{"id":830616,"date":"2026-03-24T06:23:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/830616\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T06:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:23:33","slug":"wolverines-dc-gets-candid-on-inexperienced-lbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/830616\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolverines DC gets candid on inexperienced LBs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Michigan football<\/a> program is undergoing a major reset after everything that happened with former head coach Sherrone Moore. He was fired for cause for having an affair with a staff member, and later was arrested as well. In response, Michigan hired Kyle Whittingham as a replacement<\/a>, and he has a chance to work very well for the Wolverines overall, given how good a coach he is.<\/p>\n

Whittingham hired a great staff around him, and one of the big names was Jay Hill as his defensive coordinator, who started his coaching career with him at Utah and came over from BYU. One key to Hill’s defense is the linebackers, and there are a lot of eyeballs on what Michigan’s linebackers will look like after that position group lost four key players. Still, Hill does not seem fazed by the lack of experience in the position room<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Michigan\u2019s linebackers) are young and they haven\u2019t played a lot, but I see a lot of talent,\u201d Hill recently told the media. \u201cI like where they\u2019re going to be. I see potential and a lot of talent in that group. We gotta get some experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key for the position group will be practice, and which players get consistent reps. The more on-field reps each player gets, the more it should help prepare the group for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

The most experienced of Michigan football’s returning linebackers is Troy Bowles, who played in 12 games on defense and 13 on special teams last year, recording 27 tackles, two tackles for loss, and one sack. He and sophomore Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng have had Hill\u2019s attention so far this spring, along with Chase Taylor.<\/p>\n

Owusu-Boateng was a highly touted four-star recruit in Michigan\u2019s 2025 class who entered the program as a great athlete. He is listed at 6-foot-1 and 217 pounds. He\u2019s made some progress in putting on muscle and could be a breakout candidate if he continues to develop his skills and his strength during the offseason.<\/p>\n

Taylor could be a name to watch as well. Then, Nathaniel Staehling could also be a name to watch after transferring from North Dakota State. It is also worth noting that Max Alford followed Whittingham after initially committing to BYU<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michigan football program is undergoing a major reset after everything that happened with former head coach Sherrone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,33137,580,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-830616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kyle-whittingham","10":"tag-michigan-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116282720531901782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}