After coming to Michigan as a highly-touted quarterback, redshirt sophomore tight end Zach Gentry has settled into his new position quite well.
His 146 receiving yards are the fourth-most on the team, and his blocking abilities have also continued to improve.
“We’ve always embraced blocking, but we’ve gotten more talented and confident on offense as the year has gone on,” he explained. “Once you get more confident, you start playing faster and hitting harder.”
Gentry’s blocking ability was part of the reason Michigan racked up 334 yards on the ground against Rutgers, and he said he received several helmet stickers afterward.
“I didn’t count how many I received,” he laughed. “We just come in and the stickers are already on our helmets. I like to count them, but I haven’t added them up from this week quite yet.”
Gentry has formed a solid tandem with sophomore tight end Sean McKeon this season at the position, and the former talked about how much better the latter has gotten lately.
“Sean is a complete tight end,” Gentry said. “He has great hands, he blocks well and is very flexible. He was a good athlete when he got here, but worked really hard on his route running during the offseason, and it’s benefitted him tremendously.”
Gentry was also asked about how far redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Peters has come since he arrived.
“Quiet is a good way to describe Brandon. He’s just really laidback, but can also be fiery and competitive. He has a great voice in the huddle and has done a good job commanding the offense.
“It’s overwhelming when you first get here as a freshman, so he’s obviously grown and has gotten more confident.”
With the season’s final month upon us, college football playoff talk has begun to heat up. Although the first set of playoff rankings are released tonight, Gentry said he’s not too interested in them.
“I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to that,” he said. “We just have to do a good job these next couple of weeks, and they’ll put us wherever they put us.”
The next opponent on the schedule happens to be Minnesota, whom the Wolverines have a long and storied history with.
Saturday’s meeting will be the 96th all-time for the Little Brown Jug, which is the oldest rivalry trophy in college football.
“All the trophy games are important,” Gentry confirmed. “It’s important to the alumni, the team and the fans to have that jug in our locker room.
“It’s nice to see it every day, and the history that surrounds it and how many teams have battled for it. It probably wouldn’t be very sanitary to drink out of it afterward though.”
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