ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The hype beast of the offseason for Michigan football was transfer linebacker Jaishawn Barham. Having come aboard from Maryland, Barham is a freakish athlete who was spoken behind closed doors as a potential first-round talent.
However, it’s been a rocky start for Barham, who was abused by Texas in Week 2, and has often found himself out of position — seemingly in part due to confusion in a new (to him) defense, and the other part being that his freakish athleticism meant he’d often run himself out of plays.
But his position coach, Brian Jean-Mary, says that he’s trending upward and he can see the progress he’s made from Saturday to Saturday.
“He’s gotten better every week,” Jean-Mary said. “I know it doesn’t always show on the stat sheet or sometimes on the video, but he’s getting more comfortable in the system. I think he’s making a lot more tackles within the system. I think he gets frustrated. He’s a dynamic guy when it comes to pressuring the quarterback, and people are IDing him, which I tell him is part of it. It helps free up some of the other guys on defense, and that’s one of the things that happens when you’re a good player, and especially as explosive as he is.
“He’s been doing a better job of playing within the framework of the defense. There’s things he can improve on. Obviously, it’s going to be finishing plays a little better. I thought he was in position a couple times in some of those underneath passes, in particular the fourth down where if he knows where it’s going and cheats a little bit toward there, the ball doesn’t get completed. But those are things that as a young player, and I still call him a young player. I know he’s a third-year guy that started in this league, but he’s young in this system. That’s going to keep getting better.”
Considering his athleticism, WolverinesWire asked Jean-Mary a follow up about how he runs himself out of plays from time to time….
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