The 'Unblockable' Josh Uche
Junior linebacker Josh Uche waited for a letter.
In the spring of his junior year at Columbus High School in Miami, Uche met with his high school coach Chris Merritt. Uche was upset because he didn’t have any college offers yet. While the two were talking, Merritt reached over on his desk and found someone else’s letter, scratched out the name and wrote Uche’s on it.
At the end of the conversation, Merritt slid the letter over to him and Uche looked at him funny. While that letter wasn’t his, Uche would soon become a hot commodity to college football teams.
The high schooler who struggled to get offers has now become one of the premier pass rushers in the country. Through nine games, Uche has seven sacks in his limited snaps.
“He’s unblockable,” junior linebacker Khaleke Hudson said. “To me, I don’t think anyone can block him. That’s the way I feel.”
But Uche wasn’t always unblockable.
Coming to Columbus High School at the end of his sophomore year, Uche was long, but light, a raw talent for Merritt to mold into a pass rusher.
“He’s not your typical South Florida kid,” Merritt said. “His football IQ just wasn’t there yet. To him, everything was pass rush. He didn’t realize on first down, you have to take on a drive block.”
While he didn’t have the football knowledge, there was still a lot to work with. Merritt said Uche was very intelligent and did a great job absorbing the information that was thrown at him.
The one thing Uche always had was speed and athleticism.
“It was kind of like having a gun and not knowing where to point it,” Merritt said.
Uche had a different upbringing than other South Florida kids. Uche’s family came to the United States from Nigeria and his father was an engineer. He didn’t have the same exposure and social environment as other kids in Miami and his family instilled him with discipline and high expectations.
Not long after that meeting with Merritt, Uche was offered by Miami and he committed to play for then-Coach Al Golden. Playing for the Hurricanes was a lifelong dream, but Golden was fired and replaced by Mark Richt in December of 2015.
Uche was back on the market again, and Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown, who coveted Uche while he was the defensive coordinator at Boston College, had a different U-M on his chest than the one Uche grew up rooting for.
But, when Uche got to Michigan, he was in for an adjustment. Uche played defensive end in high school, but switched to linebacker when he got to Ann Arbor. Early in his career, Uche barely saw the field, playing in just four games as a freshman in 2016. But he kept working and continued to get better.
“I feel like he stayed humble,” Hudson said. “He knew his time was going to come sooner or later and he was patient. He wasn’t complaining.”
In his sophomore season, he played 39 snaps and registered one sack and four tackles. To begin his junior year, he didn’t see the field much the first four games of the season. Everything changed after the Northwestern game.
Against the Wildcats, junior defensive end Rashan Gary left with an injury and Uche picked up the slack with two sacks. Along with sophomore defensive tackle Kwity Paye, Uche filled in for Gary for three games.
“I love it,” Gary said. “That’s something I’ve been seeing since spring ball and camp. Now they have the opportunity to show off and showcase their talents. Every time that Uche goes, I expect him to get a sack.”
When the opportunity arose, Uche knocked that door down. Since the Northwestern game, he has seven sacks. He’s racked up those impressive numbers in only 61 plays. Uche’s success comes back to his pass rushing talent.
“He's got a real knack to create speed off the edge and then convert that to power when he needs it, but he also has the speed off the edge,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “He's highly determined and motivated. He's a real special player as well."
Uche developed under the tutelage of Brown.
“We've been able to carve a role for Uche," Brown said this week on 97.1 The Ticket. "And boy, he's played really well. When you take production in terms of time on task and the snaps he has in a particular week and what he accomplishes in a game, it's special."
His success doesn’t shock Hudson, who lived with Uche in the spring and in the fall. Hudson has seen all the work he’s put into his craft.
“He’s a pass rush technician,” Hudson said. “I was saying in spring ball that he was going to have a big year this year. I’m not even surprised.”
Sophomore fullback Ben Mason attempts to block Uche in practice and has seen just how frightening Uche can be.
“He’s just so fast and powerful at the same time,” Mason said. “The scariest part about that, he’s only going to get bigger and faster.”
Uche’s stock has risen just as quickly as it did in high school. That raw pass rusher that Merritt coached at Columbus has blossomed into a player terrorizing Big Ten quarterbacks.
All Uche needed was his opportunity.
“When it comes to pressuring the quarterback, the sky is the limit for him,” Merritt said. “he’s been waiting for the opportunity to get on the field the last couple of years. The next progression for him is to become an every down guy, not just a third down pass rush guy. That’s his goal.”
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