Michigan Football defense needs breakout players in 2022

Michigan football really needs some guys on defense to emerge as household names in the 2022 season. 

We can go all the way back to Jim Harbaugh’s first season as head coach at Michigan and fast forward back all to the way to last season and find countless guys up and down the defense that were “dudes”,  star players, and household names.

Every single year under Jim Harbaugh, Michigan football has won the majority of its football games with their defensive play. Not once has Michigan sported a top-10 offense in terms of efficiency, passing yards, yards per play, etc, but the defense has been top-10 several times over Harbaugh’s tenure, most notably in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

The 2022 season might finally be the year that Michigan football sports a top-10 offense, or at least the best under Jim Harbaugh (which isn’t saying a ton but still) and this will probably be the year that Michigan’s offense carries the team for once, instead of the defense.

I mean, looking back, there’s been stars like Chris Wormley, Maurice Hurst, Jourdan Lewis, Channing Stribling, Chase Winovich, Dax Hill, Jabrill Peppers, Devin Bush, Aidan Hutchinson, David Ojabo, the list goes on and on and on.

Michigan football could always rely on the defense to get them through tough situations time and time again in the past when the offense didn’t need to be elite, or even really good. In the past, the offense just needed to be average, or a little above average.

Will Michigan have impact players emerge on defense?

But this year is different. Michigan doesn’t have any household names this year, at least initially. Somebody or a few guys could blow up and become household names early on in the season, but this year is a weird year. There’s not much hype around individual players in terms of national attention and preseason watch lists for players on the defense.

Even Jim Harbaugh called this year’s defense a “no-star” defense. (He also said this year’s defense has the potential to be even better than last year’s, which, I love Jim, but I am skeptical about this comment personally).

That is scary to think about. Last year, heading into the season, Michigan football had Aidan Hutchinson and Daxton Hill as two guys that were household names to watch out for. Aidan made the list for the “freakiest” player in college football, and Dax Hill was pretty much on every secondary award player watch list imaginable.

I will say though that this defense is filled with players with so much potential, but potential only gets you so far in college football. The best college football teams always have household names, on defense and offense, so for Michigan to lack that this year makes me a little weary.

Combine that with a new defensive coordinator, and you have the recipe for an underwhelming season. I’m not trying to sound like a negative person, but that’s just one reality that Michigan could face this year.

I’m sure Michigan’s defense will be better than I think it is, as Mike Elston is known to develop defensive lineman, Steve Clinkscale is a good developer of the secondary, and George Helow is a good developer of the linebackers, but still.

There are no household names on the defense this year, which has to be a first. There are leaders and upperclassmen up and down this defense, but all of them are potential-based, and not sure-fire studs.

The good thing is, again, Michigan’s offense will probably lead to less stress for the defensive play, but against the better offensive teams, will any Michigan defenders step up and become household names?

Yes, the local media has thrown out some names who could have breakout years like Mazi Smith, Kris Jenkins, Jaylen Harrell, Mike Sainristil, and DJ Turner, but, Michigan football will need more than one of these guys to break out for the team to make it to the playoff again.

Fans probably have more confidence in the defense than me this year, which is fine, but you can’t deny that this is foreign territory and something that Michigan has never faced under Harbaugh before: a lack of household names on the defense.

I’m not saying it will be impossible to pull together an elite defense this season, but it will be much harder to do than in previous years.

Michigan fans, who do you think are some potential household name breakout candidates for the defense this year? Sound off in the comments below!