The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/835590
"I think the one thing he has is the matu- rity. He showed it at the beginning of camp," Wormley said. "He was getting really frus- trated because he wasn't taking the right steps, not knowing the playbook." So he worked harder. "Throughout the season he was like a sponge," Wormley continued. "He takes ev- erything in, takes coaching very well. He wants to know what Coach Mattison has to say and asked me questions as to what he can do better. "It's nice to see someone so highly re- cruited who is highly expected to do great things be the one that's taking a step back trying to learn everything he can to be the player he needs to be." He showed during Michigan's spring game in April just how close he is to getting there. Though Gary didn't play the whole game and only finished with one official tackle, his skill was on full display. He was aggressive in his pass rush from the beginning, breaking into the back- field in the first quarter and pressuring U-M quarterback Wilton Speight. He got to backup Brandon Peters in the sec- ond quarter. On the first play of the g a m e , h e a v o i d e d a blocker, read a screen pass perfectly and caught elusive running back Chris Evans from behind. Two plays later he assisted on a tackle on Evans from the other side of the field, and he shook off a block and brought down run- ning back Karan Higdon on the next. In short, he looked like the player every- one expects the nation's No. 1 recruit to be. And yet when reporters asked him after his great showing who was the toughest on the defensive line to block — and the answer seemed obvious, at least on that day — he deflected the praise. "We all are," he said, rip- ping off the numbers of his teammates. "No. 73, No. 15, No. 90, No. 3, No. 2, No. 4, No. 93, No. 17, No 50. We're all hard to block." A Potential X-Factor Gary's emergence could be the difference between a good and a great defense. If he's good enough to command double teams, that opens the door for others like Hurst and red- shirt junior tackle Bryan Mone to dominate with the interior pass rush. If Mone or Hurst require two blockers, Gary will be turned loose to get to the quar- terback, the way he was in the spring game. If he was as impressed with his showing as everyone else who saw him that day, he wasn't letting on. "I'm going to stick with my little routine, everything I'm working on, and fine tune my game … maybe take a couple days off and get back at it," he said. He even shrugged off the fact that the coaches made him the No. 1 overall pick in the spring game draft, even though he more than lived up to it. "I didn't think much of it," he said. "It just shows the growth from my freshman year to now. I like embracing it. "When the coaches pick the teams, it shows what they think about you. From there, it just makes me want to work harder. It's another chip on my shoulder, and I love having chips on my shoulder. "If you feel like you've reached your po- tential, you're not playing anymore. I've got lots of improvement to do in different areas." He knows the whole playbook and all the defensive schemes, the role the coaches have for him and what they expect. Part of that is to lead vocally as well as by example, even if he is only a sophomore. "I preach throughout practice, 'When you mess up, end on a good note,'" he said. "There are times I mess up, but I just brush that aside. "Freshman year, I couldn't do that. That's just growing and maturity. I'm just able to brush that off and make a better play and always end on a good note. "I've got a lot of freshmen looking up to me on the D-line … if there's something they need to work on or I feel like they could have made a play, I'm going to let them know." It's the same for him, he said, and he demands that they make him aware, too, if he needs to ramp it up. "It's a brotherhood," he said. "Once you join Michigan, it's a family, and we want everyone to be great." The sky is the limit, he insists, for both him and his teammates. "There's no doubt we could be better than that line [last year]," he said. "… And everything is set in line for me to have a good season, too. That's what I'm plan- ning on doing." ❏ Gary produced 27 stops, five tackles behind the line of scrimmage and one sack in a backup role as a true freshman. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN 94 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW