Michigan football sophomore defensive tackle Chris Hinton is ready to break out.
He showed plenty of improvement throughout the course of his freshman campaign in 2019, playing 75 of his 129 total snaps in the last two games of the season and posting seven of his 10 tackles for the year (including a half-TFL) in those contests.
During the unique offseason, Hinton pulled out all the stops to ensure he'll be the starter alongside fifth-year senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp in 2020, and he's using the disappointment of seeing fewer snaps than desired as a driving force behind his motivation.
"It was tough for him at first because he was a five-star and he had all those accolades and all that stuff, and then you go out there and don’t do what you’ve got to do, but at the same time, he’s strong mentally," said Hinton's trainer, Marcus Howard, a former Georgia Bulldogs and NFL defensive lineman.
"He was down, but I told him, ‘Yo, you’re playing the hardest position to transition to from high school to college football.'
"He’s playing defensive tackle when, in reality, he didn’t even play defensive tackle in high school, he played defensive end. Your transition is going to be hard. You've gotta take on a block every play; 60-70 percent of the time, you’ve got to take on a double-team. That’s just something you've got to get used to doing."
Howard told The Wolverine that Hinton is "night and day" a different player now than he was one year ago.
How did he get there?
Good old fashioned hard work.
Hinton was making strides in winter conditioning and was ready to show more of what he can do in spring practices, which were set to begin on March 17. During spring break at the beginning of that month, while other students were vacationing or relaxing at home, Hinton was preparing.
"We worked his whole spring break," Howard said. "That’s the difference between some guys and him. That’s why I believe he’s going to make it. As soon as he came home for spring break on Friday, he was with me in the gym on Sunday."
Just two days after classes resumed following spring recess, the world was flipped upside down due to the coronavirus outbreak. U-M classes were moved online, the football building was shut down and spring practices were cancelled.
Soon after the news hit and players headed home, Hinton picked up the phone to call Howard. It was time to get back to work down in the Atlanta area.
"He hit me up at the end like later on that week and said I’m 'bout to come back home to work some more," Howard said.
