Michigan Wolverines Football: Kwity Paye Earns Big Ten Preseason Honors
Michigan senior defensive end Kwity Paye was one of 10 Big Ten players to earn preseason honors from Big Ten media. Five players were selected from both the East and West Division with Ohio State getting the most from either side with three.
Paye notched 50 tackles (12.5 for a loss), 6.5 sacks and three quarterback hurries to earn second-team all-Big Ten honors from the coaches (third-team honors by the media). He returned for his senior season and has been projected by some as a first-round pick.
“He’s very unselfish,” Michigan defensive line coach Shaun Nua said Wednesday. "He loves Michigan and loves his teammates. He wants to leave a legacy here that is even beyond my understanding, because what he’s doing ... you look around the country and see young men opt in or opt out. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but to see him not even flinch once throughout the whole pandemic, that puts Kwity at a whole different level in my book when it comes to character and the quality of man he is.
"I’m expecting a really good year because he’s fricking dominating right now.”
The 6-4, 272-pounder can "physically do things that I wish I could do," Nua added.
"The weights, the balance, and to combine that with the intelligence that he has for the game, it’s just at a different level," he said. "It’s good to be part of it and to have a role to continue to enhance it, to get it better. That’s what a freak is ... someone who can do a lot of things that the majority of people can’t do physically.”
One of the reasons The Athletic's Bruce Feldman called him one of the nation's biggest freaks athletically this summer.
OSU Wyatt Davis, a returning Consensus All-American, joined Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields and cornerback Shaun Wade and Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth on the East Division side.
Minnesota, Michigan's first opponent, led the West with a pair of honorees in wide receiver Rashod Bateman and quarterback Tanner Morgan. Northwestern linebacker Paddy Fisher, Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore and Wisconsin linebacker Jack Sanborn rounded out this year’s West Division honorees.
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