The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 107 McCray Sr. remembered once specific incident that caused him to back off a bit and rethink his approach. "I just always wanted him to go hard — just go hard, just play hard," he noted. "Whatever happens, happens, but learn how to play hard. That's just my experience, go- ing all through college and even trying out with the Detroit Lions." McCray Sr. took his son and a nephew to another nephew's baseball game. He in- structed the boys to bring some cleats, so they could do some drill work in a nearby park between games of a doubleheader. They complied, but all didn't go as planned. "Mike wasn't doing them to my expecta- tions, and we had a little spat between one another," he recalled. "We walked off our sep- arate ways, and I had to reevaluate myself as a father. It's Saturday morning, he's going to see a cousin play baseball, and I've got them in between games working on football drills, when I think they should have just been kids. "It made me re-evaluate what I want from my son. My wife and I came to this conclu- sion: I want a good man, and one day, a good hus- band and father. I think that made our relation- ship grow a lot in the last six or seven years." McCray II's mother, an insurance profes- sional, was her husband's high school sweetheart and provides a presence a little less "rowdy" than the former Buckeye, their son insists. "I act just like my mom — everybody says that in my family," the younger McCray ex- plained. "She talks, but she's not as rah-rah and hyper as my dad is. She balances it out." In this instance, she provided perspective with a zinger, regarding her husband's constant push to turn their son into an NFL performer. McCray Sr. recalled: "She said, 'That's the way you did it, but you didn't make it.' Maybe his way is the way to do it." With that recollection, he burst out laughing. The elder McCray did help out with the Trotwood-Madison football squad, includ- ing when his son began playing defense as a sophomore. "We ended up losing in the state champi- onship that year, but the next year we ended up going back to the state championship and we won it," McCray II said. "That was a big moment. We were just happy for each other." The happiness now — over the good health and great opportunity for No. 9 on your Mich- igan program — gets tempered by the deter- mination to keep on pushing. The redshirt junior understands he'll have to keep getting better to see the field like he wants to this fall. He's undaunted by the challenge of step- ping in for the veterans from 2015, and thrilled over the approach of the man now calling the shots on defense. "I'm really excited," McCray II said. "Coach Brown likes to blitz a lot, and we all like that. His defense is really impressive. He just wants us to go out there and make plays. I feel like we can have one of the best defenses in the country. "We have a lot of experience on the de- fense. We have a lot of seniors out there. We have depth at all of the positions. We all just want to go out there and have fun, play hard every down and run to the ball." McCray II acknowledged that Brown's ferocity and confidence mirrors that of the head coach. Harbaugh is no wallflower, and Michigan's players, McCray II indicated, are more and more taking on the same sort of self-assuredness. "I think it does rub off on us a lot," Mc- Cray II said. "We see our head coach with a lot of confidence in everything we do, and it rubs off on us. We've got the same swagger that he has." Meanwhile, there are plenty of Ohio State fans who have suspended those loyalties — at least for a time — during this period. McCray II is an only child, but his dad comes from a fam- ily with eight kids, and there's no lack of blue on display, even south of the Michigan border in the Buckeye State. "We catch a lot of flak about the blue," McCray Sr. acknowledged. "I wear it when I work out. I catch a little heat. But I'm a big guy — I can handle it." "He works at the high school, and he wears Michigan shirts all the time," the son con- curred. "He talks about us all the time. He said once I'm done, he'll probably go back to his roots. He'll go back to the dark side." For now, though, there isn't any question. "It's going to be a really exciting moment for us all," McCray Sr. said of a possible starting opportunity for his son. "That's the ultimate goal. He went there to play football and get a college degree. Kids go there to play in front of 115,000 people on a Satur- day as a starter. That was his goal." If that happens, Michigan Stadium will play host to a whole horde of Buckeyes in Blue. "Everybody wears it," McCray Sr. said. "Everybody supports it. That's what we do. We're family. It's an easy process." ❏ All-Ohio Combos At ILB Are Rare There is plenty of ground to cover between now and Michigan's season opener versus Hawai'i Sept. 3. Com- ing out of spring football, though, it looked like senior Ben Gedeon and redshirt junior Mike McCray II had the inside track on covering ground at starting linebacker for the Wolverines. If that combination holds up, defensive coordinator Don Brown's crew would feature a relative rarity at Michigan over the past 20 years — two inside backers out of the state of Ohio. Gedeon hails from Hudson, Ohio, while McCray II comes out of Trotwood, Ohio. It hasn't been that long since Michigan featured its last set of Ohio-bred inside linebackers. Jake Ryan (Westlake) and Joe Bolden (Cincinnati) teamed up to tackle the task for the Wolverines in 2014. They com - bined for 214 tackles on that squad, Ryan securing a team-leading 112 on his way out the door for the Green Bay Packers and Bolden notching 102. Ryan also led the Wolverines with 14 tackles for loss and made one of only five Michigan interceptions on the year. The Wolverines finished 5-7 that season, producing a change in coaching staffs to usher in the Jim Harbaugh era. There has been only one other Ohio combination at inside linebacker for Michigan over the past 20 years. That occurred in 2003, when Lawrence Reid (Picker - ington) and Carl Diggs ( Warren) dug in behind the Wolverines' defensive line. Reid led the 10-3 Big Ten champions that season with 82 tackles, including six tackles for loss. Diggs, meanwhile, recorded 56 stops, with seven for loss. The duo helped Michigan knock off Ohio State, 35-21, in the 100th meeting between the schools. Gedeon and McCray II are the most experienced choices for the spots come fall. But both have to stay healthy, and hold off any challenges from young play - ers, such as true freshman Devin Bush, who enrolled early and enjoyed some strong moments in spring football. If the veterans do get the nod, they'll bring a little extra spice to the 2016 showdown with the Buckeyes, while giving a nod to the attention former head coach Brady Hoke paid to the state of Ohio in the recruiting process. — John Borton If McCray II and Ben Gedeon (above) secure starting jobs in the fall, U-M will have two Ohio natives manning its inside linebacker spots for just the third time in the past 20 years. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN McCray II, a prep standout in Ohio, had his parents full support when he made the decision to attend U-M, even though his dad played for the Buckeyes. PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL MCCRAY SR.