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Former Michigan captain Jon Jansen discussed the Wolverines first few spring practices on his podcast, In The Trenches.

He was joined by junior fullback/defensive lineman Ben Mason and redshirt junior tight end Nick Eubanks. Mason talked about his transition to playing defense and Eubanks talked about new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

We have the highlights below:

“The goal this year is to get them in advantageous positions so as soon as they get the ball, they can do something with it. It’s not just getting Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black and getting them the ball downfield where they get tackled, it’s running routes involving the running backs with that underneath coverage to get whoever is going to be open as open as possible.

“I think the biggest advantage Michigan football has this year is the return of four starters on the offensive line. That’s a chemistry that is only built over time.”

“One of the great things about spring practice and the early part of fall camp is you get a chance to be physical because you don’t have to worry about guys getting dinged up. One of the drills they do is the Oklahoma drill. On Sunday, I was at practice and I was standing around and all of the sudden, the Oklahoma drill breaks out and I get excited. It’s an opportunity to see what the guys have learned from last year."

“It’s been a physical start to spring. I’ve seen a lot of great things from the defense in terms of implementing new things."

“As I watch the offense be implemented, and I watch the communication from the sidelines to the quarterback to the rest of the team, there’s a learning curve. And you can see every day that they are more comfortable in the offense.”

“It feels really good to be back on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve always looked at myself as more of a defensive minded person anyways. I like to think of myself as a player who has a defensive mindset, but an offensive skillset. I’m just very excited for the opportunity."

“I’ve had a very smooth transition back to defense. One of the biggest things is playing defense is only going to help my offensive understanding and vice versa.”

“A lot of people, especially at the inside spot, you could say I’m a bit undersized, but for me, that’s not a problem at all just because I don’t believe in being undersized. If you have a desire and a passion to do something, you can make it happen."

“It’s kind of a weird thing because usually those are the guys that are blocking for me and I’m helping block for the running backs, but now I’m going up right against them. It’s a lot of fun competing with those guys.”

“Coach Nua has been very genuine and a great guy. He’s very passionate in the way he coaches and I like it a lot. It fires up the guys and he makes sure everybody goes out to practice ready to practice.”

“It’s a completely different offense. The coaches are doing a fine job of explaining it to us. It’s basically some of the old stuff we ran but more tempo. Completely different spread wise, RPOs."

“I believe it changed a lot, especially knowing what tight ends could do last year. Gattis came in here with a whole new mindset of getting speed in space. He’s pretty much lining us up everywhere. The more you can play outside and inside, the better. He’s just putting us at different positions."

“Him coming in, he was more like a quiet leader. As months went on, he’s been stepping up as in speaking more vocally to the offense. He’s been a great leader so far for us.”

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