The Wolverine

September 2013

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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Regular Rotation Michigan Is Building A Deep, Talented Pool Of Defensive Tackles That Can All Contribute W By Andy Reid ith the two starting defensive tackle spots as yet unresolved and five players vying for the nod, the competition has been fierce in the preseason practices leading up to the 2013 campaign. Fifth-year senior Quinton Washington, senior Jibreel Black, sophomore Ondre Pipkins, and redshirt freshmen Willie Henry and Tom Strobel are all battling to be one of the two players that take the first defensive snaps Aug. 31. However, the plan is to use all of them in games. Michigan head coach Brady Hoke and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison are going to rotate the defensive tackles. A lot. "That is more how we want to go about it," Hoke said. "Coaching with Greg a long time ago, we have always liked to get a lot of guys on the field, competing. We think we're going to be able to do that. " it's important that the next man up and the one after that are as ready to play and contribute productively as the No. 1 guy. "One thing Coach Mattison always talks about is having two first-team defenses," Washington said. "If you can put him in and then rotate me in, or vice versa and there's no drop off, it could be a really great thing. "We're close to that level right now. We're still working on it." Hoke, a self-professed "defensive line guy," has been building toward this kind of rotation. When he first arrived in Ann Arbor, there were just five defensive tackles on scholarship. Since then, Hoke and Co. have raised the bar for defensive tackles, in terms of numbers, talent, coaching and expectation. Heading into 2013, the Wolverines have eight scholarship tackles on the roster, all of whom are loaded with potential: Black, Washington, Pipkins, Strobel and Henry, plus redshirt junior Richard Ash and freshmen Maurice Hurst Jr. and Henry Poggi. "We're going to have a lot of guys," Pipkins said. "We don't have one

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