Mailbag question: Vlad and the young defensive players in that class

Guys,

Love all your info.

I was wondering about Vlad. Early on we heard he was headed to a starting spot, then it was second-team and now that Woolfolk's been moved to CB, still no Vlad and instead a walk-on is starting. Is this something to be alarmed about? Is it a lack of speed?

Last year's class looks to have brought in a good one with Roh, but it seems like we haven't gotten much contribution from any other true freshmen on a defense that just doesn't have many good players.

Thanks again,
JP

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Thanks for the question and comments.

Vlad had some injury problems early that slowed his progress. Remember, he had an injury in high school that limited him when he arrived at Ann Arbor. We heard that he had some swelling and was told to relax a little bit to minimize chances of damage on down the road. Sometimes in these circumstances it is better to be cautious, especially with a player so young coming off an injury. This type of injury takes some time to fully recover even if the player feels like he is fine or 100%.

We also saw on Saturday that Vlad was used at Sam linebacker, a position change we would 100% support. This does not mean he will play this position the rest of the year because we also saw him playing safety later on, so Saturday may have been a "tryout" to see how he did along with getting other younger players into the game by moving Vlad to another position (allowing another player to hit the field).

For the class as a whole, we still think it has some potential to be a very good defensive class. Players like Turner, Campbell, Bell, and even Vlad, have the ability to be solid defenders. GBMW generally has a bit more patience with younger players than most.

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