Kwity Paye Sensing Breakout Seasons From Luiji Vilain, Ryan Hayes
Heading into the 2020 season, Michigan is set to feature two of the best defensive ends in the Big Ten on its roster in Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson. Those two players are a big reason why U-M is thought of as a team where the defense might carry the squad to a couple victories this fall.
"The strength of this defense, I'm thinking the D-Line," Paye said on Thursday. "Honestly, I think we're the most experienced. I would say we have the oldest guys on our defense."
While the defense may be filled with veteran players such as Paye and Hutchinson or Cameron McGrone and Josh Ross, Paye has noticed that a few younger defensive ends are really making strides during fall camp to provide some much needed depth at that position.
"I think the guys that we've been seeing a lot in practice are Taylor Upshaw, we've been seeing a lot of Luiji [Vilain] and we've been seeing Julius Welschof, so I feel like those three guys have worked their way into the rotation a lot more," Paye said. "[Liuji] has been great, you know? He's been great in the past, but this year I feel like [Luiji] is real hungry, and he has a lot to prove last year. It's something that we lacked last year with the rotation, but this year I think it'll be different."
Over the last couple seasons, Vilain has run into injury troubles that have kept him off the practice field for large chunks at a time. Battling through that disappointment is never an easy task, and it wasn't for Vilain, either.
"Me and Luiji are best friends," Paye said. "I'm always with him, and at times you could just see he was kind of frustrated and kind of down. I feel like if there's a harder working person than me, I would say it's Luiji. He made sure he took care of himself during his injury process. He made sure he took the treatment seriously and made sure he got back to where he needed to be, and now it's just the reps and getting the experience now. Luiji will be on his way up."
But now that Vilain is healthy and working out in practice, the 6-4, 253-pound pass rushing specialist is ramping up for what could be his breakout campaign. Vilain has caught the attention of Paye numerous times in recent weeks, so he might be in store for a big season as U-M rotates its ends in and out of games to keep their leg fresh.
However, those defensive linemen are not the only big men standing out in the trenches by Paye's measure. On the offensive line, Ryan Hayes is poised to accept a much larger role in 2020 as a bona fide Big Ten starter, and his development has been noticeable as well.
"Someone who has impressed me has been Hayes," Paye said. "We've talked about in the past how he's taken that leadership role on the offensive line and how he's been really determined to get better and improve, taking more reps in one-on-ones and just trying to do his best in everything he does, whether it's in the weight room, on the field, before practice stuff, after practice stuff. He's just trying to work his craft more and more."
Since Vilain, Upshaw, Welschof and Hayes are all turning in strong performances during fall camp, the big bodies up front on both sides of the ball should be a bit deeper this season than many would have predicted. Although those four players have very few starts between them, they have all been in the program for multiple seasons, and that should pay dividends when asked to contribute this fall.
How good will Michigan's offensive and defensive line play this fall? How do you think the practice battles between the two units are going? Let us know!
