Throughout the Michigan football team’s fall camp, junior linebacker Jaishawn Barham was lauded for his imposing physicality. The transfer from Maryland was compared to a brick wall as his offensive teammates noted how hard his hits were and how difficult it was to block him. At 6-foot-3, 250-pounds, Barham is a physical specimen. And when he makes contact, opponents feel it.
But he’s also faced a steep learning curve playing in a new system. When he misses his assignments altogether, it doesn’t matter how hard he was going to hit because the damage has already been done.
“He’s gotten better every week,” linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said Wednesday. “I know it doesn’t always show on the stat sheet or sometimes on the video, but he’s getting more comfortable in the system. Think he’s making a lot more tackles within the system.”
In his most recent game against Minnesota on Saturday, Barham made six total tackles — including one for loss — which came directly after he committed a roughing the passer penalty. Moving the Golden Gophers back a yard didn’t exactly erase the 15 yards his penalty allowed them to gain, but it showed the duality of his play — how his physicality manifests in ways both good and bad.
Playing back in coverage, Barham has been similarly hit-or-miss. Michigan’s defensive scheme requires its linebackers to be versatile because the Wolverines mix up coverages so often. As a newcomer to the system, Barham is learning, meaning there have been plenty of bumps along the road.
“I know sometimes the film says he’s out of position, but there’s a lot of film of him in position,” Jean-Mary said. “That’s why the ball isn’t getting thrown, but you don’t get credit for that. We’re working on him. He’s got to keep improving, and I think we got to affect the passer from a coverage aspect at linebacker a little more.”
Barham’s routine plays in coverage go unnoticed because when he’s doing his job correctly, the ball doesn’t come his way. His mistakes are much more noticeable because opponents tend to capitalize for decently-sized gains. But Jean-Mary sees the mishaps as simple fixes in which Barham is almost in the right spot and just needs to finish the play.
“I thought he was in position a couple times,” Jean-Mary said. “And some of those underneath passes, in particular the fourth down, where, if he knows where it’s going and cheats a little bit toward there, the ball doesn’t get completed.”
The fourth down referenced was a 12-yard pass for Minnesota that Barham was inches away from having a chance to break up. If he had anticipated where he needed to be a split second earlier, he could’ve had a crucial fourth-down stop.
Barham wants to make those types of game-changing plays, and each week he’s getting closer to making them. As a player with such impressive physical attributes, Barham wants to put them to better use.
“I think he gets frustrated,” Jean-Mary said. “He’s a dynamic guy when it comes to pressuring the quarterback, and people are IDing him, which I tell him is part of it. It helps free up some of the other guys on defense. And that’s one of the things that happens when you’re a good player, and especially as explosive as he is. But he’s been doing a better job of playing within the framework of the defense.”
In his first year at Michigan, Barham has been thrust into a new system, and it’s taking him time to adjust despite his physical talents. Jean-Mary sees Barham embracing the challenge and improving week by week. As Barham continues to develop within the Wolverines’ scheme, the hard hits his teammates spoke so highly of throughout fall camp are likely to become a regular occurrence on Saturdays.
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