With fall camp well underway for Michigan, now is the time you start hearing about players who have figured things out and are starting to take the next step forward to contributing this season.

For linebacker Michael Barrett, who is entering his sixth and final camp with the program, he has seen a lot football and many players who have utilized these camps to carve out a role for themselves this season.

With depth now a strength in the linebacker room, the Wolverines have options and the chance to rotate the position and Barrett singled out two players in particular who have taken that step to help out the room.

“Jaydon Hood, I feel like he’s made a big step from last year,” Barrett told reporters on Monday. “He’s coming along I feel like really fast. Learning and being able to help us step into that next spot. Ernest (Hausmann), like I said, he’s jumped and coming along fast. He’s really impressed me just by how fast he’s been able to pick it up. Moving around as being comfortable in the defense already just being here, what, six months? So that’s really impressive.”

Of course, Hausmann enters the U-M program with one year of college experience under his belt along with a number of starts for Nebraska during his true freshman season.

With that in mind, what has impressed Barrett about Hausmann?

“A quick learner, came in ready to learn, ready to work,” Barrett said. “We push each other every day, just in our room and in general, I feel like we just all kind of pushing each other, helping each other get better. It’s never any tension in the room, it’s always one to help the other, one be better and set up ourselves to get better. So he’s just came in with that will to learn, that grind that we’ve been looking for and he’s definitely gonna help us a lot this year.”

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