Michigan has some work to do in order to replace to mainstays at the safety position over the last few years in Brad Hawkins and Daxton Hill.
For co-defensive coordinator Steve Clinkscale, he believes he has options to consider in a room that offers plenty of versatility and youth, which he seen come along in recent weeks.
The group returns the likes of Makari Paige, RJ Moten and Rod Moore, with Moore working his way back from a knee injury he suffered last season.
All three Clinkscale recognizes as players that continue to make strides.
"Makari has definitely since the spring continued to grow so far," Clinkscale said. "That was always our question: How would he continue to grow in the fall? So far, he has not taken a step back. Same thing with RJ Moten. He’s also done a great job of continuing to take the steps forward. Rod, as well. You could see the first couple of days Rod getting the dust off a little bit, but now he’s starting to get back into the groove of things. His knowledge for the game is—he’s like a coach out there.
"All three of them, to be honest with you. But his knack and his instincts on the field will continue to push all of them together. To have him at nickel, too, helps us get our best players on the field."
To add to the level of versatility, Clinkscale is hammering home with the entire defensive back unit to know every position. It doesn't if you're a nickel corner by trade, you're going to know how to play the boundary and how to play safety if you're being coached by Clinkscale.
The point of doing so is simple, it is to put the best players on the field regardless of position. Everyone is in synch with one another.
That also makes the fight for the limited amount of snaps become much more fierce.
"The one thing will say about the secondary, you saw in the spring game, Makari went out and played corner because we were down some guys because we split up the team," Clinkscale said. "We’re going to teach everybody in that room to know every position. Now, the skill level, the ability to play it in a game, maybe, maybe not. But could I get out of a game putting Makari at corner, for example? Yes. And then put Rod at safety, correct? So we want to continue to make them versatile.
"The fight there is going to continue to go, all season long. Who’s up? Who had a better game? Just continue to rotate those guys, it’s a long season, we want to be national champs, we have a lot of games to play. You can’t start a guy every game for that many weeks and think he’s going to be at his best at the end of the year when we need to be. We need to be at our best in November, December, and January."
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