It's a new age of college football. And on Oct. 14, Michigan announced it would be bringing in graduate cornerback Jeremiah Earby, along with tight end Alex Bauman, following a temporary restraining order by the Washtenaw County Circuit Court in Michigan.
Earby spent his first two collegiate seasons at Cal before spending the final two at Boise State. The Broncos were potentially considering bringing Earby back after the fifth-year injunction was signed, but Earby ultimately made his way to Ann Arbor.
Now, Earby has been with the Wolverines for a little more than two weeks. Already, he's jelling with the rest of the locker room and could potentially be seen out on the field for Michigan.
"He's jelled so well, especially with the corner group," safeties coach Tyler Stockton told media members on Wednesday. "He's joking around. If you were out at practice, you go, 'Wow, this guy's been here for a long time,' and he's only been here for a couple weeks or whatever it is."
In his first two seasons at Cal, Earby played in 24 games and made 10 starts, including seven starts his freshman year where he was an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention. Earby then started all 28 games at Boise State in two seasons and was an All-Mountain West Second-Team selection his senior year. As a senior, he had 60 tackles, four interceptions and 13 passes defended, and was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week twice.
The last two seasons while at Boise State, he also played under Stockton, who was the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the Broncos.
"He's a phenomenal, phenomenal kid, and that's probably the most important part of all this, that he is going to fit our culture," Stockton said. "From a football standpoint, he's played a lot of football, like a lot of the guys in the room. So you can just tell when he goes out there and practices, this kid's played a lot of football. He's picking up the defense very quickly because he's played so much football and he knows the situation he's in.
"The young guys know they got to step up their game. He's here to challenge all those guys as well."
Earby has yet to play a snap so far this season in the two games he's been on the team for. Every player has to take time to understand the defense, and for Earby, that learning process will have to be expidited if he wants to see the field.
But just like any player, no matter their amount of experience, a route for Earby to see the field sooner would be on special teams. And that's exactly what Stockton foresees could happen for Earby in the coming weeks.
"The first thing you can do to help the team out is play on special teams," Stockton said. "So hopefully, find a role for him on special teams to help those guys out. And obviously, the faster he picks up the defense, and the faster he performs in practice, we'll give him an opportunity to play on defense."
No matter what his role will look like the rest of the season, Stockton has been impressed by the attitude and approach Earby has taken throughout this tumultuous situation. He's had to pick up a defense on the fly and hasn't played a snap yet, despite being a highly accoladed player at his previous stops.
But what matters most for Earby is that the team is succeeding.
"He wants to help the team win," Stockton said. "That's why he came here, because he loves football and wants to continue to play football — and this is the opportunity for him to do that. He's going to do whatever it takes to help us win."
