5 areas where Michigan Football could improve in 2022

Defense

No, I do not realistically expect the 2022 defense to be better than the 2021 group.

But that does not mean they can’t be better in certain areas than last year, either.

The pass rush will almost certainly take a step backward as the Wolverines are replacing 25 sacks between Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo alone.

Losing safeties Daxton Hill and Brad Hawkins will be tough to overcome as well, although not impossible.

One area the Wolverines struggled a bit last year, though, was their run defense, and that is where I expect the defense to make a sizable leap.

Run Defense

For starters, the Wolverines “struggling” with their run defense a year ago is a relative term.

Michigan Football allowed 121.5 rush yards per game last season, good enough for 21st in the nation, so this was not exactly an area of weakness.

However, I think that number can come down significantly this season, and that begins with a man you see pictured above — senior defensive tackle Mazi Smith.

The Grand Rapids native is listed at 6′ 3″ and 337 pounds and was recently named to Bruce Feldman’s 2022 College Football Freaks List, taking the number one spot.

Smith is one of the strongest players on the team, bench pressing 325 lbs. an astounding 22 times, and can close-grip bench press a whopping 550 lbs. as well, according to Feldman.

But he is also incredibly agile, clocking a 4.41 shuttle time that would’ve been tied for tops at this year’s NFL Combine for defensive tackles, and he did a “reactive plyo stairs test, which is a series of seven 26-inch high stairs that players attempt to jump up as fast as possible,” according to Feldman, that you’ll just have to see to believe.

You read that right — just a quarter of a second slower than Aidan Hutchinson.

He is, for lack of a better term, a freak, and one that Michigan football has not had in the middle of the defensive line since Maurice Hurst in 2016.

Smith isn’t the only reason to expect a jump either, as the Wolverines are finally big on the defensive line again with multiple bodies capable of plugging holes.

Starting next to Smith will be junior Kris Jenkins who is up 10+ pounds to 285 and looks the part as a run stuffer next to Smith.

And while replacing the pass rush productivity of Ojabo will be difficult, he wasn’t a star in the run game.

Defensive ends Mike Morris and Taylor Upshaw will be more than capable of playing the run and could be better as a run-stuffing tandem than Hutchinson and Ojabo a year ago.

Add in a year-two leap from linebacker Junior Colson and you have the makings of an improved front seven as it pertains to stopping the run.

The statistics should be better than last year’s marks regardless of whether the defense improves simply because of the soft schedule and with a potentially improved offense forcing more teams to throw the ball as they try to play catch up.