The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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34 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2019 MICHIGAN FOOTBALL I was in your exact same position.' "With him, it's just going to become how fast he can pick up the speed of the game because [he is] like a mon- ster." One quality that has impressed Jeter about Smith is his incredible strength. "The first day upper body [training], I'm one of the strongest benchers on the team and he's making the weight I'm doing look light," Jeter said. "I'm sitting there like, 'Maybe I need to re- evaluate myself.' He's coming in just moving weight. "He's so far ahead of the curve he doesn't know it yet, so every day I'm in his ear, 'When you're ready to domi- nate, you'll dominate.' He has great potential; he's just so big and strong." Jeter said that Smith is the strongest person on the field, which is impres- sive for a lineman that should still be in high school. However, Jeter said he still needs to work on his technique. While Smith is in his first spring with the program, Jeter is entering his third season with the Wolverines. In his first two years, he barely saw the field after suffering an injury before the 2017 season and seeing limited action in 2018. After notching just three tackles last year, Jeter has broken through this spring. "Donovan Jeter is special," senior linebacker/defensive end Josh Uche said. "We've gone through stuff [to- gether]; we'll talk to each other, pick each other up. "He's special. He picked it up so much this spring." Hutchinson also has had a good spring. In his first season with Michi- gan, he played in all 13 games as a backup to Gary and Winovich, while racking up 15 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. "He's a beast," Uche said of Hutchin- son. "He's matured a lot quicker than most of the other guys. He's just the guy. When he steps in the room, you know his presence is felt." Hutchinson has matured at the per- fect time. He will be likely be a starter come the fall opposite of junior Kwity Paye, who led all returning linemen with 29 tackles last year. "Because of Coach Herb [direc- tor of strength and conditioning Ben Herbert], I was able to increase my strength," Hutchinson said. "I worked a lot outside of football on the little things. I just looked at all the little things in my game to improve." — Andrew Hussey JOSH UCHE LOOKING TO BUILD ON BREAKOUT JUNIOR SEASON After only having one sack in his first two seasons, Josh Uche had a breakout campaign in his junior year. He burst onto the scene as a pass-rush- ing specialist, racking up seven sacks and eight tackles for loss. But Uche is not complacent and wants to surpass his success from last season. "I'm greedy," Uche said. "Last year [with] seven sacks, I went back and watched the film, I really could have had double digits. I could have had 10 sacks. I missed a couple opportunities. "Right now, I feel like I'm at ground zero. I feel like I haven't done any- thing. That's just the mindset I have. Every snap I get, I'm trying to make the best of it." Uche will move beyond just rush- ing the passer this season. In addition to playing Sam linebacker, he also ex- MYLES SIMS ENTERS NAME INTO TRANSFER PORTAL Redshirt freshman cornerback Myles Sims entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal April 18, the same day Michigan held its final spring practice. Sims came to U-M as the program's highest-rated prospect in the 2018 class (at No. 103 nationally) out of Westlake High School in Atlanta, but did not appear in a game this past season while redshirting. Seemingly buried behind the likes of senior Lavert Hill, junior Ambry Thomas, redshirt freshman Vincent Gray, and perhaps even junior Jaylen Kelly-Powell and redshirt freshman Gemon Green on the depth chart, playing time was likely go- ing to be hard to come by for the Georgia native in 2019. Position coach Mike Zordich revealed to the media that Sims "just needs to be more consistent" when asked about him two days before the redshirt freshman's name appeared in the portal. — Austin Fox Sophomore Aidan Hutchinson is expected to help lead the way at defensive end following the losses of Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich to the NFL. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN