Derrick Moore, Rayshaun Benny among players Michigan hopes to retain: 'You'd love to have those guys back'

With two regular-season games left and the Dec. 4 National Signing Day approaching, coaches across the country are both game planning and recruiting as furiously as ever. Michigan Wolverines football, for instance, has two regular-season games left and is still seeking bowl eligibility, all while pushing for a top-10 recruiting class nationally.

College football players nationwide will soon make decisions on their futures, whether to stay at their school, enter the transfer portal or head to the NFL. Michigan has multiple projected high NFL Draft picks, including three on the defensive line in junior tackles Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant and senior EDGE Josaiah Stewart, who’s out of eligibility after this season. Graham and Grant are widely viewed as candidates to depart early for the NFL Draft, so Michigan will likely have to replace the bulk of its starting defensive line.

“I think you’re always looking to recruit good talent, but we have great players here,” Michigan defensive line coach Lou Esposito said. “Whether guys stay or leave, they’re going to have to make the decisions based on what’s best for their family and their future.

“I think we do have some great young talent. I think guys have taken huge steps here in the last month, month and a half — [senior] Ike [Iwunnah], [sophomores] Trey [Pierce], Enow [Etta] have all gotten better. [Senior defensive tackle Rayshaun] Benny being banged up, coming back. All those guys have done great jobs.

“What they do after this season, they’re going to do what’s best for them and their family. And they’ll meet with [head] Coach [Sherrone Moore] and myself, and we’ll go over it. But right now, it’s just one game mentality, one day mentality. We talk about the ‘JOT’ all the time — just one thing. What are they going to do today to get better to beat the next opponent.”

Junior EDGE Derrick Moore has provided big-time snaps this season, starting for the first time in his career. He has 26 pressures — third on the team behind only Graham (32) and Stewart (29) — and has contributed 19 tackles, 4 stops for loss and 2 sacks. Benny, meanwhile, has been productive, racking up 25 tackles, 2.5 stops for loss and 1.5 sacks in eight games, coming off an injury he suffered last postseason.

Esposito said Michigan would love to have both Benny and Moore back.

“Absolutely. Those are guys that are great players for us, great playmakers,” he said. “We don’t really have like, hey, this is the No. 1 guy [in terms of who they want to retain]. We have above the line, and all those guys are above the line. Any of the guys that have played for us, that have been successful and would benefit them one way or the other, we’re gonna try to help them make that decision. But you’d love to have those guys back.”

Esposito, Michigan’s first-year defensive line coach, noted that while both Moore and Benny don’t have the gaudiest numbers, they’ve been extremely effective.

“Benny, every time he’s out there, he’s making plays,” he explained. “He’s productive. He’s tough, he’s physical. I think he plays with an unbelievable emotion. He’s a high-energy guy.

“And then D-Mo is the same way. You watch D-Mo, we laugh all the time because you get all these guys with all these sacks. Every single one of them — maybe not every one, 90 percent of them — it’s D-Mo knocking his guy back, and the quarterback is trying to escape, and he escapes into somebody else.

“So D-Mo causes a lot of that stuff. He’s an unbelievable player. He does a great job with his hands, he’s physical at the point of attack. All those negative runs, you watch him, he’s flattening the run wall out. He’s a great player for us.”

Lou Esposito makes the case for Mason Graham to win individual awards

Graham is a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award, handed out to the best defensive player in the country, and the Lott IMPACT Trophy, presented to the “college football defensive IMPACT player of the year.” IMPACT stands for Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.

Esposito was asked to make the case for the Michigan star to take home some big-time honors.

“He does an unbelievable job of taking care of his body to put himself in the best situation,” Esposito began. “And football IQ … he’s one of the best I’ve ever been around. Like literally, he can recite calls from two years ago when he was a freshman. He can talk about blocking schemes, he can talk about pass protection, he can talk about how people are trying to attack him, how people are trying to get his hip.

“Unbelievable how his hand placement is. I tell him all the time, he’d be a great coach. He’s going to be a great coach, whenever he does get done playing football.

“The biggest thing for him that he does, to me, if you watch him, watch how he plays with leverage. The football stuff and pre-snap, all of those reads are great. But watching him play with leverage, he is always lower than the guy, he always has great hands.

“He does an unbelievable job with his feet, and he’s the first one to come off the field, and he’ll say, ‘Coach, my base was too tight.’ Or, ‘Coach, he banged my hip.’ Or, ‘Coach he did this.’ It’s unbelievable. His football IQ is second to none.”

Grant is similar in that way, Esposito continued, adding that both remind him of Los Angeles Rams defensive end Braden Fiske in terms of IQ. Fiske was coached by Esposito at Western Michigan, before he transferred to Florida State and became a second-round pick.

“I had the Fiske kid who’s now starting for the Rams as a rookie, and it’s the same thing,” Esposito said. “Their football IQ is so high. They dissect plays before it goes on. That’s why he’s a great player.

“And so is Kenneth. Big KG does a great job with it, too. Those older guys have seen so many blocking schemes and so many different types of football game plans around them, that they do a great job with hit.”