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Ben Bredeson's Relationship With Greg Mattison
The second edition of the NCAA’s December signing period in football was a smashing success yesterday for Michigan when the Wolverines signed 25 new student-athletes, with Tulsa (Okla.) Booker T. Washington five-star safety Daxton Hill being the headliner.
Junior left guard Ben Bredeson was one of the headliners for the Maize and Blue back in a 2016 class that finished No. 4 nationally, coming to Ann Arbor as the No. 60 overall player in the country.
He recalled what his own recruiting experiences were like on Wednesday night’s Inside Michigan Football radio show, and why this early signing period is good for the student-athletes.
“I committed in June before my senior year, and would have been ready to sign during the early period [if they would've had it],” he recalled. “Teams tried to get back into the mix during that wait, and in this day and age with social media, teams never feel like they’re out of the race.
“This early period helps kids because it lets them enjoy their final months of high school and not worry about the process.”
Hailing from Hartland, Wis., Bredeson recalled what his own recruiting process was like, and admitted he knew he always wanted to remain in the Midwest.
“I didn’t really look at any schools outside of Wisconsin until offers started coming in and the process began,” he explained. “My dad had been a huge a Michigan fan his whole life, so we’d always watch both the Badger and Wolverine games growing up.
“Once I started taking trips, I knew I didn’t want to go too far from home. Michigan was always one of the top two or three schools for me, and at the end it came down to them, Wisconsin and Notre Dame. I’m very happy with the choice I made, and haven’t regretted it one bit.”
Bredeson revealed that Greg Mattison was the first U-M coach who reached out to him, and that his own father actually had a bit of a history with the longtime defensive line guru as well.
“I talked with Coach Matty for 30 or 45 minutes when he informed me of my Michigan offer back in high school,” the junior recalled. “I told my dad I had talked to Coach Mattison afterward and that he had sounded pretty young, and my dad said, ‘Really?’
“We then looked him up and I saw how wrong I was. We also came upon one of my dad’s old photo boxes from high school, and when my father had signed to play ball at Illinois State, Matty was there too at Signing Day with my dad’s best friend, who wound up going to Western.
“We sent Matty that picture, and it was like it was a full circle — it was meant to be. He’s one of those people everybody loves, because he’s real with you all the time. Even three years into college, our relationship has only gotten stronger, and he’s still the same guy now that he was when he recruited me.”
Wolverines Ready for Florida's Team Speed
The age-old narrative that the SEC has speed superior to everyone else has been brought up once again this bowl season, and the Wolverines will inevitably hear plenty about it prior to their matchup with the Florida Gators in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Bredeson isn’t interested in talking about the SEC’s ‘elite speed,’ however.
“They’re a fast team with a lot of fast guys on their defense, but we see speed every day in practice,” he noted. “It’d be hard to find a faster defense than the one we line up against every day. We’re used to it.”
Bredeson and his offensive line brethren will also be going up the Gators’ unique 3-4 defensive front, something that isn’t necessarily seen that often anymore.
The Gators’ defensive alignment hasn’t exactly been successful this season, though, checking in at 73rd nationally in stopping the run (169.6 yards per game allowed).
“It’s different angles, and the combinations fit differently,” Bredeson explained. “It works inside out and will start with [sophomore center] Cesar [Ruiz] identifying everything for us, but we’ve done a great job identifying fronts all year.
“Maryland and a few other teams would switch between a three-down and a four-down front, and we’ve handled it well each time.”
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