Michigan sent running back Donovan Edwards, safety Makari Paige, and tight end/fullback Max Bredeson to represent Michigan players at Big Ten Media Days. They are the presumptive captains for Sherrone Moore’s first team, as has been the case with past attendees like Blake Corum and Mike Sainristil.
Just like the coaches, players by this point are media-trained to be tactful when interacting with reporters. The results tend toward less-than-substantial prognostications about the upcoming season as everybody’s taking things “One game at a time.” Still, it’s a chance to see Michigan football’s team leaders showcase their personalities and provide some context as fall camp approaches.
We’ll start with Michigan’s representative on the EA College Football ’25 cover:
Donovan Edwards
Blake Corum departs as one of Michigan football’s most decorated alumni. In his wake, Edwards will look to showcase the talent that made him a borderline-five-star recruit coming out of West Bloomfield High School. After a slight downturn in production between his Sophomore and Junior years, he has a chance to be The Man. He and his teammates faced multiple questions about the senior running back’s mindset and maturity.
“The first couple games…there [were all these factors]. ‘I’m not getting the ball as much as I want to,’ ‘I’m only gonna go in on third down,’ you know. If you know that you’re talented, you proved something already, you want to be in the game more…Ultimately I had the choice to, as Coach Harbaugh would say, be bitter or get better, and I chose getting better,” Edwards said.”
Rhythm is crucial for running backs. Consistency helps them see their blocks more effectively on a down-to-down basis, and Edwards clearly struggled with finding that consistency while working behind Corum. However, he emphasizes that he got help through therapy. He said he realized he had put excessive expectations on himself, and found positivity in being a support system. “After the Rose Bowl, I didn’t care who was getting touches,” he said.
But what if he’s getting 25 touches per game, similar to Corum’s workload last year? “I’ll take it if needed,” he said. “But I want other guys to be able to get their touches.” Edwards went on to list the entire running back room: Kalel Mullings, Ben Hall, Tavierre Dunlap.
Makari Paige
The senior safety enters his fifth year in the program under a brighter spotlight after fellow safety and team leader Rod Moore tore his ACL in March. While there’s chatter that Moore has a chance to get back on the field before the end of the 2024 season, Paige and his compatriots in the secondary aren’t concerned.
“People feel like it’s a lot of pressure on me but I don’t feel pressure.” Paige has been playing since his freshman year during the 2020 COVID season. He’s been around the block, and he’s earned his reputation as a stalwart defender who rarely makes mistakes. Like Edwards, Paige is quick to heap praise on teammates.
“The [secondary] is special because we got a lot of swag, I feel like,” he told the media. People say on social media ‘the aura.’ I saw a video the other day about Will Johnson that said he’s got a lot of ‘aura.’ […] Zeke Berry, he’s gonna be real good. Brandyn Hillman, same with him […]. Jyaire Hill’s gonna be really good as well.”
Paige singled out Berry, in particular, for one of the higher compliments you can get as a Michigan safety comparison: former first-round pick and current Cincinnati Bengal Daxton Hill. “He’s just so smooth… The way he moves, the way he plays, it’s similar to Dax.”
When asked to single out some ready-for-primetime performers on the offensive side of the ball, Paige didn’t hesitate. He expects big seasons from wide receivers Fred Moore, Tyler Morris, and Semaj Morgan, plus running backs Kalel Mullings and Ben Hall.
Paige’s leadership style seems a bit more reserved than Donovan Edwards, whose gregariousness shines in a setting like this. But Makari mentioned learning a lot about work ethic and leadership from Michigan all-timer Mike Sainristil, now with the Washington Commanders. He’s quick to point out that Sherrone Moore is not alone in leading this team into the future. “It’s not just a him thing, it’s an us thing.” Strong words from a confident captain-in-waiting.
Max Bredeson: More Returning Experience Than You Think
To outsiders, it might seem peculiar to send a tight end/fullback to the podium. Michigan fans know better. There’s a strong recent lineage at the position under Harbaugh. Moore knows that Bredeson has already proven himself a worthy successor to his forebears. In 2023, the former walk-on was Pro Football Focus’s third-highest-rated blocking tight end behind only teammate AJ Barner and Air Force’s Caleb Rillos.
Bredeson is not worried about how the team will fill in the gaps from last year’s squad.
“The beauty behind it is the way Michigan [handles development]. There’s been so many guys that you haven’t gotten to see yet that have been working so hard for so long […] there’s confidence in every guy that steps on the field,” he said.
He makes a good point here. While the starters for this year’s team are technically ‘new,’ they’re not exactly ‘fresh.’ Giovanni El-Hadi played all of 2022, starting three games. He would’ve started in 2023 but for Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan returning. Myles Hinton brings a mountain of hype after being a five-star recruit. With a year to download Moore’s protection schemes, if he hits this year…look out. Josh Priebe started nearly thirty games in his Northwestern career. That’s a plug-and-play grad transfer on the interior.
Bredeson went on to cite several Michigan pass catchers as being ready to step into larger roles. He echoed Makari Paige’s callouts of Moore, Morris, and Morgan. He also noted former walk-on Peyton O’Leary and quarterback convert Kendrick Bell (program legend Ronnie Bell’s little brother). And let’s not rule out Bredeson himself. “Whatever Michigan needs me to do to help [us] win, I’m always there. I think it’s great that I get developed as a tight end every day. Most fullbacks come from a running back tree and I get to come from a tight end tree,” he told the assembled media.
Stray Notes & Observations
- After a question about NIL funding, Edwards responded, “I’d be at college with no money. The money doesn’t matter to me, I want to be successful and make people better.” Another W for the culture and character Michigan has built into this team.
- New Coach, Same Vibe? All three players reiterated multiple times that while Moore’s personality is different from Harbaugh’s, the team’s mentality and blueprint remain the same: toughness, togetherness, and execution.
- Paige’s least favorite opponent locker room? “Iowa. It’s pink all around.”
- Paige also noted that it’s all love with new teammate and former Michigan State Spartan Jaden Mangham. But he did say they do occasionally clown him for last year’s 49-0 drubbing in East Lansing.
- There were a few questions about the potential of playing Ohio State two or even three times in a single season. In theory, Michigan could play OSU in the final game of the regular season, then possibly in the Big Ten Championship Game, then possibly again in the expanded 12-team playoff. ‘We can only play the games as they’re put on the schedule. If it happens, we’ll be ready,’ was the general consensus.
- Bredeson’s favorite Ohio State memory: 2023, coming off of Will Johnson’s interception return to Ohio State’s seven-yard line. Four straight Corum runs (behind Bredeson) before Michigan punched it in on fourth and goal from the one.
- Facing multiple questions about having a target on their back, each player’s response was fairly similar. There was a sense of them determined to still be the hunters and not the hunted. Again, the vibes remain intact.
