Detroit — Lewis Powell’s roots run deep at Utah, where he played defensive line and then began his coaching career as a graduate assistant.
But he’s at Michigan now as the run-game coordinator and coaching defensive ends after joining Kyle Whittingham’s staff in Ann Arbor. Whitting spent the last 21 years as Utah head coach and was hired last December to coach the Wolverines. Powell worked with him from 2009-25 with the exception of three years when he joined the Hawaii staff to coach the defensive line in 2012.
Utah is what Powell knew. Change can be tough, but he believed in following Whittingham and facing the challenges inherent with change.
“A lot of us are from the West Coast, University of Utah, and I’ve worked with Coach Whittingham for 15 years, and obviously I trusted him enough to come with him and get out of our comfort zone,” Powell, a California native, said recently when the Michigan coach staff was part of a clinic in the city with Detroit high school football coaches.
“When you’ve been somewhere that long, it can be tough (to leave), but it was easy because of the rich tradition and culture that Michigan has, and the academics are great. It’s been a good change, and I’m excited to do what I feel like we’re going to do here at this university.”
The transition to Michigan has mostly been smooth. Plenty of familiar coaching faces are on staff from Utah and that eased the stress of making this move.
“It has been awesome, amazing here,” Powell said. “We’re here to be able to recruit elite-level players and be a contender and win a lot of games. So we’re excited to make that leap.”
Whittingham said during spring practice that the positions of strength for this team are running back and defensive line. Powell agreed with that assessment. The Wolverines lost edge rushers Derrick Moore, Jaishawn Barham and T.J. Guy to the NFL, and tackles Rayshaun Benny, Damon Payne Jr. and Tre Williams, as well, but Powell does not look at this situation as a rebuild.
Among the most significant portal additions was Utah edge John Henry Daley, who did not participate in the spring as he continued to recover from an Achilles injury that ended his strong season last fall. Michigan returns Cam Brandt, Dom Nichols, Nate Marshall and Lugard Edokpayi, and added five-star freshman Carter Meadows. As far as the defensive tackles, Enow Etta and Trey Pierce are among the top returners.
“We have a good group, and we brought in some good guys,” Powell said. “We feel like they’re buying into what we’re preaching.”
Daley, who has posted several videos of his workouts as he continues to recover from his injury had 48 tackles, including 17½ for loss and 11½ sacks, forced two fumbles and deflected a pass in 11 games last season during his breakout year. He was named second-team All-American and first-team All-Big 12. He suffered the Achilles injury late in the regular season but is expected to be ready for this season.
“He brings a lot of energy and passion, and he’s going to practice his tail off,” Powell said of Daley. “And it’s good culture to see somebody practice like that. He’s tough. He’s hard working. He is exactly what we preach — hard work, toughness, smarts. But there’s also a good amount of kids already in the room, so he’s got to come in and prove himself. Even though he’s got a little injury, he was an All-American last year. I’m gonna give everybody opportunity to prove themselves, and it’s gonna be fun. The competition will create great culture.”
Michigan has developed a strong lineage of top edge rushers, and Powell is eager to continue producing that talent.
“The competition in the room is huge, big time, and I’m excited,” he said. “The cream will rise to the top. The guys that are doing everything over and over and over again the right way, are the guys that are going to be successful. So the good thing is, we got some guys with some good experience, and we got some good young guys with a lot of high ceiling that we’re going to be able to coach up.
“But the good thing is, they were responding well. All these kids are high-level kids. They have good grades because they care, and if you have a high-care factor, you want to strive to be good, you want to strive to be coached well and coached hard. It’s been awesome. The transition has been amazing and exciting. We got here and hit the ground running, and we’re excited to gain these people’s trust out here in the city and recruit our tail off, and hopefully it all works out.”
Powell said he plans to have a heavy rotation during games to keep the players fresh.
“Oh yeah, if I feel like there’s six guys that are ready to play, I’m going to rotate,” Powell said. “You don’t want to be tired in here. If I have six guys that are ready, it’s going to be a good rotation.”
In this era of the transfer portal, Lewis said it’s important to add transfers, but he’s still all about recruiting and developing talent.
“And it’s cheaper,” Powell said. “It’s cheaper to recruit and develop your own guys, and the main thing is to have them have a good understanding of where they stand in the program, so there’s no gray area. One guy is going to be like, ‘Man, I’m not getting any reps right, so I’m going to leave,’ but if there’s a good understanding, he knows that his turn will come, and he will fall in line.”
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Lewis Powell says Michigan still has edge, despite losses to NFL
Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
