Josh Uche talks evolution of Michigan’s brotherhood, overcoming ‘outside noise’

Michigan linebacker Josh Uche is a focused player on and off the field. How Uche carries himself in a press conference room and how he does on the gridiron is about the same. He’s intense, he’s focused, and he means business.

After Michigan’s win over 39-14, Uche talked about how the locker room has been able to weather early season storms. Michigan stands at 9-2, but with each of those two defeats this season, criticism came sharp and fast towards the Wolverines. That’s just the nature of being such a high profile program, there are always darts ready to be thrown at you.

Instead of letting the negativity consume the locker room, the Wolverines decided to strengthen their bond and pick each other up in moments where they could have psychologically deteriorated.

“We’ve been through adversity, lots of criticism, lots of opinions, coaches from the couch,” Uche said. “It just formed a lot of camaraderie amongst us. Just coming together, not worrying about the outside noise and just executing at a high level.”

Executing at a high level is what Michigan’s defense did today versus the Hoosiers, allowing just 321 yards of total offense. The only outside noise today will be positive frequencies sent in Michigan’s direction, Uche included after a great game where he had 5 tackles, 1 sack, and 1 forced fumble. There are cliches in sports, but then there are genuine comments that put into perspective the time and energy players put into a game watched by the masses each and every weekend during the fall.

“Those are my brothers out there, we love each other, we gotta depend on each other to make things happen,” Uche said. “If one person doesn’t do their job then the whole things collapses. Just to have that love, that trust, that faith in each other to make things happen, I feel like that’s how it’s evolved as the season has went on.”

Michigan’s in the middle of an impressive run of victories this past month, and their most daunting task is next week against the Buckeyes, but for a short period of time they’re going to enjoy what they accomplished against the Hoosiers on Saturday. But once Monday morning hits, it’s going to be all about Ohio State and how they can stop ‘em.