Kechaun Bennett’s road to Michigan, outlook for 2022

Among the question marks looming for the Michigan Wolverines for the upcoming 2022 season is at edge rusher. Losing guys like Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo is never fun, and replacing their production is a huge challenge.

Guys like Mike Morris, Taylor Upshaw, Braiden McGregor and Jaylen Harrell are expected to step up this year, but another player to keep in mind is redshirt freshman Kechaun Bennett.

The story so far

Bennett came to Michigan as a Shaun Nua/Don Brown recruit hailing from Don Brown territory — Suffield, Connecticut. He was a four-star prospect as the No. 355 player in the country. His recruitment did not have much drama, as he committed to Michigan in May 2020 and signed his letter of intent during the early signing period in Dec. 2020. He held other offers from the likes of Notre Dame, Penn State, Ole Miss, Miami and more.

The unfortunate part about Bennett’s high school experience is that his senior season was wiped out due to the pandemic. Taking a year off football is never good for a football player’s body and conditioning, so it’s reasonable why he took a redshirt season with the Wolverines in 2021. He appeared in just one game last year in the blowout contest against Northern Illinois.

(Side note: I’m fairly certain everybody had at least one snap in that NIU game. It’s quite possible you, the reader, had an interception off Rocky Lombardi that day.)

Outlook for 2022

Right now, Bennett is behind guys on the depth chart like the aforementioned Morris, Harrell, McGregor and Upshaw. He’s also probably behind fellow redshirt freshman TJ Guy, who did get in a couple games last season and played pretty well.

Not much has been said about him up to this point this offseason, so don’t be surprised if Bennett takes another season to get acclimated and work his way up the depth chart. Perhaps this will be a different conversation next year, but I don’t envision a ton of playing time for him this season.