Michigan safety Josh Metellus Balances Football And Family During Hurricane
It’s been a hectic last few days for sophomore safety Josh Metellus.
The Pembroke Pines, Fla. native has been busy preparing for Air Force’s triple option attack while keeping up with his family back home that has been dealing with Hurricane Irma.
He said Tuesday that his family got its power back that day and that he’s been talking to his mom on the phone every other day because she hasn’t been able to frequently charge her phone.
His younger brother is stuck out in Las Vegas with his football team, as the weather prevented travel back to Florida.
He said he’s had plenty of support from staff and coaches here at Michigan and that he and the other players from Florida have had each other’s backs.
“We all kind of came together for a couple days, just talking about how our families are doing and stuff like that,” Metellus said. “We’re always on each other.”
He’s been able to keep his mind mostly on football and this week’s opponent, Air Force.
“The triple option offense is a lot of deceiving plays, people going one way and the ball going the complete other way, but it doesn’t really affect us at the back end,” Metellus said. “All we have to do run to the ball and make sure we play our keys like any other week.”
He said the main thing the defense needs to do in order not to get beat is simply to keep paying attention on Saturday.
“Just not falling asleep,” Metellus said. “Keep focus on the run, keep focus on the run and then they hit us with a play-action. We just need to stay on our toes.”
He faced a triple option team once in high school and said his team handled it no problem.
Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown has been prepping for Air Force since the spring, because he didn’t want his players caught off guard with trying to learn the offense in less than a week.
“As safeties, we like to play the run, but we have to play the pass first,” Metellus said. “They have a couple good play-action plays that if you’re not paying attention or falling asleep, they’ll get you.”
Metellus also boasted on Tuesday that he is the fastest player on the defense.
“I’m pretty sure I’m the fastest,” Metellus said. “Ain’t no competition.”
Sophomore linebacker Devin Bush Jr. disagrees, saying that he, in fact, is the fastest player on defense without question, calling Metellus a liar. The two played in high school together, so the competition has likely been ongoing for years.
A Fan of the Show
Michigan announced on Tuesday that the football program has partnered with Amazon to make a documentary series on the 2017 season that will be released in January. Reaction from the players has so far been positive.
“The TV show is cool,” Metellus said. “I watched Last Chance U, and we were all talking about it because we all watched it together and I was like ‘that’d be a good thing to do for our team’ and one day coach came in a told us.”
Metellus said the camera crews are in Ann Arbor three times a week and follow players and coaches around essentially everywhere – even to class.
He says they normally stand outside the door so they aren’t interfering and that having the cameras around isn’t any kind of distraction because players are used to having attention on campus.
He noted that it isn’t the upperclassmen who seem to love being on camera, but rather the freshmen.
“They love the camera,” Metellus said. “You can just tell from all the videos we have, they just love the camera. Mostly the offensive players. They just love being the flashy type of guy, you know defense, we don’t really get that type of recognition because we play defense.”
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