Michigan Football: Jabrill Peppers Will Take The Next Step This Season
After a riveting 2015 season, Michigan football standout Jabrill Peppers is primed to take the next leap this year and become a star.
Garnering just as much talk and attention as almost any other college football player this offseason, Michigan football do-it-all man Jabrill Peppers is on the brink of taking the next step and becoming something truly special for the Wolverines.
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Peppers emerged onto the scene last season as one of Michigan’s best athletes, recording 45 tackles (including 5.5 for loss), 10 pass breakups, 79 receiving yards and 72 rushing yards. He also returned eight kicks for 223 yards and 17 punts for 194 yards.
Some express concerns for the volume of his usage, but what he did last season is sustainable—and he could even add some more to it.
NFL.com called Peppers the most versatile athlete in all of college football earlier this offseason, and there’s a case to be made that he’s at least a dark horse Heisman candidate. Given the roles Peppers can expand on, and the new ones he’s embracing, there’s good reason to be excited and optimistic that he’s going to take a big leap this year.
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Peppers is taking on a new role this season in the defense as the strong-side linebacker. In defensive coordinator Don Brown’s defensive scheme, that SAM linebacker position is arguably the most important.
“We did a bunch of stuff with him,” Brown said recently, regarding Peppers’ many roles in the defense. “I thought he did a tremendous job of handling all the pieces. He’s a really, really bright football player and a bright young man and can do a lot of things to help our football team. And we’re going to push that to the limit.”
Simply put, Peppers is going to have a lot to do this season, and you can bet it’ll be fun to watch.
Then there’s the offensive side of the ball, where you can almost safely bet Peppers will get involved, even if only minimally.
Peppers can fill one of three roles in the offense:
- A simple decoy (see last season’s game against Michigan State when Mark Dantonio called back-to-back timeouts, only to see Peppers not get the ball)
- Receiver (end-around)
- Running back
In the bowl game against Florida, Peppers was playing as just another tailback in the offense—nothing special or deceptive.
An expanded and more prominent role in the defense is going to further showcase Peppers’ skills as a high-level defender. His involvement in the offense, no matter how little, is still going to be noteworthy and likely impactful. Then there’s his presence in the return game, which is sometimes overlooked when we talk about Peppers.
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The bottom line is Peppers is going to have so many chances to shine this season, and he’s going to bring himself to be one of the best players in college football.