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

Hinton is ready to be the man in the middle

Chris Hinton‘s role on the 2020 Michigan defense will depend on whether or not Don Brown wants to play with a four-man front or a three-man front.

Last season, Michigan used a lot of odd fronts and tried to mix things up for opposing offenses since Brown didn’t have the luxury of having guys like Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary.

That left some guys like Carlo Kemp a little out of position. Kemp was basically a nose tackle for Michigan last season and while he did a solid job, the defensive line simply couldn’t stand up against Wisconsin, Alabama and Ohio State.

One man that can help fix that problem is Hinton, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound defender who has the rare ability to a solid run defender, as well as a pass rusher. Hinton had six tackles and 0.5 tackle for loss against Ohio State and held up fine against Alabama in his first career start.

But next season, Hinton can’t be just another player. The borderline five-star recruit needs to dominate, at least that’s the expectation heading into next season.