Michigan will replace most of its starters on the defensive side of the ball, but defensive coordinator Don Brown still isn’t nervous … far from it, in fact, after seeing what he had this spring and getting a glimpse of what’s coming.

Freshman phenom defensive linemen Aubrey Solomon and Luiji Vilain are on campus, and they’ll add to some great competition on the line.

“I really just love our guys. It’s a pleasure to get up, come in here, go to work,” Brown said Saturday. “Aubrey and Luiji are in, a couple other guys arrive this week then we’ll have everybody in. We’re excited.”

The freshmen have already made a positive impact, he said.

“They’re just good people,” Brown continued. “Sometimes as a coach you’ve got to work on the social side with the guys to get them just so they formulate a way they should go about doing their business. These guys? It’s unbelievable.

“I also think this … Rashan Gary is not going to let them do anything [bad]. He runs the show. Here’s a young guy that has older guys now gone, he’s the older guy in essence, him and Mo Hurst. They take care of business. Those two guys know these two guys need to help us, flat out. They know that.”

They’ll need players behind them, too, and that still needs to work itself out. All of the linemen progressed, but 12 practices isn’t enough to gauge, Brown noted.

“When they come back, ask me the same question end of August. Then we’ll know,” he said. “Now if the arrow is not pointing up, now I start to get a little nervous. It’s too early for the arrow to go up.

“But minutes, [freshman] Donovan Jeter had good minutes. I think he’s going to be an interesting player. All of them. I hate to even pick them out because it’s unfair. He’s 280 pounds, and it’s just happening. You never know [which position he’ll play]. That’s the real interesting scenario. Give him a couple cheeseburgers and you just don’t know where guys go. Some guys just get bigger. The nice thing is I think there’s enough there that it will be interesting.

Sophomore Carlo Kemp and Reuben Jones did some good things on the edge this spring, he added, and Jones is a workhorse.

“He’s going to play hard all the time. Now with Luiji and Kwity Paye coming in, I feel that will give us some depth, and those guys can run,” Brown added.

Overall, he said, the defense appears to be in good shape. He won’t know for certain, though, until they play that first game against Florida in Arlington, Texas.

“They haven’t been in a real game with the bullets flying … but watching those guys go to practice, really 12 plus counting the Rome experience, I’m pretty excited,” he said. “Now we’ve just got to get through the curve of playing in the game … not just playing. Don’t get excited about playing in the game … let’s play well in the game, because they are all capable of playing extremely well.”

NOTES

• Redshirt junior Lawrence Marshall continues to make strides on the inside of the d-line.

“He’s one of those guys, a perfect example, there’s not a big enough sample to say he’s going to be there,” Brown said. “I’ll be able to tell you a lot more after August. But the arrow is swinging up at the end of spring in a very, very positive way. If anybody can get him [going], Greg Mattison can.”

• Brown likes his linebacker crew, too.

“We’ve got [fifth-year senior] Mike McCray, a second level guy who works with the backers. [Sophomore] Devin Bush thinks he’s a grizzled veteran now … he’s a freshman. Wrobo’s been Wrobo [fifth-year senior Mike Wroblewski],” Brown said.

“I just like the way that whole makeup is kind of going. Noah Furbush, really, really good. And on the back end I think [junior safety] Tyree Kinnel has done a nice job providing leadership. He’s it. The rest of them are young but extremely talented.”

• Redshirt junior Drake Harris moves from receiver to cornerback and has a chance to contribute if he plays well .

“It’s a shot in the arm, and probably a shot in the arm for him,” he said. “It gives us another athlete to work with, who in my opinion gives you a cross between Channing Stribling and Jeremy Clark. Not as big and physical as Jeremy Clark, kind of that string bean length is your best friend like Strib.

“Now we’ve just got to see how he functions and accepts the one on one challenge. If you can’t accept it, you can’t play … you’ve got to come stand next to me. You have to. It’s got to be in your DNA. You’ve got to want to.”