The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/666058
While Michigan's linebacker corps held open tryouts this spring to re- place three starters and the defensive line sought to develop some young players that could help next season, the secondary was locked in with four seniors slated to start with a fifth — cornerback Jeremy Clark — very much in the mix. "[Safeties] Dymonte Thomas and Delano Hill have got nobody really pushing them at safety — we don't have a lot of safeties on our roster right now — but they've been work- ing, improving, playing like they've got somebody right on their heels," head coach Jim Harbaugh said. "That's been outstanding. "Channing Stribling, he's a starter; it's cold, it's in stone. Him and Jour- dan Lewis are starting corners, but they haven't practiced that way, they haven't been playing that way; they've been improving their game, which has been outstanding." Playing opposite of the All-American Lewis, the 6-2, 181-pound Stribling made his first career start in the 2015 season opener at Utah, recording five tackles before picking off a pass and returning it 30 yards against UNLV in week two. He also broke up a pass and made four tackles in the win over BYU in week four, but a hamstring injury lim- ited him for most of October and he wasn't quite the same player when he returned for Michigan State Oct. 24. "The only thing [that stopped the early season momentum] was I got hurt," Stribling said. He was one of Michigan's top per- formers through the entire spring and he wants to put it all together in his senior year, from the opening salvo through the Big Ten Championship Game and a bowl. "I'm ready to play. I know my assign- ments so there's no playing around," Safety Dymonte Thomas helps lead the way for what should be an all-senior sec- ondary at Michigan in 2016. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN Seniors Lead An Experienced Secondary