{"id":2548,"date":"2025-09-01T06:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/michigan-linebackers-consistent-in-win-over-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T06:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:49:07","slug":"michigan-linebackers-consistent-in-win-over-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/michigan-linebackers-consistent-in-win-over-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan linebackers consistent in win over New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Michigan football team\u2019s linebackers have two primary goals: get in fast and hit hard. And on Saturday in the Wolverines\u2019 season opener against New Mexico, Michigan\u2019s linebackers checked both boxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat group is elite,\u201d Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said. \u201cThey\u2019re four deep. We feel very strongly about that group. \u2026 We play them every single day, and those guys are moving fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, in the first quarter of Michigan\u2019s matchup against the Lobos, the Wolverines\u2019 defense was suffocating. Across the middle, the Wolverines\u2019 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\u2019s linebackers were already in Layne\u2019s face or locking down receivers in coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019 linebackers were just getting started.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hausmann \u2014 who led the team with eight tackles against New Mexico \u2014 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\u2019s linebackers seemed to fall into a rhythm. Make the play, reset and repeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the third quarter, things changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s throwing side, Barham hit Layne \u2013 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But that wasn\u2019t the case. Instead, after review, Barham was called for targeting and ejected from the remainder of the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the type of call that we was expecting at that point in the game,\u201d junior defensive back TJ Metcalf said. \u201cI looked at my teammates and we just had that look like, \u2018Alright, it\u2019s time to do it for him now.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Barham off the field, the energy radiating from Michigan\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Late into the fourth quarter, Michigan had just stacked on yet another touchdown for a significant 34-17 lead. Nonetheless, the Lobos\u2019 hopes of a comeback weren\u2019t yet squandered. That is, until they came face-to-face with Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCole really took it upon himself to really try to push himself into that starters,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cTo me and (defensive coordinator Wink Martindale), I say we have true four starting linebackers. Cole himself, he\u2019s 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\u2019s been putting in on the off season that y\u2019all haven\u2019t been seeing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the public hadn\u2019t seen much of Sullivan, neither did Layne. From Layne\u2019s 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 \u2014 a drive in which Sullivan intercepted the ball \u2014 New Mexico\u2019s hopes of a touchdown were once again thwarted by Sullivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Whether it was a bitter taste from Barham\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Setting the tone from the jump, it was Michigan\u2019s linebackers who shaped the defense. A solid front, they got in fast, hit hard and shut down the Lobos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Michigan football team\u2019s linebackers have two primary goals: get in fast and hit hard. And on Saturday in the Wolverines\u2019 season opener against New Mexico, Michigan\u2019s linebackers checked both boxes.\u00a0 \u201cThat group is elite,\u201d Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said. \u201cThey\u2019re four deep. We feel very strongly about that group. \u2026 We play them every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2752,2608,2746,222,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-2548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-consistent","9":"tag-linebackers","10":"tag-mexico","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2550,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions\/2550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}