Cam Goode’s path to Michigan, outlook for 2023 season

It’s the Michigan spring game and the broadcast pans across the trenches where behemoths are going at it every play. Stature-wise, one man sticks out, and it’s 6-foot-2, 323-pound graduate student Cam Goode.

Goode is entering his second season with the Michigan Wolverines, but he’s looking to have a larger impact on an interior defensive line that should be among the best in the country.

The 2023 season has the potential to be an epic conclusion for Goode that included plenty of stops along the way.

The story so far

Goode started his college football career by committing to Virginia Tech as a three-star recruit in the 2018 class. But he requested to be released from his scholarship shortly after enrolling. Then, he chose to play for first-year head coach Josh Huepel as the UCF Knights were coming off a perfect 13-0 season.

Goode redshirted but began seeing rotational work for UCF between 2019 and 2021. In 2020, he had 7.5 tackles for loss, the second-most on the team. A year later, he forced four fumbles, tying for the 12th-most in college football. Overall, he appeared in 33 games in the three-year span.

After graduating from UCF, Goode had two years of eligibility remaining with his redshirt season and an extra COVID year, so he entered the transfer portal again and Michigan was quick to get in on the recruitment. He’s from the DMV area, so he had previous relationships with Blake Corum and Olu Oluwatimi, contributing to his decision.

Goode fit along the defensive line really well, but breakout seasons from Kris Jenkins and Mason Graham meant not as much playing time for him in 2022. Still, he appeared in nine games and compiled eight tackles.

Outlook for 2023

With Mazi Smith now in the NFL, I think there is more room for a people-mover like Goode on the defensive interior. He’ll mostly line up at nose tackle with few snaps outside the A gap.

An uptick in playing time is expected, and it sounds like Goode has been putting in the work. Here’s what defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said about him in April on the In The Trenches Podcast:

I’ve really been really really proud and really excited about Cam Goode and the improvements he’s made since the end of the season that he’s putting himself in a position to really be a contributor here as well.

But it won’t come without competition. Kris Jenkins, Mason Graham, Rayshaun Benny and Kenneth Grant are all going to see significant playing time for the unit as well. Goode will join them and be a part of the rotation, but it will be interesting to see the full snap counts by season’s end.