It is unclear how long Bryan Mone will be out for, but it appears that he is going to miss some significant time with an injury. What exactly that injury is, we’re not sure, but it may not be a bad thing for the true sophomore DT to end up getting a medical redshirt.
Now you may be thinking, who is going to start at DT with the #1 guy out? Well, I would expect the depth chart to look a little something like this:
4-3 Alignment
- SDE: Chris Wormley, Taco Charlton
- DT: Maurice Hurst Jr., Matt Godin
- NT: Willie Henry, Ryan Glasgow
- Buck: Mario Ojemudia, Lawrence Marshall
3-4 Alignment
- DE: Chris Wormley, Tom Strobel
- DT: Willie Henry, Ryan Glasgow
- DE: Taco Charlton, Matt Godin
Definitely a different look for each of the defensive lines, but if you run a 3-4, you need the size at DE that Wormley and Charlton would bring to the table. Henry would be good as a space eater while Wormley and Charlton use their length to try and attack the quarterback. Ojemudia and Marshall would then turn into RUSH OLB and would stand up on the line of scrimmage. If you think about it, neither alignment looks too badly without Mone. There is plenty of depth at the DL and as much as it hurts to lose Mone, it’s one of the few spots on the team where there are guys that can step up and fill the role that Mone was going to play.
For the record, I would anticipate Michigan using a lot more 3-4 early on in the season based on the personnel and the linebackers that they have.