ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Wolverines have had just one fall camp practice, and yet, some familiar names are starting to pop up as standout players.
On Wednesday, defensive coordinator Jay Hill was asked about who made early impressions, and he started with safety Rod Moore, who has missed the greater part of the past two seasons, but also noted a few other players at other positions -- namely linebacker -- who are starting to cement themselves early as players to watch.
"Chase Taylor continues to stand out. I saw Troy Bowles make a couple plays. There were a bunch of plays out there where the front looked stout," Hill said. "And that's what we need. We need those front guys to continue to be stout. It's probably a little premature to point everyone
out. Let me watch film, and I can probably tell you in a couple days exactly who's standing out."
The front is particularly formidable, called by head coach Kyle Whittingham as the strength of the team. The thought is that Utah transfer edge rusher John Henry Daley is going to be cemented at one position out on the edge, but Hill says that there are so many players there, that even with the injury appearing to have abated -- Daley ruptured his Achilles tendon to end his All-America year at Utah -- there's a lot of competition and his role as starter isn't necessarily assured.
"Well, right now there's no pecking order, and quite frankly, John's fighting his way into this thing too because you've got a lot of guys," Hill said. "Cam Brandt's played a lot of football in Michigan, and Dom Nichols was one of our best-looking guys in the spring, and that's not including Lugard and Benny Patterson and like the guys we just added that I've mentioned, Carter Meadows and Tariq Boneys. I mean, we've got a deep, deep group, and it's going to be a dogfight in that room.
"Quite frankly, if you want to be an elite group, that's what you've got to have. You've got to have competition, and then you let the cream rise to the top. That group is going to be one where you're going to see it. That's going to be an intense battle all fall camp."
WolverinesWire asked Hill about two other young players, both of whom were summer enrollees -- defensive tackles Titan Davis and Alister Vallejo. Though he wouldn't comment much on them specifically with the aforementioned freshman edge rushers -- Tariq Boney and former five-star Carter Meadows -- he's excited about the whole group of young talent, noting that he wants to get them involved early, because they could be instant impact players for the maize and blue this year.
"Yeah, so really there's four freshman D-linemen that joined us," Hill said. "You mentioned the two D-tackles. We also have Tariq Boney and Carter Meadows. Those four guys have very bright futures. We're going to try to get them on the field right away. They've got a lot to learn about our defense, about techniques and schemes and all that stuff, but those are four good takes that we are glad we have, and they're going to have very bright futures in Michigan."
Michigan will continue to work in fall camp with eyes on the September 5 season opener against Western Michigan at The Big House. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. EDT and the game will be broadcast on NBC.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football defensive stars emerge in camp
