Life for the nation’s No. 1-rated prospect has been boiled down to the bare necessities since arriving on Michigan’s campus last week: eating, sleeping and working out.
Freshman defensive tackle Rashan Gary decided to get a brief jump start on his college career this month and has been acclimating by keeping things as simple as possible. Gary graduated from Paramus Catholic in New Jersey, where his new head coach Jim Harbaugh gave the commencement address, less than two weeks ago. Gary left shortly thereafter to get situated on campus. He said he has spent most of his time since in the dorms or talking with defensive line coach Greg Mattison.
“To be honest, I’ve been so tired lately with these workouts,” Gary said Saturday afternoon while stopping by a Michigan camp for high school prospects. “I’ve just been relaxing my body and talking to Coach Mattison. I’m about to go see him and then get a little workout in. After that I’m going back to the dorm and going to sleep. That’s how my routine is.”
The 6-foot-4, 290-pound blue-chipper said he has been studying Michigan’s playbook for months now but is excited to get to work out with his new teammates and fellow defensive linemen.
The rest of Michigan’s incoming freshmen aren’t scheduled to land in Ann Arbor until the end of this week. Summer classes don’t begin until June 29, which means the biggest adjustment Gary has had to make to college life so far is the 5 a.m. start time for team workouts. He decided there was no reason to wait an extra couple weeks to get used to a new schedule. I finished up with high school and I was like, 'Why not come to a great place like this already?'” he said. “I’ve been here working and just walking around campus getting a feel for everything, then going to workouts and getting my body ready.”
Gary adds another layer of talent to a defensive line that was not shy about projecting itself as the best defensive front in the nation this spring. Gary probably will start on the interior of the line, squeezing in next to the likes of Ryan Glasgow and Bryan Mone for as many reps as he can get.
Mone missed all of last season with a broken leg, and Glasgow’s pectoral injury in November kept him sidelined for most of the team’s spring work. Both linemen are expected to be healthy for the start of Michigan’s fall camp on Aug. 8, and both are considered some of the top players on the Wolverines’ defense when healthy. The addition of Gary provides another layer of the depth at the point of attack.
Gary also continues the string of highly touted New Jersey players who have found their way to Michigan in recent years. Linebacker Jabrill Peppers and Juwann Bushell-Beatty are both fellow Paramus Catholic graduates. All three were coached in high school by current Wolverines linebackers coach Chris Partridge. Including Gary, five of the Garden State’s top recruits in the 2016 class will be playing at Michigan this fall.
The blue-and-maize invasion has not gone over well with the Rutgers’ faithful in New Jersey. A group of Rutgers students let Harbaugh know he was less than welcome in their state during a camp at Paramus earlier this month. Gary, who attended the camp and spent most of the day shadowing Mattison, said he didn’t see any of the bumper-sticker warfare. He was happy, though, to see the pipeline from Jersey to Michigan continue rolling.
“Shoot, yeah,” he said. “N.J. to Two-A, we’ve got to get that started. … You feel close right away [on Michigan’s team] if you’re from Jersey.”
Gary said he already has set some goals for his rookie season but didn’t plan on revealing them yet. He’ll have a couple of weeks of a head start on reaching them when the rest of his classmates arrive this weekend.