The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN FOOTBALL with our defense, we're looking for guys to be impact guys at safety. "You always look at a player and think about where he best fits. We think Pep fits best at the safety posi- tion, just because of who he is and what he brings. If you put him at cor- ner, he's out there and you don't re- ally see him. He's the type of player who can cover on the inside, play the deep middle of the field, tackle on the inside. "He can play all over the field. But he can be an impact player by play- ing the safety and nickel positions." Wherever he is, he's going to be talking, Jackson assured. In this case, that's not a bad development. "Everybody has a different way of playing the football game," Jackson said. "Some guys are quiet and are terrors on the football field. Some guys are loud and can back it up. Some guys are loud and can't play. "He's the type of guy who backs everything up. He's a guy that talks a lot, but he backs everything up. The thing about Pep, he's not talking just to talk. He's talking to energize the team, and himself, to make guys play better. Everything he does is positive." Peppers recorded 1.5 tackles for loss among four stops in the spring game. He also broke up a pass, which he very nearly intercepted. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh didn't shy from talking about him afterwards. "He is a good football player," Harbaugh said. "He's been A-plus, he really has, all spring. He was just out there taking reps. "A lot of times a guy will get in the front of a drill, which he would do, but he would go through the repeti- tion of the drill, then I would see him up in the front again, and again … that's the kind of youngster he is. "He's brought great energy and enthusiasm for the game. His play has been really good. It means a lot to him. He wants to get better and better." Harbaugh noted Peppers missed just one day of spring practice, be- cause he needed to have a tooth ex- tracted. Peppers still tried to practice that day, the coach observed. "You start to fall in love with guys like that," Harbaugh said. ❑ FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK • TheWolverine.com asked subscribers to vote on the outcome of Michigan's 2015 season game by game, and the results indicate a very optimistic bunch of Maize and Blue fans. The 724 respondents favored the Wolverines in 11 of 12 upcoming contests, only picking Ohio State to beat Michigan, with 63 percent siding with the Buckeyes and 37 percent believing Jim Harbaugh's team will pull the upset over the defending national champion. In-state rival Michigan State has bested Michigan in back-to-back years and in six of the past seven seasons, but U-M fans are confident enough to pick the Maize and Blue on 57 percent of the votes cast.