Michigan Football: 5 second-year Wolverines ready to step up

If Michigan football is going to contend with teams like Ohio State, the Wolverines need young players to step up and here are five that are ready in 2020.

The Michigan football program should be in the middle of spring practices right now, but like every other team in the country, spring ball has been postponed and likely won’t happen at all.

In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t hurt Michigan football more than any other program, however, there’s no doubt that the Wolverines need some young players to develop if they want to challenge for the Big Ten championship in 2020.

Ohio State is going to be loaded again, even with the loss of a bunch of NFL draft picks. Michigan football will also send a number of players to the NFL, such as Cesar Ruiz, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Josh Uche, along with Lavert Hill, Jon Runyan Jr., and others.

Replacing guys like Peoples-Jones, Uche and Ruiz will be especially important because all three could have returned for another season. In a way, having those players leave early can be positive as you want your players to go to the NFL.

But that still leaves some holes that need to be filled and without spring practice, it makes it even more difficult. The good thing is that Michigan boasts a talented sophomore class that ranked 8th overall in 2019 and No. 1 in the Big Ten.

This group was supposed to help close the talent gap with Ohio State and here are five guys in the class ready to step up heading into 2020.