Michigan Football: 5 Wolverines with big shoes to fill in 2020

U-M needs an edge rusher to fulfill his potential

Applying pressure on the quarterback is the key to any, really good defense and over the past two seasons, no one did that better than Josh Uche, who registered 14.5 sacks during that time.

But, instead of returning to Michigan, Uche went to the NFL and was drafted in the second round, which is great for him, but not so great for the Wolverines who now have a huge hole to fill on the front seven.

The Wolverines certainly have other quality rushers, in guys such as Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye. But they aren’t necessarily the edge rusher, who can be moved all over the place like Uche and Chase Winovich before him.

Luiji Vilain could be. Last season, he finally started to get healthy and had a sack against Notre Dame. He also had a forced fumble and six tackles in limited action last season. He was also ranked 57th in the 247 composite rankings coming out of high school and is someone Don Brown spoke highly of earlier this spring.