The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545685
D E F E N S I V E L I N E M E N 88 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2026 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY CHRIS BALAS I t didn't take long for Kyle Whittingham to experi- ence his first tiny taste of adversity after he arrived in Ann Arbor. Only weeks after he thought he'd finalized his first staff, the new Michigan head coach lost defensive line coach Lou Esposito, one of three holdovers from Sherrone Moore's staff, to the NFL's Bal- timore Ravens. At the time, it looked like a significant blow given Esposito's recruiting chops and the time of year, a day after Signing Day. But as organized coaches do, Whittingham got to work immediately on finding a replacement, landed a great one in Vanderbilt run game coordinator and defensive line coach Larry Black to complement ends coach Lewis Powell, and watched both im- press this spring. Of all the position groups on both sides of the ball, Whittingham tabbed the defensive line as one of the team's best after watching 15 practices. Some wondered if he might be embellishing the talent, but this group played well during the April 18 spring game. "We have felt really good about the depth up front on defense," Whittingham said during the last week of spring ball in mid- April. "I feel like those guys have all really stepped up during spring football, so the defensive line should be a real strong suit for us. "I feel like we have five defensive tackles and five defensive ends that we can win with, and that's all you can really hope for. If you have two-and-a-half guys, you have a good rotation." Led by senior tackles Trey Pierce and Enow Etta, the line proved tough for the offensive line to block this spring. They were active, athletic, and disruptive, lead- ing new defensive coordinator Jay Hill to agree with Whittingham that they were one of the best position groups on the team. Given that they were a question mark heading in, this was a very promising development. "I thought there was maturity in that group, a bunch of guys that have at least played in games," Hill said. "There's talent in the group. It's not just experience. There's talent. "The cool thing about that group, too, is I think they can just get better and better and better, be- cause there's not a ton of reps there. There's good experience, but I wouldn't say an overabundance of experience in that group. I think they'll continue to get better." Defensive Tackles Leading The Way Stopping the run is objective one for any defense, and the Wolverines have some big pieces to build around in the middle. It's safe to say Hill has as much raw talent to work with as he's had in his career, with all due respect to past teams at Utah and BYU, and he's proven he knows what to do with it. Part of that is the result of learning from the best, he said this spring. Whittingham was his defensive coordinator when Hill played de- fensive back at Utah, and Hill also served as a graduate assistant to get his coach- ing start. He watched his coach develop a reputation as one of the best head coaches in the game, a "brilliant" X's and O's guy, and essentially answered Whittingham's phone call with "when do we start?" when the coach called to ask Hill to be his D.C. Both understand that winning football starts in the trenches, and on defense, they have two potentially very good tack- les in Pierce and Etta. Both were priorities to keep this fall, and getting them to re- sign NIL deals was like winning two huge recruiting battles. Pierce should be the cornerstone on the Senior defensive tackle Enow Etta notched 15 tackles last year, including 2.5 for loss with a half-sack, and broke up a pass. He shared the team's Defensive Player of the Week honors for his performances at Michigan State and at Northwestern. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL [FYI] ❱ U-M is losing 2,322 snaps from the 2025 campaign in defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny (458 snaps), edges Derrick Moore (450), Jaishawn Barham (375) and TJ Guy (362) and defensive tackles Damon Payne (348) and Tre Williams (329). ❱ Utah transfer John Henry Daley should be a huge boost to U-M's pass rush after an All- America season in 2025 at Utah, where he racked up 11.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles in 11 games. He was Pro Football Focus' No. 6 edge rusher last season with a 92.0 overall grade, behind Texas Tech's David Bailey (93.3), Central Michigan's Michael Heldman (93.2), Miami's Ruben Bain Jr. (92.8), Texas Tech's Romello Height (92.5) and Miami's Akeem Mesidor (92.5). Bailey, Bain and Mesidor were first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. ❱ Michigan signed a five-star EDGE in the 2026 class in Carter Meadows (Washington, D.C.), who was the class's highest-ranked addition at No. 11 in the nation. He is the first Rivals' five- star defensive line prospect to sign with the Wolverines since Christopher Hinton in 2019 (No. 15 overall, No. 2 defensive lineman). SPRING SURPRISE D-Line Impresses New Coaching Staff