It seems a bit farfetched that Michigan will be using a handful of names in hopes to replace the production from the departed Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, but it speaks to just how dominant those two were for the Wolverines last year.
The obvious question surrounding the defense outside of what new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter's defense is going to look like is how it'll replicate the effective pass rush the team had a season ago.
While some obvious names will be floated around to be considered the next man up, Minter himself stated that it will be a multi-player attack that will see the field this season.
"I hope that it’s multiple guys," Minter told reporters on Thursday. "I think we have some edge players, Mike Morris, Braiden McGregor, Taylor Upshaw, Jaylen Harrell, that have the capabilities of being good rushers. I think Kris Jenkins, Mazi Smith have the ability to push from inside. I think Mason Graham, Cam Goode, new guy, all these guys have capabilities of being good rushers. It’ll fall into, situationally, who we have out there. But they’re all capable of taking advantage of opportunities. I think it’s our job to just make sure we try to put each guy in the best position to have that success.
"Then, the other thing is, because it might not be one guy, it’s given us the ability to maybe move people around more, maybe a guy that rushes a lot one week drops the next week, and it sort of changes our tendency. So I think the guys are really bought into that. We want to have a high total at the end of the year. But we’d love it for it to be a lot of different people with multiple sacks."
It's clear that the team doesn't have a clear Hutchinson or Ojabo type ready to dominate in game one—at least not yet.
However, Minter isn't concerned about where the production will come from. It's the job of the coaching staff to put their players in the best position to be successful.
That's exactly the plan being into place in Ann Arbor currently.
"With sort of the inexperience in game situations with our edge guys, I think it’ll play itself out," Minter said. "Because we’ll certainly scheme things up, move people around, pressure different people, try to get other guys involved in pressure. But at the same time, if one of those guys just emerges as a great one-on-one rusher, then it’s our job to continue to put him in the situations to be a one-on-one rusher.
"Would I love for one guy to have 19 sacks at the end of the year? Absolutely, but I just don’t know yet. Because a lot of these guys haven’t rushed the passer consistently in live situations. So I think that’ll sort itself out, especially over the first couple of games of the year."
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