Michigan Football: Rashan Gary Says Best Is Yet To Come For Defense
It feels like sophomore defensive tackle Rashan Gary has been at Michigan for years.
The former top recruit has seen plenty of playing time and has his fair share of big plays, yet Gary is only three games into his second year with the Wolverines.
“Last year through three games to this year three games, it’s completely different from the player I am [now],” Gary said. “There’s always going to be something I can get better at. You all are going to see, I’m not going to talk too much, but you all are going to see when I start popping off.”
Gary carries himself with confidence, that much is evident. He’s become a vocal leader on the defense and can be counted on as a guy to make plays, even when he’s not stuffing that stat-sheet.
He said that entering this season, he, sophomore linebacker Devin Bush Jr. and sophomore safety Josh Metellus knew they needed to step up as leaders on the defense, so that’s what they’ve done.
“Everybody is running to the ball, everybody is flying to the ball, everybody having fun,” Gary said. “That’s the key part when you’re outside on the field, just playing against somebody and you’re out there with your brothers having fun and making plays. It’s a wonderful thing.”
All three have been huge components of defensive coordinator Don Brown’s defense. Gary didn’t let his appreciation for Brown go unnoticed on Monday.
“To be honest, with Coach Brown’s defense, any offense that [an opponent has] I love going against because it’s a great game plan every week,” Gary said. “I believe in Coach Brown, I believe in the defense. Three weeks back-to-back we’ve been playing great defensive schemes. It’s just fun to play for it. He puts us in situations to make the play, puts us in situations to pressure.”
Michigan will be facing a different type of offense when it travels to Purdue on Saturday, but knowing the way Brown prepares his defense, Gary isn’t worried at all about switching back to preparing for a more balanced type of offense than the triple option that Air Force ran.
“[Brown] knows we like to have fun,” Gary said. “It’s always good to have that type kind of coach around. He makes jokes, but when it’s time to get to business, it’s time to get to business. Having a coach like that makes me want to play even harder for him.”
Since he started out last season, Gary says he’s gotten better at watching film in different ways. He now sees things that are more technical.
He said he’s his toughest critic, but that every time he watches film and finds a mistake it just makes him want to be the best.
“There’s a lot more that I still have to show,” Gary said. “It’s going to be great once you start seeing it.”
He said he has heard the talk of Michigan being a young team but isn’t bothered by it one bit.
“I feel like we’re a young team but we’re hungry,” Gary said. “Our hunger drives us to be the best that we can be. I like having people say that we’re young because we’ve been preparing for this since spring ball.
“We haven’t really opened it up yet. That’s the scary but most fun part. You’re going to see. It’s going to be great when everything starts clicking how it’s supposed to click.”
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