Everything Alex Whittingham said Wednesday ahead of Michigan vs. UTEP

Michigan linebackers coach Alex Whittingham met with the media Wednesday as the Wolverines prepare for Saturday’s matchup with UTEP at Michigan Stadium.

Whittingham discussed Michigan’s linebacker depth, Chase Taylor’s development, the emergence of Nathaniel Staehling, Troy Bowles’ role in the defense, young players pushing for snaps and what Jay Hill has brought to the Wolverines’ defense.

Here is everything Whittingham said Wednesday.

Linebacker room start

I wouldn’t say surprised at all, really. They’ve been working their butts off since spring. The talent in the room, it was very apparent when I first got here that it was a loaded room. There were a lot of good opportunities for young guys coming in. They’ve developed really well. They’ve worked really hard. We knew that things were going to show up on tape once we got to that first week based on what we had done in training camp and spring and all that. It’s been a good start. We’ve got a long way to go. Week 1 was what Week 1 was, and then Week 2 we took a step forward, I thought. There’s still some stuff we’ve got to clean up going forward there. Overall, I think we’re in a good spot.

Chase Taylor’s ceiling

Yeah, Chase, he’s special. That’s pretty apparent to everyone who watches him. Some mental things, just as far as scheme-wise, in that first week for him came up. He’s been so good, made so much progress since we got here in spring, just maturity-wise. Off the field, learning how to carry himself, go to class, do all those little things. He’s come a long way in that regard. Athletically, you see that he makes things look easy. He’s got a lot of fluidity to him in how he moves. He’s got great speed, great length, everything that you look for in a linebacker. He’s just going to continue to mature and get better, and eventually we’re going to get to that ceiling.

Nathaniel Staehling’s fit

That was my second or third day on the job, was evaluating him. Once he got into the portal, picking out what we needed and what we wanted out of the portal, he was a guy that definitely stood out. One thing that stood out to me was there were a lot of similarities between him and who Coach Hill had at BYU, Jack Kelly, the linebacker there. They’re about identical size-wise and just movement skills and all that. They were very similar, so I thought he’d be a great fit as far as the scheme goes. Then just talent-wise, he looked like a lot of the guys that I had just been working with in the NFL. Good-sized kid, smart, does everything right. The previous school he was at did a great job developing him. It was like we were getting an NFL-ready linebacker to plug in and play for us. He’s been everything that we hoped he would be and more, and he’s just going to continue to get better.

Coaching Troy Bowles

A little bit, a little bit. I think we’ve got a lot of similarities, he and I, I guess — coaches’ sons and NFL backgrounds, I guess, a little bit. What I’ve tried to bring here to Michigan is just an NFL teaching style adapted to the college scheme and those things that we’re doing defensively. As far as drills go and just vernacular that we use, I think he’s heard a lot of it before from his dad. His dad has been at some of our games. It’s been great to talk to him. Troy has done a fantastic job for us. He’s been huge as far as leadership in the room. He’s really made the most out of what he has, and I think we’ve got him in a good role right now in this defense.

Taylor’s personality

Chase is — he lights up the room. He’s got a great personality. Like I mentioned before, we had to bring him along a little bit with some maturity, and he’s done a great job of that. But he is easygoing, always happy, always got a smile on his face. He, like I said, brings a great energy to the room. Talented as heck, and just he’s a great — and that’s the thing about the linebacker room here, is each guy kind of brings their own flavor. And he does a great job of being who he is and letting that personality show, and it’s fun to work with him.

Chasing 2023 standard

Yeah, I mean, that was a message that Coach Hill had early on with this defense in one of our first unit meetings, is that we’re trying to get back to that 2023 level of just performance and all that. And the guys have done a great job of buying into that. And just the mentality, I think, is showing up more and more each week of playing with passion, energy, flying around, which those guys did three years ago now, and just being sound in our scheme and trying to, I guess, live up to that standard that has been set. And now we’re reestablishing that.

Recruiting off Oklahoma

Oh, it’s been great. It’s been great. The texts that I’ve gotten from guys, they’re taking notice, which is good. And we’ve just got to continue to do everything that we’ve spent all spring and summer saying, yeah, this is going to look like this, it’s going to look like this, just trust us. And now it’s starting to show up on tape. And so now we’ve just got to continue to build on that and show these recruits and fans and you guys that we are who we thought we were.

Linebacker versatility

Yeah, yeah. They, like I mentioned before, their personalities are all unique, and also their skill sets are all unique. I think some of the guys in the room can plug in different spots. Troy, I think, is doing great in that Mike role, keeping him right in the middle. Aisea Moa is great in that Sam/stud kind of technique, him first, second down in our base stuff. Chase has the athleticism to play any of them. Same with Staehling. And so there’s a lot of flexibility. I don’t want to move the guys around too much, so they don’t — you know, I want to get them in a rhythm of what they’re doing, and so they’re not switching roles all the time. And so guys have kind of slotted into their roles. But I think going forward, there’s going to be even more, possibly six, seven, eight guys that we can rotate in as the young rookies come along. You know, Aden Reeder or Markel Dabney, get them more into the system. Max Alford is a guy that’s going to start showing up. He’s coming off an ACL that he’s been rehabbing, but he’s looking better and better every week. Had a great practice yesterday. It’s a great, I think, situation right now with the depth that we have. I know that was a question mark going into the year with what we had, and the guys have just embraced the system, they’ve embraced their roles, and try to keep them fresh by getting bodies in there rotating.

Family in Ann Arbor

Well, it’s been great for, I mean, my family personally. My kids are so little, they don’t know any better. So they’re enjoying it. My wife is enjoying it. And then so far, for the first couple games, we’ve had a lot of cousins and my siblings come out. And it’s been fun. You know, it’s a change, obviously. We spent so long at that other place. It was all I ever knew growing up as far as college football goes. But it’s a fun adjustment. Everyone’s, you know, buying into it. It’s a good experience, a good experience for the family.

Growing around football

I enjoyed it. I liked growing up around football. I know there’s always, you know, the stigma of coaches, they’re always gone. So the family kind of suffers from dads not being around. But I thought the time I had with him was — you know, I liked being around the locker room. I liked seeing him at work and being able to do cool things like go to games and be on the sidelines. And then eventually getting to play for him was a great experience as well. I’ve seen him in a lot of different ways. I’ve seen him as a dad, as a coach, as a co-worker, I guess, when I was at another place. And now he’s my boss. You know, I’ve seen him in all different roles. And it’s been a good experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Preparing for UTEP

Not — it doesn’t affect it a whole lot. It is interesting preparing for them right now because they’ve only had those two games, one of them being Oklahoma. They have new — they’ve got co-OCs. One of them was on the staff last year. So there’s a little carryover there. And then personnel-wise, there are so many new faces with the transfers that they brought in. I think they’re still kind of finding their identity a little bit, just two games in. So it’ll be interesting what they come out with this week. But I think we’re getting a good idea of them, and I’m excited for that opportunity.

Wedding invitation joke

I don’t know. I was busy, but yes. That was on the table. I’m happy for them. Congrats to Trav. It’s good.

Wife’s reaction

Yeah, she was. If she would have had it her way, we would’ve gone.

Aden Reeder’s future

Aden is doing a fantastic job. He’s obviously new to college. He got here in the winter for us, started in January. Did a great job in the weight room, putting on the weight that he needed to and developing himself into a collegiate body. He is one of those guys that every time I walk by the linebacker room, he’s in there watching film and asking questions. He’ll video stuff and text me questions on what’s going on. He’s on the ball. He does a great job, and he’s just going to continue to emerge, I think. It’s starting to show up on special teams. And eventually, as we get going in the season here, I can foresee him starting to get valuable reps at linebacker.

Jay Hill’s strengths

Yeah, Coach Hill, it’s fun to watch him work. I think one of his strengths, he’s got a photographic memory. When we’re up studying film and we quiz each other on what’s about to happen on each play, he can recite what will be taking place just by seeing it one time. He’s got a great memory, great feel for the game on when to go with certain calls. The other coordinators I’ve worked with, they are similar ways. Steve Spagnuolo had a great feel for third-down pressures, when to bring pressure, when to not. Had a great feel for that, and I see a lot of similarities there with Coach Hill. He’s got a very calming presence, I would say, on the headset and keeps everybody stable. We came out in the second half last week, and Oklahoma went right down and scored on us. Kept the guys calm, kept the coaches calm, and we were able to respond to that adversity, and he led the way.

Cutting down penalties

Ask them not to do it, real nicely. No, that’s just, you do your best throughout the week to just teach proper technique. From a defensive perspective, you obviously want to work good tackling techniques so they’re not feeling the need to grab face masks. In coverage, you want to keep them in good spots, coverage-wise, whether we’re in man or zone, to not be grabbing on jerseys, things of that nature. I’d say that really just comes down to reinforcing it, reminding the guys, be smart, and then you’ve got to get them the technique that will prevent them from making those mistakes.

Playing without green dot

Yeah, that’s a good question. Like you said, the green dot being on the Mike linebacker is what I’m more accustomed to. It’s kind of the general way to do it. I love the way Coach Hill does it, being able to talk to who he has with the green dot and get those guys tuned in. As far as the signals go, it’s a pretty easy process. The guys just got to look to the sideline and see the signal. We’ll do different things to confuse and distract people trying to steal our signals. That’s always something you’ve got to keep track of. It hasn’t been — I would never say it’s an issue to not have the green dot in the linebacker’s helmet. It’s just different ways to do it, and I think the guys have handled it well.

Safety communication benefit

Well, Coach Hill, like I mentioned before, he’s got a great feel for the game, and he’ll see things throughout, just the rhythms of the game, what the offense is doing, give them tips to the safety. He’s like, hey, they’re liking this route out of this formation, et cetera, et cetera, let’s jump this. Or give them kind of just those little pointers right before the snap. That does a good job for them, and I think that has worked out for us.

Bowles tips interception

Troy Bowles sure tipped it. He sure did, yeah. Perfect, perfect. He was in spy technique. We employed that technique quite a bit in the game last week, spying John Mateer. He was always, that quarterback specifically, was always a threat to tuck and run on the scrambles, and so we wanted to have a good athlete like Troy on that. And that is, that specific role that he was doing, he’s been just killing it all through training camp, doing that spy role. That’s one of his strengths. He has a great feel for getting in the windows, seeing the quarterback’s eyes. There was one play where he kind of took a shot as a spy, and then the quarterback got out. But overall, he’s done a great job being patient with that, and he just has a good feel for getting his hands up at the right time and being in the window. And real ball knowers know that he got the tip on it. So that was a good notice by him.

Linebackers’ next step

Yeah, just continue to develop, continue to grow, continue to understand the scheme. We’ve changed up our scheme a few times this year. We were in a lot of four-down, 4-2 front Week 1. We kind of mixed in some 3-3 last week, and who knows what we’re going to do this week. But just continue to embrace the rules and the scheme. We’ve got to clean up some missed tackles that we had last week. And just getting all, like I mentioned, those six, seven, eight guys being able to contribute and guys that I can trust and put out there. Just continue to expand that library of guys that you can throw out there at any point in time.

NFL versus college

Well, I mean, I’ve got to make sure they’re going to class, not being late for little things like that. In the NFL, you just fine them if they don’t do what they’re supposed to be doing. So it’s a little different in college. There’s more for them to be accountable for. Me, as a coach, I’ve got to make sure they’re on the right track. Here at Michigan, as far as just the type of player that you’re working with, there’s really not a big difference. The players here, from the first day that I set foot on campus, they’re so mature. They want to know what the coaches are looking for so that they can execute. Very diligent, very on the ball. And there are a lot of similarities, like I said, just between the types of guys. And then just getting them playing hard every week.

Missing class himself

Never. Come on.