Michigan Football: Defensive line has to realize its potential

If Michigan football is going to reach its potential this season, the defensive line has to take a step forward. 

While there have been definite struggles developing certain positions during the tenure of Jim Harbaugh as Michigan football coach, the defensive line has generally been one of them.

At least not until recently.

Looking back, Michigan football probably still hasn’t recovered from the departure of Greg Mattison, who did a great job developing talent and also recruiting it to Ann Arbor.

Then, Don Brown’s recruiting methods didn’t really help either. To be sure, Michigan landed some good players and many of them directly due to Brown and his connections in the Northeast.

But the focus was on too many hybrid-type players and over time, the defensive line lost its bulk especially in the middle. That’s being addressed now on the trail but the current roster is still thin.

However, the front-line talent has the chance to be really good with multiple four-star recruits set to start in 2021. Can the defensive line finally reach its potential? It’s one of the huge questions looking ahead to this season and we examine it.

Projected Michigan football D-line depth chart

Starters: Mazi Smith, Chris Hinton, and Donovan Jeter 

Backups: Julius Welschof, Kris Jenkins, Jordan Whittley

The defense returns a ton of experience at all three levels. But that doesn’t mean anything unless that experience leads to better production.

Mazi Smith has had some moments this offseason and so has Chris Hinton, but those two need to be really good. They can’t be average and inconsistent, not if this group wants to take the next step.

The same can be said for Donovan Jeter who has been an offseason hero before but hasn’t lived up to those expectations when it counts. He is the other starter up front and he needs to hold his own too. Jordan Whittley doesn’t sound like he will have much of a role.

Julius Welschof is the perfect example of a guy who’s a freak of an athlete and strong as an ox, but, it hasn’t mattered much on the field.

Plenty of people have blamed defensive line coach Shaun Nua for that and that lack of success on the recruiting trail. It’s not fair to put it all on him, yet he does need to show he can develop these guys because if you can’t get it out of multiple four-star recruits, that’s an issue.

Hinton, Smith, and Jeter are interior players but they have combined for one sack in their careers and just a few tackles for loss. That simply has to change if this defense is going to get back to being what it was in the early days under Harbaugh.

The depth is still a little shaky and I’m worried how the D-line is going to hold up against the likes of Wisconsin, Ohio State, and even Washington which is physical and big in the trenches.

But if Hinton, Smith, and Jeter can get close to their ceiling, this defense could really take off.