The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1111798
26 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2019 when you go inside. You go from at- tacking a guy that always weighs less than you — at anchor, you're always going against a tight end — to going inside and going against two guys that are both 320 pounds. It's that constant double-team. We call it, in the paint life. "If you haven't got the right weight for it, you've got to get out of the paint. You've got your hand in the dirt, and there are some mean dudes. The guy across from you is mean, sweat coming down his facemask. It's the trenches." Kemp survived the trenches. He started a dozen games for the Wolver- ines at defensive tackle, getting named Defensive Lineman of the Week for his efforts in huge wins over Wisconsin and Penn State. He also earned Michigan's Most Im- proved Player Award on the defensive side of the football. Now he's a senior leader, one his coaches are counting on to help put the Wolverines in position to win a Big Ten title. "Great leader, very unselfish and very, very intelligent," new defensive line coach Shaun Nua said about the senior. "I'm putting a lot on his plate to be a leader and to lead this group. He's got a lot of experience, and he's unself- ish in that way. And the guys love him. "Kemp has a huge role, not only at the D-line position but for the whole team." Brown marvels at the positional jour- ney through which Kemp progressed. "He played Mike linebacker for a while," Brown recalled. "He was a little bit of a fish out of water, but we gave it a shot. He went to defensive end, and that kind of worked. Played tight end-side defensive end, and that kind of worked. "Now he's over 290 pounds and he is one tough son of a gun. He's gone through the entire migration — 'backer, end, anchor, three, nose — and boom! He found his home. "He's a leader, a great human being. I'll go to war with that guy, any day." It is a war, hand-to-hand combat, the closer one gets to the middle of the mass of humanity on a football field. Kemp has grown to embrace it. It's not about piling up huge statistics when you're one of the big men in the middle. It's stay- ing strong and quietly smiling to yourself when someone else garners the glory. "Once you get it, you start to love it," he said. "When you're one dude, and you're beating 600 pounds, and you're helping your linebacker be free to run and go make a tackle, it's like you making the tackle. There's not a better feeling than that. "Last year, eating up a double team and seeing one of the best linebackers I've ever played with, Devin Bush, run and make a tackle right in the back- field, blow a guy up — that's the best part. "I don't care if I make the tackle. If my teammate goes in there and puts Last season, Kemp was named the team's Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performances against Wisconsin and Penn State, and he capped the year by being named the defense's Most Improved Player. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Defensive line coach Shaun Nua "Kemp has a huge role, not only at the D-line position, but for the whole team."