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Thursday, May 28, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
Michael Barrett looks like Khaleke Hudson’s replacement at VIPER
The last time Michigan football
needed to find a new VIPER, it
looked to Khaleke Hudson.
Now, with Hudson going to
the NFL’s Washington Redskins,
defensive coordinator Don Brown
needs another starter at the hybrid
position, and he thinks he’s got one
in Michael Barrett.
“I’d seen enough out of Michael
Barrett to be excited,” Brown said
on a Zoom call with reporters
on Thursday. “Runs 4.51 — that’s
fast (in the 40-yard dash). At 220
pounds. So that’s a good place to
start.”
With spring football canceled
due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
there hasn’t been much of a chance
for
competition,
or
in-person
evaluation, at any position. To
some extent, that makes any
prognostication a crapshoot at this
point, but Barrett projected to be
the clubhouse leader to replace
Hudson even last season.
He played 12 games for Michigan
last year, mostly on special teams,
but appeared at the VIPER spot
against Notre Dame. A quarterback
in high school, Barrett was recruited
as an athlete, making him a strong
fit for a position that Brown has
made uniquely his own, in the mold
of Jabrill Peppers.
“We talked Peppers into being the
VIPER,” Brown said. “We get him to
do this, you’re going to blitz, you’re
going to play the edge, you’re going
to do all these things, and we kind of
tricked him into being the VIPER.”
Brown
cited
Barrett’s
relationships with Cam McGrone
and Josh Ross, who are expected
to start at the other two linebacker
spots. Though freshman William
Mohan could push Barrett for
playing time, that would be a tall ask
— especially given the conditions
created by the pandemic.
“(Mohan’s) a true freshman and
has that kind of ability,” Brown said.
“And obviously we have a number
of guys at the safety position that
it would be smooth as silk to drop
them into the VIPER position with
one of those guys.”
Anthony
Solomon,
a
rising
sophomore, may be likely to get
backup VIPER reps, Brown said.
Solomon is up from 195 pounds
to 215, and his year of experience
makes him a known commodity.
Right now, that’s a luxury.
“He’s another guy that’ll give
(Barrett) competition,” Brown said.
“So right now, we’re trying to get
our best players on the field — that’s
always the initial thing, is get your
best 11, 12 on the field, and we think
the best thing for our defense, and
for Michael Barrett, because they’re
both important pieces to us, is for
him to play VIPER.”
In three years starting for
Michigan, Hudson missed just one
game and was one of the Wolverines’
more dependable commodities. He
finished his Michigan career with
225 tackles and 23 tackles for loss,
along with a strong track record
as a special-teamer. That kind of
production wouldn’t be easy to
replace, even if the Wolverines had
a regular schedule of spring ball,
summer workouts and fall camp.
Experience is a commodity.
Barrett has it.
“Some guys can play inside
linebacker, but they can’t play
VIPER,” Brown said. “Most guys
(who) play VIPER can move to
the
inside
linebacker
position.
(Barrett’s) one of those guys … he’s
been in the backup VIPER role for
us. So it’s not like he’s alien to the
position.”
In Uche’s absence, Michigan plans to retool pass rush
Just under a month ago, the New
England Patriots swooped up Josh
Uche in the second round of the
NFL Draft. Michigan’s do-it-all
pass rusher was officially gone, and
without a spring season, there was
little clarity on who would replace
him.
But as he detailed in a Zoom
call with local reporters Thursday
morning, Don Brown has some
ideas.
Last year, in order to get Uche
on the field, Brown frequently
showcased 3-4 looks on second and
third down. This year, Brown plans
to run more plays from a four-down
base and utilize a variety of players
in different packages that play to
their strengths. The catch? Without
a spring season to evaluate, he’s not
yet sure what those packages will
look like.
“It’s like, if we had gotten
through spring we’d already have
those answers, so when we’ve done
preseason we have to have those
answers,” Brown said. “But I’m
very excited about, when you can
say multiple guys have a chance to
impact you in a pass-rush scenario,
that’s a good thing.”
In particular, Brown praised
senior Luiji Vilain, sophomore David
Ojabo and junior Taylor Upshaw as
players who could impact the pass
rush in 2020. That’s along with
defensive ends Aidan Hutchinson
and Kwity Paye — both 2019 starters
primed to anchor a young defensive
line.
Still, Brown knows replacing
Uche’s
production
is
no
easy
task. In 2019, Uche pressured the
quarterback on 26 percent of pass-
rush snaps. There likely isn’t a single
person on the 2020 roster who
can replicate that — a testament to
Uche’s skill more than the others’
shortfalls.
“Unlike a year ago when Uche
was an internal blitzer, he’s an
external blitzer, he could do all those
things as a standup two-point stance
defensive end, you may have to
divide that work between one or two
guys because one guy may be great
on the edge, the other may be great
in short-area quickness and change
of direction scenarios, might be
better,” Brown said. “And those are
the things that we’re waiting just to
find out and see how that plays out.”
Despite the uncertainty, Brown
is confident. Ojabo, who grew up
in Nigeria and Scotland and didn’t
begin playing football until his junior
year of high school, was always going
to face a steeper learning curve, but
Brown sees in him many of Uche’s
traits. Upshaw, who has an NFL
pedigree, saw limited reps last year
and became someone Brown felt
strongly about. Vilain — who didn’t
see the field his first two seasons
with the program due to injury —
was primed for a bigger role last year
but saw fewer opportunities after
the addition of graduate transfer
Michael Danna.
“I go back and watch Luiji (Vilain)
play last year at times,” Brown said.
“And … the bottom line is, it’s his time
now and he’ll have an opportunity to
prove what he can do, and I think
we’re gonna get productive, solid
play out of him as well.”
Brown has come to accept that he
won’t be able to see exactly what he
has until the team begins fall camp
— something that is likely still a few
months off. But when he looks at the
tape, he’s able to dream of the pass
rush’s potential, with or without
Uche.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson are viewd by Don Brown as integral parts of the restructured pass rush with Josh Uche moving on to the NFL.