I attended the Sound Mind Sound Body camp at Dakota High School last Friday and had the chance to speak with a number of Michigan commits and targets. Today’s interviews include Michael Onwenu, who committed to Michigan earlier this month, and Corey Malone-Hatcher, a Michigan target with an impressive offer list.
Malone-Hatcher was unable to compete at the camp due to an administrative mix up, but Onwenu did and was dominant. You can check out a brief clip of Onwenu’s one-on-one drills here.
Michael Onwenu, 2016 OG/DT
[Bill Rapai/MGoBlog]
Adam: How do you feel you did on the field today?
Onwenu: I feel I did okay. You know, you can always improve. I wanted to take more reps. I didn’t lose any reps but I wanted to take as much as I could.
Adam: I watched you in your O-line one-on-ones, but I didn’t see you take any D-line reps. Did you at some point today?
Onwenu: No, I didn’t. I wanted to, but the way they set it up it was like you had to rotate through so if I would have left it would have been…I don’t know, it would have been hard to go both ways.
Adam: In college, do you want to play on both sides of the ball?
Onwenu: If I could, I wish.
Adam: What have the Michigan coaches told you about that?
Onwenu: They haven’t told me anything yet about that. They just say when you come in freshman year and I work out at whatever I work out at and whatever I feel comfortable at, then that’s my choice.
Adam: What are your goals for the summer?
Onwenu: Shed about 20-25 pounds and just improve on everything.
Adam: What kind of feedback were you getting from the coaches out here today?
Onwenu: Well, I mean, all the coaches said I did good throughout the drills and one-on-ones. I got some good feedback.
Adam: Overall, what was your experience at this camp?
Onwenu: Overall this camp was good. I like- actually, I love Sound Mind Sound Body. Coming from the last two years, my sophomore year and junior year, and then this year, it’s been a great experience every time.
[After THE JUMP: Malone-Hatcher]
Corey Malone-Hatcher, 2017 WDE
Adam: What are your plans this summer? What other visits do you plan on taking and what others camps will you be going to?
Malone-Hatcher: We’re trying to work out details right now but we’ll get down to Alabama. I don’t know if we’ll camp just because our summer’s packed full of camps, but we’ll definitely get down there to visit. We’ll get down to Florida State, too; they’ve been hitting us up a lot. Texas A&M wants us to come down real bad so if we can squeeze them in we should be able to get down there soon. So it’s going to be pretty chaotic, but chaotic is always fun when it comes to recruiting. You never want it to get slow.
Adam: As far as Michigan’s concerned, who’s recruiting you?
Malone-Hatcher: I talk to coach Mattison a lot. Really I talk to everybody. I mean, I talk to Jay [Harbaugh] on a pretty consistent basis, talk to coach Durkin. They’ve been putting in a ton of work as far as my recruiting goes. They work hard. So we’re just blessed with the opportunity and we’re going to make the best out of it.
Adam: What can you tell me about the coaches’ recruiting style?
Malone-Hatcher: They’re excited. They bring a whole new level of energy that is completely untapped into as far as college recruiting goes. They have this motivation and this drive about them that’s almost insane. You see people criticize them all the time for it but really they stand out. It sets them apart, so definitely I’m excited for them.
I want to see what they do as far as the season comes. They definitely have to show on-field production, but they’re in a good spot for me right now, as well as Penn State’s in a good spot, Notre Dame is in a really good spot. I’m getting this picture in my mind of what I want to see in a coaching staff and what kind of team I want to be a part of and so I’m going to apply it. I’m out of my dream phase. Everything’s not sparkly and what you want it to be so you can kind of weave through the BS a little bit, for lack of a better term.
Michigan’s very sincere. They’re very honest with what they expect you to do, what they expect me to be able to do, and what they think I will be able to do when they’re done with me, so we’re excited for that opportunity.
Adam: What does that picture look like of the coaching staff that you want to play for?
Malone-Hatcher: Just homegrown. Anybody who knows me, I travel to all my visits with my whole family. We're just really tight, we’re close knit. I can never take any credit for all my success I have right now. I wouldn't be anything without my family. I definitely appreciate them a lot so I want to be able to…I'm going to be homesick but I want to kind of try to nullify that a little bit with a coaching staff that's close and that you can call when you need to talk to somebody or you can talk to about anything, really. That's kind of the picture I'm getting in my head; we’ll see how everything works out over the next few years.
Adam: And for you personally, what are your goals for the summer as far as on-field things you want to work on?
Malone-Hatcher: Really just playing aggressive. Physically I've been developing into an athlete. I mean, I wasn't born with a 4.3 40 and 287 pounds and 6’7, but I'm finally starting to come into an athletic standpoint where I can just physically dominate on the football field so I'm looking to tap into that.
I want to make sure I can be a leader on the football field and for my team and in workouts and just keep on grinding. We've got a long road ahead of us. I got hurt last season and leadership kind of fell through, so not only do I have to worry about leading as far as the whole team, I have to train other leaders on our team to stand out just in case something does happen, God forbid. I want to be able to have somebody else step into that position because I can still lead from the sideline but it's not going to be the same, being a middle linebacker to being on the sidelines. I'm always going to yell but I also want somebody in the game too. God forbid that happens, but you can expect next year that I'll have somebody on our team that will step up.