Junior safety J’Marick Woods has been waiting for this chance.
Over the course of his first two years as a Wolverine, Woods has played in 12 games at safety, but only made one start, which came in the Outback Bowl. After playing as primarily a backup for the entirety of his career, his opportunity has finally arrived.
With Tyree Kinnel departing, Woods is slotted to be the starting safety next to senior Josh Metellus come the fall. His teammates see just how good he can be in practice.
“I've seen his athleticism and his potential, in terms of size, he's 6-3 210 and fast," fifth-year senior linebacker Jordan Glasgow said. "He can hit harder than I've really ever seen anyone [hit]. He can really put his body out there and lay it all on the line. You really saw what he was capable of when he first got here. It's really nice to know and see him really living up and playing to the potential he's shown."
Woods is not afraid to be physical at the safety position and make the necessary hits that cause opposing teams to be afraid of him.
“There are probably a lot of examples where you can hear the collision throughout the building when he hits someone some times,” Glasgow said. “Obviously, that’s a rare occurrence and it doesn’t happen as much in practice because you don’t want to hit your own guys hard. When the time is right and everyone is going at 100 percent, he is the person you look at to make the big hits.”
Glasgow said that Woods’ big hits rile up the entire defense and everyone else tries to emulate him.
While Woods can lay crushing hits, he’s trying to become an all-around safety. While it’s taken time for him to finally get on the field consistently, he’s coming into his own as a player.
“He’s improved overall pretty steadily over the last few years and I think he’s made a good jump in the last part of the offseason. There isn’t one part of his game that has exceeded the others. His game has steadily increased and everything has been going well.”
His performance this spring has caught the eye of the coaches.
“Woods came in here, he was 6-foot-3, he was young, he was 17 and he was like a baby deer running around,” safeties coach Chris Partridge said. “He has now developed into a man. He's controlling his body. I mean, we saw it in December before the bowl game.
“He's come into this spring ball and he's been lights out to where he had to develop a little bit. We're excited about him. As I said, he's becoming a man, he's taking a stronghold [of the position], he's understanding the defense, he's seeing formations and he's taking to coaching. It's really been awesome.”
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