The Michigan football team’s linebackers have two primary goals: get in fast and hit hard. And on Saturday in the Wolverines’ season opener against New Mexico, Michigan’s linebackers checked both boxes.
“That group is elite,” Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said. “They’re four deep. We feel very strongly about that group. … We play them every single day, and those guys are moving fast.”
Indeed, in the first quarter of Michigan’s matchup against the Lobos, the Wolverines’ defense was suffocating. Across the middle, the Wolverines’ linebackers held New Mexico to just 11 rushing and four passing yards in the first quarter. It seemed as though as soon the pocket started to collapse and Lobos quarterback Jack Layne was running out of time, Michigan’s linebackers were already in Layne’s face or locking down receivers in coverage.
Sure, there were still 45 minutes remaining in the game and New Mexico might have viewed its meager performance in the first quarter as a problem to move past, but the Wolverines’ linebackers were just getting started.
On the third drive late in the second quarter, the Lobos thought they might have figured things out. They had racked up a few first downs and Layne had more time in the pocket to look downfield. Then, senior linebacker Ernest Hausmann stepped up and was there. With barely enough time to throw the ball away, Layne was suddenly laid out on the turf. Incomplete.
Hausmann — who led the team with eight tackles against New Mexico — operated with a style of play that was indicative of the room: get in fast and hit hard. As the clock wound down toward halftime, Michigan’s linebackers seemed to fall into a rhythm. Make the play, reset and repeat.
In the third quarter, things changed.
With the pocket once again rapidly collapsing, Layne was desperately looking downfield for an outlet. But before he could find one, senior linebacker Jaishawn Barham found him. Driving in from Layne’s throwing side, Barham hit Layne – hard. The ball flew out, Barham snagged it and it seemed as though the strip sack was going to become a scoop and score for the Wolverines.
But that wasn’t the case. Instead, after review, Barham was called for targeting and ejected from the remainder of the game.
“It wasn’t the type of call that we was expecting at that point in the game,” junior defensive back TJ Metcalf said. “I looked at my teammates and we just had that look like, ‘Alright, it’s time to do it for him now.’ ”
With Barham off the field, the energy radiating from Michigan’s linebackers, and the rest of the defense, only intensified. And for one linebacker in particular, freshman Cole Sullivan, it was all he needed to take off.
Late into the fourth quarter, Michigan had just stacked on yet another touchdown for a significant 34-17 lead. Nonetheless, the Lobos’ hopes of a comeback weren’t yet squandered. That is, until they came face-to-face with Sullivan.
“Cole really took it upon himself to really try to push himself into that starters,” Hillman said. “To me and (defensive coordinator Wink Martindale), I say we have true four starting linebackers. Cole himself, he’s been really putting in the work this off season, this fall to get himself in this spot today. Seeing him make those plays today, really just hones into what he’s been putting in on the off season that y’all haven’t been seeing.”
While the public hadn’t seen much of Sullivan, neither did Layne. From Layne’s blind side, Sullivan suddenly latched onto Layne seven yards behind the line of scrimmage and brought him to the ground for a sack late in the fourth quarter. And just like the last drive — a drive in which Sullivan intercepted the ball — New Mexico’s hopes of a touchdown were once again thwarted by Sullivan.
Whether it was a bitter taste from Barham’s ejection or his own momentum from the game, Sullivan laid on the gas, allowing the Wolverines to coast to the win in the final minutes.
Setting the tone from the jump, it was Michigan’s linebackers who shaped the defense. A solid front, they got in fast, hit hard and shut down the Lobos.
