DL's currently on Michigan's roster over 300 lbs.
Having an undersized D Line has probably been Michigan's biggest area of need since Bryan Mone and Maurice Hurst left (I know Hurst was under 300, but it didn't seem like he was, seemed like he always got push, and was never run over) as we all know. Exhibit A of this area was last years Wisconsin's game.
Michigan now has seven D Lineman over 300 lbs. I'm hoping their play can approach what Michigan had in Mone and Hurst.
Here they are in alphabetical order:
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:14 PM ^
300+ is good,especially if they put em in a 4i and have them blow up the B gap,and they got athletic 9 tech on the edge.HS coach for over 30 years and hate trying to block odd front
August 22nd, 2021 at 1:18 PM ^
I know we've all started to look for the beef, but last year's roster had 4 guys who were over 300 pounds (and if we're going to count Stewart's move from OG to DT then that's 5 from last year's roster) and Speight was 290 with room to grow. So we're basically talking about Whittley (who is coming off a series of injuries and apparently struggled in camp) and a true freshman in Iwunnah. So I'm not sure there's much functional difference here in terms of beef.
My bigger concern is that the line holds up against the variety of offenses they see and can generate a coherent pass rush; that's what killed UM last year as guys got hurt and I could care less if Wisconsin has a little bit harder time moving them off the line if it means Mertz has 5 seconds to survey the field.
August 22nd, 2021 at 3:08 PM ^
Yes, the problem hasn’t been a lack of heavy interior linemen so much as a lack of good ones. I can see reasons for optimism about Hinton and too a lesser degree Mazi but nobody else on the chart above has much of being all that good. For example, I’m sure Deter works hard for the team, but are we really buying that this is the year for him?
August 22nd, 2021 at 6:16 PM ^
Yeah, I think Hinton and Smith will make strides forward and, if so, they'll have more interior push. But Bryan Mone is hanging around in the NFL right now despite being 286 lbs because be can move a little and can generate pass rush in spurts, while Jeter has been around for years and just keeps gaining and losing weight without a corresponding impact on the field.
I am optimistic overall for the defense but it's weird that people are acting like Don Brown exclusively fielded 250 lb tackles or something. If anything, I'm a little bothered that Nua stuck around during the transition because I've not been overly impressed with the line play for a bit now.
August 22nd, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
I don’t think that any of our interior linemen are likely to become all conference types this year, but players do improve.
In his freshman year Maurice Hurst redshirted. His redshirt freshman year he had three total tackles and one tackle for a loss
Mazi Smith’s stat line is very similar. Saw very limited game time as a freshman (qualified to redshirt). His sophomore season. His second year, just like Hurst, he had 3 total tackles and one tackle for a loss.
In Chris Hinton’s freshman year, he played in all 12 games with one start and tallied 9 tackles and a half a tackle for a loss. In an abbreviated sophomore year he made 13 tackles, two tackles for a loss and a sack.
Glasgow also redshirted and in his first year of play had two tackles, none for a loss.
If Hurst and Glasgow are the benchmark, Hinton is ahead of both of their career trajectories at this point and Smith is on par.
August 22nd, 2021 at 6:18 PM ^
I agree that Hinton and Smith will improve, and I'm probably a bit higher on Hinton. I do think you could see him turn in a 2nd-team all-conference type year if everything clicks, which is solid.
August 23rd, 2021 at 1:06 PM ^
Last season was a Brown scheme without Hutchenson. The Wisky game was without Paye. There was less experience on DL and Nua was in his second year and McGrone didn’t have the best of seasons. Other than Nua, some of these factors would change the blocking schemes against the DL IMO
I didn’t play college ball but I did play HS DL. A stout LB core sure helps on run stop in a 3-4 or 4-3. IMO
August 22nd, 2021 at 1:56 PM ^
August 22nd, 2021 at 2:38 PM ^
That’s probably lacking context though. Teams don’t have to put up big passing yards if they can run the ball. Some of those teams unfortunately showed, however, that they could throw the ball against us whenever they damn well wanted to.
August 22nd, 2021 at 2:46 PM ^
I guess the weight of the DL has become the latest desperate hopeful omen for the defense’s performance. Yes, they are heavy dudes. But none of them have produced anything of note in their college careers. It always possible that players get considerably better from one season to the next, but the starting point for these dudes is pretty low. Significant improvement for them would be like “middle of the road for the conference.” But I have zero confidence that we are getting back to Hurst-level performance from any one of them or all of them as a group.
August 22nd, 2021 at 3:02 PM ^
Not a desperate omen but the continued recruitment of tweeners growing into Dt’s was a failure of Brown!
Do you think Mike MacDonald is desperate?Since coming in he immediately began addressing the position in numbers and size of lineman on the roster!
August 22nd, 2021 at 3:10 PM ^
Sorry, I meant that those looking for the omen were desperate to find one.
August 22nd, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
The dline needed beef!! It was obvious under don brown. The further we got from gmatt dline recruits the worse the dt’s got and the worse his defense performed against good olines!
Giving up 170, 260 rushing yards to osu and over 200 rushing to Wisconsin several times including over 300 twice tells the story! It just kills me watching a Michigan defense get ran over! And it was the tell of a Brown defense! Under 150 rushing yds they lost 2 games I believe in several seasons total. Over 150 on the ground lost all but a couple games!
August 22nd, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
America...send Michigan all of your extra-large sons!