Michigan Football: 5 Players Other Than Denard Robinson Who Need to Step Up

For the past two years, Michigan football has been all about one guy—Denard Robinson. The do-it-all quarterback is one of the most electrifying players in the game, but football is a team sport and therein lies the problem.

The Wolverines can’t get consistently good play out of almost anyone else on their team, especially on defense.

In order to challenge in the Big Ten this season, Michigan will need these five players to step up their game.

Roy Roundtree

Roundtree was the go-to receiver last year and he had 935 yards with seven touchdowns to prove it. This year, he only has 10 catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns in seven games. At that pace, he will cut his production by over half.

Junior Hemingway is having a solid season, but the Wolverines need better production out of the passing game. Roundtree needs to be a guy demanding touches every game, not a second or third option at receiver.

He showed what he could do on the final play against Notre Dame.

Craig Roh

The biggest way Michigan can help itself is by having a true playmaker on defense and the most likely candidate for that is defensive end Craig Roh.

He already leads the team in sacks and tackles for loss, but he needs to become more disruptive. He doesn’t have any quarterback hurries on the year and only has 20 total tackles on the season.

Roh may be the best player on the defense statistically, but he needs to elevate his game so others will join him.

Vincent Smith

Smith doesn’t have as many carries as fellow running back Fitzgerald Toussaint, but he beats him in yards per carry with 6.9 compared to Toussaint’s 5.0. He also is a bigger receiving threat.

The play-action pass can only work when there’s a legitimate threat at running back and neither back has shown the consistency necessary to demand the attention of opposing defenses. Running the option is also a problem for the same reason.

Developing a running game inside the tackles will be crucial against tough defenses.

Jordan Kovacs

Kovacs was one of the team’s leading tacklers the past two seasons with 187 total tackles, but he is on pace to revert back to his freshman year's numbers.

He may have more sacks, but he needs to be better in pass coverage—the Wolverines have given up big chunks of yards to the best receivers they’ve played. That could be a huge problem against A.J. Jenkins and DeVier Posey.

Will Hagerup

Michigan ranks 112th in the country in net punting and Hagerup has not helped the situation. Since taking over as punter, he has averaged 33.6 yards per punt—which is just awful.

The more room this still-developing defense has to work with, the better, but they aren’t getting it with Hagerup.