In an offseason marked by turnover in the Michigan football program, one unit saw the most.
The linebackers, perhaps the strongest part of last year’s defense under defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and position coach Brian Jean-Mary, have gone from a known commodity to unproven group.
Gone are the top four players who began in the room a season ago: Jimmy Rolder (NFL, Lions), Jaishawn Barham (NFL, Cowboys), captain Ernest Hausmann (eligibility) and breakout star Cole Sullivan (transfer portal, Oklahoma) combined for 1,632 snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
Despite losing so much talent, new position coach Alex Whittingham, son of head coach Kyle Whittingham, feels what remains in the room is being overlooked.
“I still feel like the room is loaded,” he said to the Free Press last month. “I’m very optimistic and very excited about what we have going on in the room. It’s guys that have played sparingly here and there over the last couple years … Troy Bowles, Nate Owusu-[Boateng], Chase Taylor, but they’ve been able to sit back and kind of watch, and now it’s their time to shine.”
To his point, the trio combined for just 321 snaps last season. In addition, U-M added depth to the room in the transfer portal. Nathaniel Staehling had 75 tackles across 13 starts at North Dakota State last season, while Max Alford (nephew of RB coach Tony Alford) joins as a graduate transfer after playing for Utah State and BYU to begin his career.
In total, seven of the 11 faces in the room were not on the team last season, which includes three true freshmen entering the mix.
“The talent is there,” Alex Whittingham said. “There are such gifted athletes within the room, we are working on the depth of the room − trying to establish who exactly the starters are, who’s going to emerge as the front runners and then how do we build the twos and threes behind that.
“It’s guys that … just haven’t had the chance to be on the field yet, and they’re going to get that chance.”
While the exact pecking order is still being sorted out, the top three at this point appear to be the returners: Taylor, Owusu-Boateng and Bowles. Taylor still needs to put on some weight, Alex Whittingham said, but said his athletic traits and the speed in which he does things is “really special.”
Bowles, meanwhile has been operating as the MIKE linebacker − also known as the “green dot” − and Alex Whittingham said he “looked great … running the show for us in spring.” Last but not least, Owusu-Boateng, who was a top-150 prospect and top-15 linebacker in the nation coming out of IMG Academy in the class of 2025.
As a freshman, it proved difficult to get on the field behind such a proven group, but it didn’t take long for the new staff to figure out why he was so highly regarded as a high school athlete.
“It shows up with his athleticism and his twitch and the physicality that he plays,” Alex Whittingham said of Owusu-Boateng. “You know, those three guys kind of emerged coming out of spring as who should lead the room.”
While those are the front runners in a room that doesn’t have a lot of proven commodities, there is opportunity for new faces to quickly earn a role, should they earn it. Freshman Markel Dabney and transfer Christian Pierce (brother of defensive tackle Trey Pierce) could compete for roles in the two-deep.
If there’s a chief concern with the team in Year 1 of a new era, it’s likely this room. No returning starters, no proven players at the Power Four level, nobody with all-league pedigree and no truly notable transfer portal addition that’s expected to be a game-changer.
The Wolverines aren’t going to call it bulletin board material, but to say they haven’t noticed the discourse around the group would be disingenuous. They’re taking notes and preparing for the season, eager to demonstrate there’s plenty of bite in the unit.
“That is kind of an intriguing aspect of it,” Alex Whittingham said. “People don’t really know what to expect on the linebackers, but you know, that just makes us as a room even more excited to kind of show we’ve been building, because we know it’s going to be special.
“They’re ready to not necessarily prove people wrong, but show people what they’re all about, that people may not know yet.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Unproven Michigan linebackers ready to show ‘what they’re all about’
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
