Heading into his appearance at the Big Ten Media Day Friday, fifth-year senior linebacker Jordan Glasgow is ready for his final season with the Michigan Wolverines.
Glasgow joined former Michigan offensive lineman Jon Jansen on the “In the Trenches” podcast to discuss the upcoming season. The Wolverines have taken it upon themselves to get better and improve.
“I feel this offseason, we’ve worked especially hard in preparing individually and as a team,” Glasgow said on the podcast. “I feel that a lot of people have taken responsibility for getting better themselves. I’m looking forward to the season and what I feel everyone has the ability to do.”
While Michigan lost significant talent from last season’s defense including Devin Bush, Chase Winovich, David Long and Rashan Gary, Glasgow thinks this unit still can be good because of the players they have returning.
“We have a more experienced [defensive backs] core, in some respects,” Glasgow said. “Josh Metellus who this is going to be his third year starting. We have Brad Hawkins and J’Marick Woods who have both had a good amount of reps. Ambry Thomas and Lavert [Hill] are both experienced corners. [Devin] Gill and [Josh] Ross have both played linebacker and I’ve played linebacker. This is Khaleke [Hudson’s] second or third year starting. We have a lot of people returning and a lot of talented people returning that have experience.”
Although Glasgow likely won’t start this season for the Wolverines, he will still play a key role for Michigan’s defense as a backup linebacker. He has experience playing various positions in defensive coordinator Don Brown’s scheme.
“I know a majority of what everybody does on every and that has to do with playing multiple positions and also being an older guy and being in the system the last two, three years,” Glasgow said. “It’s really fun to play in this system. Coach Brown makes it relatively easy. When you see what we do, you’d think that it would be difficult to keep track of all your jobs, but Coach Brown does a tremendous in allowing the players to understand what they have to do and allowing them to play.”
Glasgow said the entire defensive coaching staff is great at presenting information in a way that everyone, especially the younger players, can understand it.
In addition to learning form the coaches, the defense is growing from playing against new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ offense. The up tempo scheme presents challenges for Michigan’s defense in practice.
“All I got to really say is they are putting a lot more stress on the defense and they are putting us in some difficult situations,” Glasgow said. “I’m glad we’re dealing with it in practice because that will give us practice for game situations. I’ve been frustrated in practice with some of the situations they’ve put us in. That’s all I really need to say about that.”
The last two games of last season have been motivation for this team. Losing to Ohio State and Florida State have given them a new mentality.
“I feel a lot of people have the mindset of it is the team and it’s us. We want to succeed and there’s no two ways about it,” Glasgow said. “We have a single mindedness. We’ve gotten to the end of seasons and petered out in a sense and we understand that’s something that needs to change. As individuals and as a team, we’re trying to take strides to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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