The Defensive Ends

Defensive Ends 

First up, Michigan: 

Story of 2011: Starters:Craig Roh (weakside) and Ryan VanBergen Backups: Frank Clark and Brennan Beyer both saw significant playing time as RVB slid inside to play DT often. Michigan returns much of the unit that played well (if unspectacular) last season.  

Who's Gone: The Wolverines lose Senior Ryan Van Bergen to graduation, a guy who should not be overlooked as a significant loss because of his consistency, durability and production.   

Personnel in 2012: Senior (and 4 year starter) Craig Roh gets moved from the weak-side to the SDE position this season.  He'll be asked to add weight in the off-season to be able to hold down the strong side in the run game.  Craig has had an up and down career after coming in with significant hype out of high school.  If he puts things together he's a potential NFL player.  Michigan will look to Roh to be play maker this season.

On the other side, it's likely to be a 2 man rotation with  Frank Clark (RS So) and Brennan Beyer (True Soph).  Clark was a less heralded recruit out of OSU pipeline Cleveland Glenville who has elite athleticism.  He has shown spurts of play making ability (you may remember his interception in Michigan's Sugar Bowl victory this past season).  Beyer was a true freshman last season who got playing time.  He came in as Michigan's top rated defensive player and his career is on the right trajectory.  He needs to continue to add weight to hold up as an every down DE.  At this weak side DE position Michigan will look to these underclassmen to produce big plays.

Depth will be provided by a number of young players.  Michigan has bodies but no one that will likely push for immediate playing.  Watch out for the incoming freshman DE's to see if any make their way into the 2-deep as Craig Roh's backup at SDE.

2012 Outlook: The DE unit should be a strength for Michigan's defense in 2012.

ED NOTE: Now to talk about real talent

The MSU DEs.


Story of 2011: MSU had a young group of defensive ends in 2011.  While young, they were also productive. 

Who's Gone: MSU returns the bulk of its DEs from last year.  In fact, I don't think any DE from last years team graduated.  This is a huge plus and a major theme for the entire defense - the total depth.  


Personnel in 2012: First and foremost is William Gholston, a true junior.  I won't get into what UM fans think about him but will mention this from the previous post:  

"I'm skeptical about most of these guys other than Gholston as I think NFL teams will love his freak athleticism." - Pat. 

That might be the best way to sum Gholston up.  This dude is an athlete.  His biggest knock I would say is that he could get off the ball a little better (this was Worthy's best aspect).  70 tackles 16 tackles for loss and 5 sacks.  If Gholston improves he should be an All American. If he stays the same, he will be first team all B1G.  I will take that all day.  Currently he is nursing an injury suffered in the spring game which is said to not be serious.  

On the other side is Marcus Rush (amazing DE name).  Marcus has a ton of potential and is a true sophomore.  Last year he  had 58 tackles 4 sacks and 12 tackles for loss.  The 4 sacks led all B1G freshman.  Along with that, Marcus was named to the freshman All-American team.  Marcus excels at getting off the ball which has obviously helped with his tackle totals (having Worthy and Gholston on your line isn't bad either).  This year, it will be necessary for Rush to have taken a step forward.  Without Worthy on the line to eat up offensive lineman, Rush will need to get used to having more hands in his face.  With Rush we have a guy that should be second team all B1G and cause headaches for teams all year round.  I am very excited to see his game play this year, see if he took that "leap"

A third guy worth mentioning is Shilique Calhoun.  He is listed on the depth chart as the back up to Rush.  He is a  RS freshman which coaches have been raving about since his first practice.  It will be nice to finally see him in action.  The MSU staff has compared Shilique to Gholston based on his athletic ability.  Numerous bloggers have noted that he has a college ready body since he first walked into practice.  This is a phrase that often over used and is perfect coach speak but Shilique Calhoun is ready to push the starters.  With no game time action, Shilique was named as the scout team defensive player of the week three times.  That is more than any other player (one of those games weeks was Michigan week).  It will be interesting to see when Calhoun comes in for spells, how he makes the most of his time. 


From there MSU has Jeremy Gainer, Joel Heath, Corey Freeman and Taylor Calero.  Corey is a senior and has seen action in numerous games, though it has been limited.  Heath is a redshirt freshman that the MSU staff has had praise for. Gainer is a junior that appeared in every game last year - his forced fumble against ND was the highlight last year.  He is currently listed behind Rush and Calhoun but having that experience certainly means he will see time this year.  Rounding out the group is Taylor Calero.  


2012 Outlook:  This is a position that on the top end is very high and overall has great depth.  


UM vs MSU: The edge here goes to MSU.