The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2026 ❱ MICHIGAN FOOTBALL right move, too, he may pop a long play. He was close against Oklahoma. "On the play where I juked the dude to the left and there was a dude right in front me and I cut back," the Michigan running back said. "I definitely should've just gone straight. I've been thinking about that the whole weekend." Translating performances from prac- tice to the games is important and some- thing that could be coming for Hiter. What's stood out about the freshman to Beck has been the way he puts 100 percent effort into every rep, including the one seen by the public on the Big Ten Network where he sent a pad into the air. "Nah, I didn't know the camera was there," Hiter said. "That's what I try to do regularly." — Clayton Sayfie U-M VETERAN LBS 'EVERYTHING WE HOPED' EARLY ON Linebackers coach Alex Whittingham joined the Wolverines program this off- season to coach alongside his father in Ann Arbor, and took over a completely revamped room with no shortage of questions. Two veterans, though, have been lead- ing the way and have set a tone early on in the season: senior Troy Bowles and grad transfer Nathaniel Staehling, who are first and second on the team in tack- les through the first three games. Staehling was a diamond-in-the- rough find out of the transfer portal, coming over from North Dakota State. The Brainerd, Minn., native had just one season of starting experience, but flashed potential on film that Whitting- ham saw early in the process. "That was, shoot, my second or third day on the job," Whittingham said on Sept. 17. "Evaluating him once he got into the portal, kind of picking out what we needed and what we wanted out of the portal. He was a guy that definitely stood out. One thing that stood out to me was there were a lot of similarities between him and a linebacker [defensive coordi- nator Jay Hill] had at BYU, Jack Kelly. "They're about identical size-wise, movement skills, all that — very similar, so I thought he'd be a great fit scheme- wise. Talent-wise, he looked like a lot of the guys I had just been working with in the NFL — good-sized kid, smart, does everything right. The previous school he was at did a great job developing him. It was like we were getting an NFL-ready linebacker to plug in and play for us. He's been everything we hoped he would be and more, and he's just going to continue to get better." Bowles spent last season at Michigan after transferring in from Georgia and played mostly in a special teams and depth role. Now, the son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles leads the team in tackles, and a shared understanding of Whittingham's coach- ing style coming from the NFL has streamlined the process. "I think we have a lot of similarities — he and I, coaches' sons and NFL back- grounds," Whittingham said. "What I've tried to bring here to Michigan is an NFL teaching style adapted to the col- lege scheme and the things we're doing defensively. "But as far as drills go and vernacular that we use, I think he's heard a lot of it before from his dad and me. His dad has been at some of our games — it's been great to talk to him. Troy has done a fan- tastic job for us. He's been huge as far as leadership in the room. He's really made the most out of what he has, and I think we got him in a good role right now in this defense." Bowles' impact has been notable, and a play he made against Oklahoma helped change the game for Michigan. On Jyaire Hill's interception of John Mateer that led to the game-winning touchdown, Bowles was in perfect position and got a fingertip on the football to alter its tra- jectory. "He was in spy technique," Whitting- ham said. "We employed that technique quite a bit in the game last week, spying John Mateer — that quarterback spe- cifically was always a threat to tuck and run on the scrambles, so we wanted a good athlete like Troy on that. That's one of the strengths he's been showing all through training camp doing that spy role — he has a great feel for getting in the windows, seeing the quarterback's eyes. "There was one play where he took a shot as a spy and the quarterback got out, but overall he's done a great job being patient with that, and he has a good feel for getting his hands up at the right time and being in the window." — Anthony Broome Graduate transfer linebacker Nathaniel Staehling has excelled so far in a Wolverine uniform after transferring from North Dakota State. PHOTO BY ETHAN MCDOWELL