Michigan’s defense is fast and deep, but it can always be deeper. On Wednesday, defensive coordinator Don Brown said they’re looking for more players they can count on this fall.

Corners coach Mike Zordich said yesterday that ‘the ones are really, really good.’ Brown’s mission is to get a group of twos that are right there, as well.

“Some guys just try to make it through camp. Some use it as a vehicle for their success,” he told Jon Jansen on his ‘In The Trenches’ podcast on MGoBlue.com, noting junior end Rashan Gary was among the latter. “They come out with a purpose. Every rep counts.

“We’ve got about 16 or 17 guys that if the ball got snapped tomorrow, we’d put them on the field, be able to function on the field. They’d be able to grasp concepts. We’re big believers of more is more. They can line up, communicate with each other and play at a high level. What we’re trying to do during this preseason period is get more guys into that core, and then get as many guys into that core that you trust on the field.”

Many of the 16 or 17 are at linebacker. In the middle, junior Devin Bush has emerged as an absolute force. Junior Devin Gil and sophomore Josh Ross were neck and neck to start on the weakside, so they’re in that core group, as well, while redshirt freshmen Jordan Anthony and Drew Singleton are working to get there.

“Special guy, now,” Brown said of Bush. “He’s good at football. He’s really playing fast. Everybody goes, ‘well, is he big enough to take on blocks?’ Try blocking him. That’s really what it comes down to.

“Yeah, okay, you get him into a 600-pound mesh, maybe he’s not great, but he’s never in it. He’ll take the chips off when there’s a scoop block and it’s a two on one on a three tech … he’s in the A gap faster than you can blink.”

Anthony is learning a lot from him, he said, and recently made a “Devin Bush like play in practice.”

“His leadership, what he brings to the table in our linebacker room, our defense … I can’t say enough good things about that young man.”

Junior Khaleke Hudson is up to 220 pounds and is the leader of the vipers. Josh Uche has become a force as a pass rusher and fifth-year senior Noah Furbush has been good, as has Jordan Glasgow as the backup viper.

“The viper has to be a safety by nature, unless he was just an outside linebacker in a high school scheme that played in space all the time,” Brown explained. “He’s a safety by nature as Jabrill was, has coverage skills. Jabrill used to play on slot receivers and so forth. We’ve narrowed it down so Khaleke covers the tight ends, can play in the box some as a linebacker.

“He’s up to 220, but man can this guy pressure the quarterback. HE has an uncanny ability to be able to move and groove and get where he’s got to go. He had a couple pressures I can think of from spring going into fall, just the other day … ‘wow, how’d he sort that out?’ It’s just nice to watch his development, where he’s come from and where he is today.”

Brown said frosh Cam McGrone “will have a ways to go.”

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