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Michigan football players everywhere at NFL combine: Indy 'feels like Schembechler Hall'
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- Michigan football players everywhere at NFL combine: Indy 'feels like Schembechler Hall'
INDIANAPOLIS − The NFL combine is supposed to feel overwhelming. Players know they've arrived at a pivotal moment in their careers.
However, for a number of former Michigan football standouts − the Wolverines set a new NFL combine record with 18 invitees to this year's event − after having put their heads down to train for the event for more than a month, there is a bit of familiar in the unfamiliar.
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"It feels like Schembechler Hall around here," edge rusher Braiden McGregor joked Wednesday morning. "Everywhere I look, I mean to my right I got Jaylen (Harrell) , I see Mike (Barrett) all the time. I think the o-line gets in today, saw AJ (Barner) earlier. I mean everybody. Been training for what, four or five weeks? To see them again, it's awesome."
More: Michigan football didn't focus on transfer portal. But it made time to land Josh Priebe.
Braiden McGregor on Feb. 28, 2024 at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
McGregor and Harrell, standing at adjacent podiums, were up first Wednesday morning, two of five Wolverines scheduled on the defensive line and linebackers day, followed by Junior Colson , Mike Barrett and Kris Jenkins .
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Of course, it's not just the numbers of former maize and blue players on hand, but the location of where it's all happening. Indianapolis has played host to the event since it moved to the Hoosier Dome in 1987, and has also been home to the Big Ten's championship football game since the league split into two divisions in 2011.
While Michigan was unable to make the Big Ten title game in any of its first 10 years, it has since made up for it with a run of dominance no other team in the league has seen. U-M went 40-3 across the past three seasons, winning the Big Ten championship each season in Lucas Oil Stadium.
"Bro yeah, it feels like home," laughed Harrell. "I've been here three times. Walk in the stadium, look around, I kind of got that same feeling as when I was here in (December) playing Iowa ."
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Jaylen Harrell on Feb. 28, 2024 at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
Interviews for the week-long event are all taking place in the Indiana Convention Center; it's the same building (just one floor below) as the ballroom where the team sat in mid-December when it found out it would be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and play Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
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"Yeah that was right around here," Colson laughed. "But it's great to be out here, especially with your teammates. You got great camaraderie, you know, you're cheering them on so I'm excited to see what they do out there and see everything we can accomplish."
[ Michigan fans! Celebrate the national title with our two commemorative books: "Blue Reign " and "Maize & Grand " — order now! You can also buy commemorative wall art of the front page of the Detroit Free Press from the morning after U-M's historic championship. ]
Michigan linebacker Junior Colson tackles Washington running back Will Nixon during the second half of U-M's 34-13 win in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Houston on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.
There are 321 players at the event, which means one out of every 17.8 players (5.6%) played for Michigan last year.
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Nobody accomplished more in a maize and blue uniform than Barrett, a six-year player who finished as a captain and as the winningest player in program history .
He, and many of the recent Michigan athletes, walked around with their chest a bit puffed out, now that they completed the journey of becoming just the fourth team in the history of college football to finish a season 15-0 .
"How many guys we have here, crossing each other in the hallways, walking with each other, it's definitely a comfort," Barrett said. "It shows the kind of guys we had on the team, the kind of team we had. It shows we're the champs, we're the national champs for a reason. This is full display of that."
Jenkins, U-M's winner of its enthusiasm unknown to mankind award a season ago, who strolled to the podium with his trademark smile.
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He's one of a handful of U-M players − J.J. McCarthy , Colson, Zak Zinter , Mike Sainristil and Roman Wilson − thought to be a likely pick in the first two rounds , when the NFL draft comes to Detroit in late April. His eyes light up when he thinks about it.
Michigan defensive lineman Kris Jenkins waves at fans during the national championship celebration at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.
His fellow defensive lineman, Harrell, said personally "it's still a little more serious" this time around in Indianapolis, knowing it's not just a game, but the next chapter in their football story. Jenkins is well aware, too, which is why he's more than happy to be around so many teammates.
"It's awesome to see your teammates, the guys you trained with for four years," he said. "Seeing them all here, ready to grind with you, ready to go do their thing. It's that level of satisfaction, a level of greatness and pride you have when you're ready to see them ball out."
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It was a common sentiment.
"Everybody keeps saying 'man, you guys roll deep,'" McGregor laughed. "That was coach (Ben Herbert's) saying, so that's pretty cool."
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football players: NFL combine 'feels like Schembechler Hall'
