year, which were denoted as 3-1-7(!) in my charting. These were strictly passing-down defenses that sought to use both vipers as rushers. These were pretty effective, with Glasgow picking up a sack against Penn State and getting a couple pressures against Indiana. These were always stunt casting and to remain effective one or both vipers are going to have to drop into coverage and let someone unexpected come; still something to keep in the back of your mind.

Glasgow is going to get some time in rush packages and may have a situational role. It might be tough for him to pass Gil, who was ahead of him last year in the coaches' eyes.

McGrone(#44) is the highest upside WLB option [Patrick Barron]

The other flavor consists of young fast guys who provide the most upside, and the most downside. Redshirt sophomore JORDAN ANTHONY [recruiting profile] was the starting MLB in the spring game (Ross was dinged) and acquitted himself well. Redshirt freshman CAM MCGRONE [recruiting profile] comes with the most recruiting hype of anyone in the room and has been mentioned off-and-on as a Bush-alike.

In spring it felt like Anthony was ahead. After all, he drew in with the ones in the spring game:

With Ross out, Jordan Anthony got the snaps with the ones next to Devin Gil and looked like a reasonable Devin Bush facsimile. He had a sack on a blitz up the middle that got home in a flash and was close to a couple more.

Meanwhile McGrone played a lot, possibly too much:

Cam McGrone played a fair amount with the twos but lasted deep into walk-on time. Hard not to take that as a sign that he's not as close to a breakthrough as I'd hoped. He did have a few nice plays sprinkled in there; he had some productive edge rushes… or edge rushes that would have been productive if the DTs were able to collapse the pocket more.

On the eve of the season McGrone has pulled ahead in terms of chatter. Both Lorenz ("Michigan feels 'great' about the future at linebacker," particularly Barrett and McGrone, while a source said Anthony was "picking things up") and Webb…

…I’ve been most encouraged by what players and coaches have been saying about Cam McGrone. Cam has apparently been flashing some of his predecessor’s playmaking ability. … I’m not expecting him to be a game one starter at this point. More consistency will be the key to his rise that could very well occur later this season.

…had really positive things to say about McGrone. Elsewhere Webb said he's the "guy generating the most excitement." And Harbaugh's most recent press conference again talked him up as a riser:

Harbaugh mentioned several names when asked who the most improved defender is. But one interesting inclusion: Cam McGrone.

“Really ascending… coming on like a freight train."

— Max Marcovitch (@Max_Marcovitch) August 26, 2019

This is the same phrasing Harbaugh has used to describe Zach Charbonnet; Michigan fans would like nothing more if those guys burst through their competitors to surmount the depth chart like twin Kool-Aid men.

As to how Anthony and McGrone play: Devin Bush. All Michigan linebackers are supposed to be like Devin Bush, and these two gents are the most Bush-like of the five guys competing for playing time.

With five viable guys for two spots in front of him, freshman CHARLES THOMAS [recruiting profile] is destined for a redshirt. Thomas was this site's sleeper of the year and has drawn a couple of early positive mentions.

VIPER: ONE TRICK PONY

Rating: 4.

Hudson's wheelhouse, let's get in it [Patrick Barron]

After swashbuckling through the Big Ten as a sophomore, KHALEKE HUDSON was neck and neck with Rashan Gary for most disappointing 2018. Even if you disregard that ridiculous Minnesota game, Hudson was a dude. Last year's preview summarized:

Hudson stepped into Peppers's shoes with barely a hiccup. He was a lethal blitzer, sure tackler,—just three misses on the season—punishing hitter, and ... uh... largely untested cover guy. … He missed zero tackles in run D, making 45. His pressure rate of nearly 30% is top ten nationally amongst returning back seven players. His 21 run stops leads returning Big Ten safeties. And he graded out better than Peppers, per PFF. This site had a difficult time deciding whether Hudson or Devin Bush was dreamier for much of the year.

Don't let the Minnesota game cloud your memory. Hudson wasn't just a free runner. He was capable of jetting past blockers who couldn't match his get-off...

#7 OLB to top of line

...and able to redirect inside OL worried about said get-off:

#7 OLB to top of line

… On top of all that, Hudson is getting the sort of hype that you don't usually hear about established players. Lorenz highlighted him as "the most hype-y player" at one point, with folks telling him Hudson was headed for All-American. Isaiah Hole relayed that Hudson "has taken a major, major step forward."

For my part I gave this position a 5 and projected that he would go back in time and assassinate Baby Hitler. Probably? I deleted the projection and that feels less embarrassing. Because Hudson's junior year was not that different from Carlo Kemp's. He was… just a guy.

Opponent	+	-	TOT	Note
Notre Dame	4		4	Somewhat muted but still fine.
WMU	8	3.5	4.5	No big plays but consistently forcing the play to others.
SMU	5	4	1	Doing well until ejection.
Nebraska	5.5	1	4.5	Did a lot of work late.
Northwestern	0.5	1	-0.5	Didn't get kicked out.
Maryland	5.5	3	2.5	Admittedly guessing on a -2.
Wisconsin	3	6.5	-3.5	Not a 4-3 LB, asked to do so for team. Couple coverage issues.
MSU	2	1	1	Eh
PSU	5	5	0	Iffy day rescued by a big sack.
Rutgers	3.5	0.5	3	Drove a couple of guys in run D.
Indiana	5.5	5	0.5	Caught on drag for 22 yards.

He wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, and that grading is much better than Kemp's when you take the context into account. LB grading is not DL grading. Also the wind kind of went out of Hudson's sails when he suffered two targeting ejections early in the season. The first was absolutely legit; the second absolutely not.

Then Hudson was increasingly drafted into roles that he was unsuited for. Against Wisconsin, Michigan's first plan was to put him over the tight end on the line of scrimmage, and when that didn't work out Hudson ended up playing an off-the-LOS strongside linebacker spot against the Wisconsin beef machine. It went like it had to:  

It also felt like there were a lot of plays where Michigan should have gotten Taylor down 4-6 yards before they did?

Yeah, Michigan's other main issue was getting the LBs and safeties to pay it off when the DL or Brown got a win. There is nothing here for Wisconsin and free hitters in Kinnel and Hudson:

This turns into ten yards as Hudson starts bailing for a bounce and ends up catching Taylor, on his heels, three yards downfield. Taylor then grinds out seven yards after contact.

Hudson had a rough go in general. Michigan started with him lined up as a SAM over the TE but moved to that over front after a drive or two; that drew Hudson back to the LB level, where he was uncomfortable. He's not a read-and-fill inside linebacker. Michigan asked him to become one. The move helped the defense recover from the ominous first drive; Hudson made a number of errors. In addition to the above Michigan had an opportunity for a third and one stick with Hudson moving up as a free hitter. It did not happen:

#7 LB hopping around pointing at stuff

Hudson was increasingly deployed in coverage and not sent across the line of scrimmage as Michigan relied on Winovich, Uche, and Gary to do most of their rushing. As last year's preview mentions, Hudson was not called into action as a pass defender much in 2017. Michigan preferred to send Mike McCray out when Saquon Barkley motioned to a flanker position, with disastrous results. That made no sense and had to be a somewhat ominous sign.

Hudson didn't get annihilated last year in coverage but for every ping right over his outstretched hand there were a couple less encouraging events. Against Indiana he ended up in outside leverage against the outermost WR in a quads formation, and then got easily outrun on a drag where he didn't really get a rub. He couldn't tackle on the catch, or even try, really:

Brown's approach with Hudson in 2017 was largely validated by Hudson's 2018. He went from dude to guy when his plate got too full.

He was still a dude in his wheelhouse. When deployed as the edge assassin he was as a sophomore he still had it. When sent he was a major problem for OTs even when they did pick him up:

LB #7 moving to LOS at top

Hudson has a great knack for getting under blockers and powering through them without getting pushed too far upfield. It's downright uncanny for a guy his size. Running backs are one thing. Hudson runs them over. When he's able to fire upfield on a tight end and then ditch him, that's another:

Standup LB #7 to top

And he was still able to keep his horses reined in when he got a free run. I've seen too many dorfs on free runs to not appreciate a guy who always gets his man when the opportunity presents itself:

LB #7 standing at top of line

I was furious on his behalf after the world's most beautiful snap timing got incorrectly called back for offsides. Hudson was also able to quickly ID run situations in front of his face and submarine pulling guards so far in the backfield that the play ended up dead.

To be great and gamechanging Hudson has to be more diverse. When shot across the line of scrimmage dude is super-elite. He was a one-note guy two years ago and showed why that was in 2018. If Michigan can shift the pendulum back to Hudson blitzing a lot and using coverage as a changeup he'll bounce back up. He'll probably get better at the meh stuff, too. But to do that Michigan's going to have to give those slot fades back to the offense—more about this in 5Q5A.

We're going to get into more of the 3-3-5 stuff in 5Q5A too; for now let's just suggest that Hudson is a great fit in a defense that blitzes on every play out of necessity.

Hudson's senior year is going to be at least fine. It can be great if Michigan carves out his position such that he gets to do the stuff he's so good at. Here there might be a choice, because Michigan can only build the defense around one or two guys. Hudson might not be the guy.

BACKUPS

Hudson's backup is still JORDAN GLASGOW, who was addressed as an inside linebacker since he's a contender for time there. Since Glasgow is a senior, Hudson's heir is an entirely different matter.

Barrett will have to change his number if he's going to be on the field with Uche [Patrick Barron]

If MICHAEL BARRETT [recruiting profile] can maintain viper mobility over the course of the next year—at 227 he may outgrow the position and slide inside—he's the favorite. So far, so good: Partridge just listed Barrett as a potential kick returner next to the usual super-fast suspects. He's another guy who the coaches "love" but for next year. He popped out in the spring game:

The interesting guy [at viper] is redshirt freshman Michael Barrett, who was a thumping presence when he entered. Walk-on time was more live contact than the rest of the scrimmage. Barrett took advantage of that to deliver a series of zero-YAC hits.

Coverage is an open question with him. His interception of Milton was a perfectly fine zone drop that Milton did not see. I'm not sure if he can carry TEs down the seam and the like. Hudson and Glasgow look like safeties. Barrett looks like a linebacker. It was in fact really easy to get Barrett and Uche mixed up because they're both #6 and at first glance are not obviously dissimilar body types. Barrett was already listed at 224 last year, which points more towards MLB than viper if any pounds get added.

With the LB room shaping up nicely for the next few seasons the program is going to do what it can to keep Barrett at a weight where he can do the viper things. Because he sounds like the heir apparent. Lorenz:

Don't expect redshirt freshman linebacker Michael Barrett to be moving back to the offensive side of the ball anytime soon. One source I recently spoke to had glowing things to say about his development. "Barrett had a great spring," they said. "He and Cam (McGrone) are the future inside."

Campanile:

“One of the guys that had a great summer here is Michael Barrett. He’s really stepped his game up a bunch,” Campanile said. “He’s really a guy that’s gotten better every day taking the workload seriously, taking a ton of reps, and is another guy who is just a student of the game.

Barrett was a high school quarterback who Harbaugh compared to Anquan Boldin, of all people, when he signed last year. The quintessential ATH, Barrett bounced between a few different positions before finding a landing spot. If he's emerged as the obvious next guy at viper barely a year into his career that bodes well.

Velazquez is Erik Bakich's favorite recruit in this class

Barrett's competition will come from two freshmen who are likely to redshirt. JOEY VELAZQUEZ [recruiting profile] was headed to Ohio State to play baseball, where he's a top-100 prospect, until Michigan stepped in with an offer to play both sports. He flipped. His rankings are low in part because he wasn't really being evaluated as a football prospect, and in part because recruiting sites still frequently look at viper types as tweeners to be downgraded instead of the Future Of Football™.

Fellow freshman ANTHONY SOLOMON [recruiting profile] was part of a remarkable recruiting class last year: the 17 guys who decommitted from Miami. His recruitment was weird. He took a five day unofficial to Ann Arbor, was a presumed silent commit, and then he went off the board to the Hurricanes. Just before the early signing day it was suddenly a fait accompli that he was flipping.

Neither of these guys is getting much talk since they're fourth or fifth on the depth chart but Campanile did have a Solomon take:

"In the VIPER/SAM-type of role, Anthony Solomon is an incredibly bright type of guy. Just really, he practices his tail off. Again: high motor guy, high character type of person."

Ask again next year about both.

SAM: MAKE 'EM SAY UCHE

RATING: 5?

utilization of this picture does not imply an endorsement of Detroit City FC [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Last offseason, Don Brown was regaling us with tales about how JOSH UCHE wanted to fight him.

"After the bowl game, we had a discussion because he wanted to play more. He wanted to fight me, I think. He wants to play. It's easy to say, 'Hey coach, I want to play. Let me play.' Go earn it, how about that? How about go earn it? Well, he's earned it. I think that's probably fair to say."

Brown doubled Uche's snaps …to about 15 per game. Does Uche still want to fight Brown? Maybe. Does he have a case? Definitely. One off garbage-time sacks aside, one dollar says Uche had the best sack to tackle ratio of anyone in the history of the Michigan program. Uche had seven sacks… and six other tackles. This is because he hardly played outside of passing downs, and he was electric on those.

Uche explodes upfield and can turn the corner on just about anyone. He did it repeatedly against Wisconsin's David Edwards, who was first-team All Big Ten and a fifth round pick:

Speaking of emerging players…?

Josh Uche got a special package that gave him a guaranteed solo edge rush and paid it off. His sack was a freebie but he did make it count. More impressive were a couple of eye-opening edge rushes late. The first is a sack if Hornibrook has to hesitate at all and may induce a wild throw at a covered WR:

A couple plays later he was around the corner at eight and forced a flush that may have been a sack if Dwumfour hadn't fallen down. Those two plays were in addition to the errant throw he helped force mentioned in the Hornibrook section above. …

Uche had like ten snaps in this game and three Ws against an AA. Winovich-two-years-ago vibe: building.

Everything said about him as a recruit was absolutely true:

Uche is a unique prospect with a relentless mentality. … Has good height with a solid build. … Shows solid instincts as a pass rusher. Will bend and turn the corner with an explosive burst to close and chase down the ball carrier. … Comes in hot and will violently throw his hands to dislodge the ball from runner. … Uche is relentless and physical.

But Uche ranked outside the top 1000 by 24/7 and barely regarded better by the other sites because he was a 210-pound guy who could only play defensive end. It is not a coincidence that the only run defense clip I have for Uche was an incident where he failed to hold the edge on third and eleven:

Not good, but also it's third and eleven. The only pass defense clip I had was better, with Uche in tight enough coverage on a tight end to get a hand-grab in at the critical moment. Uche, like Hudson, does one thing superbly. Unlike Hudson he was only asked to do one thing. One of the biggest questions about this year's defense is: what things can Uche do? Does he do things?? Let's find out!

Michigan did not move Uche this offseason. Our spring roundup post noted that Michigan only used Uche as a SAM linebacker, and only played the SAM on passing downs. The position hasn't changed this fall, either, but there are a bunch of noises like its deployment might. Campanile:

"He’s there in terms of a guy who can play every down for us. We don’t have any issue playing him every down of the game. He’s a great pass rusher, as people know, but he’s really stepped his game up in my opinion. As a linebacker fitting the box, playing on the tight end, doing some different things. He’s been able to move around like he did last year, but he’s really become a well-rounded player for us."

Brown:

"He can play defensive end, he can play SAM linebacker and that's really his number one position. He's got all the pass rush scenarios that we utilize him on third down. I don't know if there's a better substitute pass rusher in the country than this guy. During the course of this, he's grown and become a very accomplished SAM linebacker. With the graduation of Noah Furbush, that's one of his major roles as well."

Uche told the assembled media that "the defense isn't a ton different that last year but added he's gotten a lot more snaps," per Rivals.

Michigan used Noah Furbush as a SAM early in the season because he was able to provide some downfield coverage and once again act as Devin Bush's snowplow, so there's some precedent for Michigan playing their SAM outside of passing downs. It's not, you know, good precedent:

I love Don Brown like any sane human but I do wish he'd cut out his occasional forays into goofy standard-down defenses. This is second and one; Michigan deploys a 3-3-5 and uses Glasgow, not Furbush, as a blitzer to fill in the gaps. This might work if you fool Northwestern, but Michigan's shows a blitz presnap and runs it and it gets picked up; from there it's an easy nine yards:

I resign myself to a gash when Michigan pulls out their 3-3-5 on a running down. It's not delivering guys to the backfield like it has to if it's going to survive.

Furbush makes that tackle, not Uche, but Michigan has not been able to use the stack as a base defense since the Florida game. Making it work in 2019 is addressed more thoroughly in the Five Questions, Five Answers post coming up. It looks like any increase in Uche snaps means more stack. Standard-down DE isn't happening, and it doesn't sound like he's any sort of candidate to bump a linebacker off the field.

Pick one: a radical, to date unsuccessful departure from Michigan's usual four-man front, or wasting potential Josh Uche snaps so Michigan can play two meh defensive tackles at a time.

BACKUPS

Uche doesn't really have one. If he goes out Michigan won't run a SAM. MICHAEL BARRETT has been mentioned once or twice as his nominal backup, FWIW.