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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.

