Michigan Football: Brad Hawkins is ready to star for Wolverines secondary

Brad Hawkins has had an impressive offseason and as Michigan football moves closer to the season opener, it’s clear he will be a key guy in the secondary.

Over the past few months, Michigan football fans have heard rumors about players taking the next step or making an impact in spring ball or fall camp.

And one of the players who has been mentioned most often is defensive back, Brad Hawkins. The junior has previous playing experience for the Wolverines and saw action in 10 games last season, recording 23 tackles, three tackles for loss and one pass deflection.

The 6-foot-1 defensive back who is around 220 pounds was a reserve in the secondary for the most part last season, but after taking a noticeable step forward this offseason, that’s not going to be the case any longer.

Hawkins has seen time at nickelback, which shows just how highly the Michigan football staff views his coverage abilities. He has also been the top safety next to Josh Metellus on the backend and with those two guys, UM should feel good about its secondary.

Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider dropped a note on the forums about Hawkins and just how much he has improved and continues to open eyes. Here is a small excerpt of what Webb posted on the Michigan Insider ($):

"“The Brad Hawkins hype is real. Some of it I’m ready to buy right now, and some of it I’m going to wait to see. The part that I’m ready to buy right now is Brad being a coverage upgrade over Tyree Kinnel.”"

Kinnel was a solid player for Michigan but he wasn’t great in coverage. Many thought that Daxton Hill, the five-star freshman might take his place at safety, which would give the Wolverines a guy with legitimate 4.3 speed.

But Hawkins appears to have grabbed a hold of that spot and it might be tough to take it away from him, even for Hill. However, the freshman should see plenty of snaps. The nickel spot might be a perfect fit for him or Hawkins could bump down to the slot and when Hill is ready, he could take over the safety job, with Hawkins still taking snaps in the base package as the starter.

The reality is that with most teams using a lot of spread-type formations or at least lots of looks with three or four wideouts, sub-packages are becoming the base defense.

Since Hawkins has a better understanding of the defense than Hill, it would make sense for him to move around, allowing the first-year player the chance to grow at one position. So Hawkins would start either in the base or in the nickel and when Michigan goes away from its base defense, Hill could step in at the safety spot.

Certainly, it will be a fluid situation. The coaches may believe Hawkins is ready to take the next step, but until he does it when live bullets are flying, it’s hard to know if he will actually live up to the hype.

Yet, what we do know for sure is that when it comes down to it, both Hawkins and Hill should play huge roles this season and if all the talk surrounding Hawkins is true, he will be a star in 2019.