There's no denying that Will Johnson's Freshman All-America performance in his first year with the Michigan program was nothing short of newsworthy.
Being one of the key pieces to the Wolverines' defense during the later stages of the season, expectations are sky high for the rising sophomore to replicate that success, and then some, in year two with the program.
His position coach, Steve Clinkscale, has seen how Johnson has conducted himself during the offseason and it's clear that Johnson isn't settling on being good.
He wants to go even further.
"Like Will will tell you, he can improve in every phase," Clinkscale said on the latest episode of the In the Trenches podcast. "He never forgets anytime he's been beat. Whether it's practice, whether it's walkthrough, whether it's in the game. He never feels like he's even close to accomplishing what he wants to. He wants to be a dominant player every snap. I think we can continue to build on his ability to affect the quarterback more as a blitzer because he's a really good blitzer.
"His main game, we can leave him on his own a little bit but he's a great zone coverage guy. He does a great job in all our zones and keeping good eyes and he's got very good instincts."
While the weight of expectations placed on you by outside forces, whether it's the media, fanbase or the football program itself, can sometimes overwhelm people, Clinkscale isn't going to let that happen to his star pupil.
While coaching gets you so far, the player has to be receptive to it, too, and that's exactly what Johnson has done.
He's tuned out the noise and is focusing on the things he can control.
"I think the biggest thing for Will, for me, is to continue to coach the emotional and mental side which he's done a great job," Clinkscale said. "With all these expectations and everybody telling you how good you are, he doesn't want to hear it. We're not trying to be complacent, we're not trying to fall victim to being—we're just so good it doesn't matter. We don't have to show up.
"His biggest thing is seeing how hard he works lately has proven to me is that he's not listening to all the media and all the hype. He feels like he's got a lot to prove and we want to win it all."
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