Just a few months ago, Jayden Sanders was intent on standing out.

The freshman defensive back didn’t know how many snaps he was going to play when he started practice with the No. 21 Michigan football team in the summer.

Most freshmen don’t know, and most freshmen don’t play. But that didn’t stop Sanders — a four-star defensive back prospect in high school who was determined to excel — from trying. He stayed late at Schembechler Hall, watched as much film as he could and dedicated hours to poring over the playbook.

A summer enrollee, Sanders came in at the bottom of the depth chart, below some of his fellow freshmen who officially joined the program in the spring. Soon enough, his play in practice became hard to ignore.

“I seen it from the start of fall camp, when he got here,” junior

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