Michigan football needs help on the interior of the defensive line. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and Co. had searched in the portal all offseason, offering several transfer prospects, and were able to land one in Oregon State’s Jordan Whittley.
The 6-1, 358-pounder has had quite the journey, starting his career at the JUCO ranks with Laney College, where he spent four seasons but only played in two. He then transferred to Oregon State, and saw game action during one season (2019) with the Beavers, before sitting out last year due to health concerns.
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This year with Michigan will be his seventh college football season, and a clean slate may be exactly what he needs. He’s in Ann Arbor now, going through Michigan’s summer conditioning program.
Conditioning has been an issue for Whittley, who began his collegiate career as a running back, in the past, and it’s going to be a challenge going forward. At this point, it’s really the No. 1 key for him to see the field in a winged helmet this fall.
“It was certainly a complex process for Whittley at Oregon State,” BeaversEdge.com managing editor Brenden Slaughter said. “In 2019, his conditioning was his biggest flaw as he couldn’t regularly stay on the field despite posting great advanced stats. Then, once he was diagnosed with a heart tumor in 2020, he wasn’t too concerned with staying in playing shape as he was getting healthy.
“Once he was cleared for some individual work this past spring, it was clear he needed to put in a lot of effort this summer to be in ideal playing shape.”
Whittley didn’t participate in practices this spring, and has plenty of work to do with Michigan strength coach Ben Herbert and his staff before he’s back in game shape.
“He had shown flashes of great potential, but the conditioning issues in 2019 and the health issue in 2020 severely impacted his ability to get on the field,” Slaughter said.
Those flashes of potential were significant, though.
In 2019, he notched 14 tackles, including 3.5 stops for loss. Those stats don’t jump off the page, but it’s important to point out that he only played 237 defensive snaps out of a possible 919 — never more than 31 in a single game — but was still able to finish fourth on the team with nine quarterback hurries. That proves he can add a pass-rushing element from the interior, something the Wolverines have lacked over the last few years.
Whittley’s overall defensive grade of 76.0 ranked second on the team, his run defense grade of 72.9 checked in fourth and his pass rushing grade of 72.8 slotted third.
The fact that Whittley has played in a 3-4 defense, which is what new Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald has brought in as his base look (though the unit will be multiple), can’t be overlooked, either.
Whittley will likely line up head on with the opposing team’s center. Double teams are going to come, and it’ll be his job to eat up blockers to free up the two ends outside him and the outside linebackers wide of them.
“He was the ideal nose tackle in Oregon State’s 3-4 defense, and I think he found a really nice rhythm once he was on the field,” Slaughter explained. “He had a couple of really nice performances that season, and it wasn’t a fluke. If he’s able to stay on the field, he’s got definite game-changing ability on the D-Line.”
Which is exactly what Michigan is looking for.
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