Michigan Football Pressing On Despite No Fall Games, Will Hold Own Combine
There won't be a fall Michigan football season in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1882.
These are certainly unique and unprecedented times, and amid them, the Wolverines continue to press forward. Head coach Jim Harbaugh is holding voluntary workouts and meetings for his team, up to 20 hours per week, as allowed by the conference.
Many of Michigan's players have decisions to make regarding their futures, evidenced by redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Jalen Mayfield's departure to the NFL Draft already.
With no games to prepare for this fall, Harbaugh has gotten innovative. Michigan will hold its own combine at Michigan Stadium in front of NFL scouts, junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson revealed this week. The Detroit News' Angelique Chengelis has reported that it will take place on Oct. 24, the day the Wolverines were supposed to take on arch rival Ohio State, and it will include drills such as 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, three-cone drill, vertical jump and bench press.
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Michigan practiced immediately following the team meeting in which Harbaugh broke the news to his club that the fall season was cancelled.
"Right after our team meeting on Tuesday, we rolled right into our practice — super weird practice," Aidan Hutchinson said on ESPN's Marty Smith's America podcast this week. "It was just surreal.
"All the guys went back into the locker room after that team meeting, and we were all kind of looking around at each other, not knowing quite what to do. Some guys were leaving, some guys were staying. It was super awkward, kind of. And we walk out of the practice field, and it was just very weird vibes going on. The coaches were kind of down. Coaches don’t really know what to think at that point."
Now that the initial awkwardness has subsided, the Wolverines' workouts are as normal as they can be under the circumstances, and players like Hutchinson are motivated to impress at the upcoming combine.
"After that day, we moved on and our practices have been much better," Hutchinson said. "They’re feeling very normal now. I think everyone has kind of processed the fact that the season’s over, and we’ve all moved on. We’re just practicing really hard now.
"We’re training for 10 weeks. Right now, I’m just focused on running the best 40, running the best 5-10-5, bench pressing the most weight I can, and my focus kind of shifted, and I feel like I’m move driven now. I felt a little lost there for a second without a season, and now I feel like I have more goals to achieve. I’ve moved on and I’m ready to attack this combine."
Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp said this week that it is a concern of Michigan's players that players in conferences that are playing games this fall will have a leg-up as pro prospects, since they get to put more snaps on film. That concern is alleviated, at least to a degree, by the fact that Michigan is continuing to train together.
"That’s definitely something that you think about, just because every player wants fresh film, every player wants new film," Kemp said. "And right now, we don’t have that shot, and it looks like other conferences will.
"So, it’s just, what are you going to do in the meantime? I think one of the worst things would be to just not do anything. And that’s something that we’re not doing here at Michigan. We’re trying to keep things as routine as possible.
"They might be able to play games, but that’s what they do on Saturdays. We can still be able to improve our craft, work on our plays, work on our skills. Just gotta be able to do it in different ways. It might not be televised on Saturdays, you might not get to play in games, but right now you have a whole opportunity for the next couple of months to improve without having to hit anybody, put no real wear and tear on your body."
The voluntary workouts Michigan is going through right now won't just help the team's top NFL prospects, either. Kemp believes the young players are benefitting from having more time to be on campus and go through practice before their first real game. As a team leader, he's making sure they take full advantage of the opportunity.
"That’s something I’ve been able to talk to some of our freshmen d-linemen that we have right now — ’Guys, I know this sucks. I know this isn’t what you envisioned how your first season would go," he said. "None of us really did, but it’s a huge opportunity to just gain more knowledge on the defense, gain more knowledge at your skills, at your craft.
"More time to perfect your craft, because those guys come in and they get thrown right into it. They come in, and it’s right at camp time. They have a lot to learn and it’s time to go, versus now, you got to do some things with us, got to go through some of camp but now you have time to gain on that. Whether it’s in the spring or in the fall, those guys are gonna be a whole year [to be extra] prepared."
Kemp believes the future is bright with the underclassmen the Wolverines have, especially on the defensive line.
"I could name specific players, but I think it’s a good thing to just give this whole freshman class credit, the praise that they deserve just because there’s so many players in this freshman class that [are impressing]," he said. "You can see it, these guys, they get this stuff early.
"One really big them about them is they’ve taken this whole process, everything that’s going on, and they’ve just attacked it. They’ve bought into our whole system, our culture that we have here, and you can see that. These guys just wanna learn.
"We only got to do a couple competitive team periods — 7-on-7, 11-on-11 — but you can just see it early, there’s so many players in this freshman class that are going to be very good players for Michigan, probably even early on. You can just see they’re going to be phenomenal players. They’re just good people, and that translates so fast over to the field. I’m excited for these guys. And they get this extra opportunity to even get better, it’s going to be unfair. These guys get this extra training time, from the point they were already at. It’s going to be ridiculous."
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