Michigan Wolverines football redshirt junior defensive tackle Donovan Jeter has long been a 'favorite' of head coach Jim Harbaugh. He's continuously drawn praise from the head man, assistant coaches and his teammates for several years now.

But to this point, through 23 games, Jeter has notched just 14 tackles, none of which have come behind the line of scrimmage, one pass breakup and one fumble recovery (that he returned for a touchdown). His career PFF grade of 67.4 is considered average.

Despite the compliments he's gotten for what he's done in practice, he hasn't made huge impacts during games — and he knows that better than anybody.

"The compliments from Coach are always alright, but I’ve been getting compliments since 2019, so the biggest part now is going, week in and week out, throughout the season," Jeter said. "It’s always nice to get a compliment from the head coach, but I’ve really just got to go out and show it on Saturdays in The Big House.

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"[Defensive line] Coach [Shaun] Nua, actually today, was just talking about how compliments are probably one of the worst things that can happen to you if you want to be an elite, successful player. I feel like some people take them and get complacent — I did good, or I did this. I’d rather, since I was a kid, it started with my dad saying, ‘Let’s work on this. Let’s keep working on things,’ instead of resting on your laurels. Again, I like compliments — don’t get me wrong — but that can be blinding sometimes."

In fact, Jeter says, the entire team is adopting a similar mindset, explaining that the Wolverines are focusing on themselves, not worried about the outside noise.

"I mean, we haven’t really been getting that many compliments after last year, so it wasn’t a compliment-filled year," Jeter joked. "I think we just preach this — and everyone around the country says it — just get one percent better.

"Don’t rest on what you did yesterday, on what you did last year, whenever. When you go to sleep and wake up, what you did yesterday does not matter — it doesn’t matter if you had a great day, terrible day, doesn’t matter. You can’t go back and change it or fix it. We’ve all been preaching to, every day, find something to get better at. Every day, get a step closer to where you want to get to."

And to the Maize and Blue not appearing in the Associated Press' preseason top 25 rankings for the first time since 2015, Jeter says: "Bet. Sounds good. Bet. I don’t want to get up here and say, ‘Yeah, we’re all fired up about it!’ We know what the deal is in the building — we don’t care about rankings, what y’all say on social media, we don’t care about any of that. We care about getting better every day and being a physical, efficient defense."

So what will success look like for Jeter in 2021, a pivotal year for the program? It's all about refining his technique and playing it correctly, every single snap.

"I personally think my technique has been a little bit inconsistent," Jeter said when asked what has held him back in the past. "There are plays when my technique is good and I handle my business, then there are plays when my technique isn’t what should be, and I look like a very average d-lineman.

"The biggest emphasis for me, and I think the whole d-line, this offseason has just been technique and consistently doing it — that’s what separates a good and an elite d-lineman. Anyone can go in there and have one good play then one bad play, but if we’re all consistent — myself and the entire defensive line — it’ll be a good year up front."

Harbaugh said last week that the defensive line has been looking bigger and better thus far in fall camp. Jeter agreed that they're more stout, and it all goes back to their technique.

"I wouldn’t say we bulked up, [but] I would say we’re playing our techniques better," he said. "With the d-line, one of the biggest things is that you can be as big and strong as you want, but if the technique isn’t there, it doesn’t matter. I think we’ve really put a big emphasis on technique this year, and being technically sound, gap sound. I think it’s showing up."

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