Michigan football announces Big Ten Media Day travel party, sets date for first practice

Don't look now, but the college football season is nearly here.

The unofficial start in these parts, as always, is Big Ten media days in Indianapolis, which this year is slated for next week (July 26-27). Earlier this week, the Michigan football team announced the three players who will join coach Jim Harbaugh at Lucas Oil Stadium for the event — senior running back Blake Corum, senior defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and graduate defensive back Mike Sainristil.

After their availability, all that's between them and the start of the season is one long weekend. The Wolverines are scheduled to begin fall camp on Aug. 1 with their first day of practice scheduled for Aug. 2, U-M football spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed to the Free Press.

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MLive first reported so Wednesday afternoon.

As for the players Harbaugh elects to bring with him for the annual conference summit, it's almost always an indication of the next set of captains.

Three of U-M's four players in attendance last year — quarterback Cade McNamara, tight end Erick All and defensive tackle Mazi Smith — were named later named captains (though McNamara and All were both lost due to injury in the first month of the season). Only cornerback DJ Turner was not a captain, though he did develop into a second-round NFL draft pick.

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Although all three Michigan media days reps are tremendous in their own respects, everything starts with Corum, who was named Michigan's first unanimous All-American at running back since 1947, after 247 rushes for 1,463 yards (5.9 yards per carry) and 18 touchdowns.

En route to becoming a finalist for the Doak Walker Award (given annually to the nation's top collegiate running back) and All-Big Ten first-teamer, Corum ran for more than 100 yards and scored a touchdown in his first eight Big Ten games, including the matchup against Illinois in mid-November in which he tore his meniscus.

Effectively sidelined for the final three games of the season, he still finished among U-M's top 10 in single-season rushing yards. Instead of opting to leave for the NFL, Corum opted to return to leave a legacy in Ann Arbor. That happens in one of two ways — a Heisman Trophy or a national championship.

Jenkins, meanwhile, is the newest leader of the defensive line that continues to produce NFL draft picks.

Though he was productive as a junior, with 29 tackles and two sacks to earn all-Big Ten honorable mention, Jenkins is pegged to replace Smith, a first-round NFL pick in April, as the face of the defensive line.

After playing at 285 pounds a season ago, Jenkins has bulked up to more than 300 pounds in Ben Herbert's weight room this offseason and has been one of the first names out of coaches' mouths this offseason.

"The thing about him is the way he plays is the way we want all of our guys to play," defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said of Jenkins on "In The Trenches," U-M's football podcast, earlier this summer. "He plays really, really hard. He does all the little things right, like play after play after play after play.

"So his consistency, his physicality, I think we’ll see him make even more plays this year. I think we’ll see him get more opportunities as a pass rusher this year, which would be awesome to see.”

Sainristil, who also had NFL potential last season, opted to return to college to put more film together at nickel back. Sainristil was named a captain last year in the midst of his transition from wide receiver to defensive back and appears to be a shoe-in for a second straight selection.

In his first year as a full-time defender, Sainristil recorded 58 tackles, including 6½ for loss and two sacks, with an interception and eight pass breakups as he was named All-Big Ten honorable mention. While all three are favorites to land on all-conference (or perhaps All-America) teams by seasons end, it's not the main reason they were chosen to represent Harbaugh's program in the national spotlight.

That says just about everything about where Michigan football is headed, entering the 2023 season.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football has Big Ten media days picks; why that matters