Experience paying dividends for linebacker Hausmann
Linebacker Ernest Hausmann arrived at Michigan just more than a year ago, after a promising freshman season at Nebraska. After spending last season sponging knowledge from starting linebackers Junior Colson and Mike Barrett, he knows it’s his time to lead the position.
Hausmann, a 6-foot-2, 237-pound junior, had 46 tackles for the Wolverines, ranking third on the team, and as a backup to Colson and Barrett, he gained multiple layers to his game, playing inside and outside.
“Last year’s experience paid a lot of dividends for myself, being able to play both positions,” Hausmann said Thursday during a break in spring practice. “Being able to play both made me more versatile. We’ll see what position and how often I’ll be switching (this season), but the plan and goal is for me to play at one position going into a game. But obviously, being versatile allows you to have more options.”
He knows what it’s like to transfer into the program and is helping Jaishawn Barham, who joined Michigan from Maryland, navigate the move. He’s also learning from a new position coach, Brian JeanMary, Hausmann’s third position coach in a year. Actually, George Helow recruited him from Nebraska, but he was first coached at Michigan by Chris Partridge, then Rick Minter later in the season, following Partridge’s firing, and now Jean-Mary is his coach.
“It’s definitely not an
ideal position coming into a program that you hope and dream of when you come to a school,” Hausmann said. “But at the end of the day, you have two options, really. You can look at it as an opportunity or you can look at it as a downfall. For me, I look at it as an opportunity because with that, you can see different perspectives because each coach brings something different to the table.
“For me, it’s a blessing to be able to see each coach and how they’ve been throughout the years coaching other players,” Hausmann said. “You get these tidbits from each coach because, obviously, you’re never going to lose what you’ve been coached from the other position coaches. Adding more tools to the toolbox, because at the end of the day, when you’re out there on the field and it’s game time, you’re going to be the one that’s going to be able to control what you do. More tools are always better.”
He said he appreciates the way Jean-Mary sees
the game and having that ringside seat to a different perspective of how the position should be played and what he can learn.
“I’ve had a point of emphasis in being able to be more productive in the pass game, in terms of being more ball-disruptive,” Hausmann said. “He’s going to add a key component to that because that’s an area of my game I want to improve in.”
Hausmann said he absorbed plenty from Colson and Barrett. Barrett spent six seasons at Michigan, went through position changes — starting, not starting, starting again — and stuck it out.
“And ended up being a national champion,” he said.
Colson famously played the last several games of Michigan’s national championship season with a broken left hand suffered in early November against Purdue. He stayed in that game and went for X-rays later and then played with a club on the hand. Later in the season, he had a cast on the right hand, too.