Kornacki: How Devin Bush Has Evolved Into a Defender Who Seems to be Everywhere

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Devin Bush leads the University of Michigan football team in both tackles and pass breakups.

That is a mind-boggling combination -- being able to stick his nose in like the linebacker he is, but also dropping back into pass coverage and knocking down or grabbing balls. Bush has 89 tackles and eight pass breakups entering Saturday's (Nov. 25) home game with Ohio State, and no other Big Ten defender tops his team in both of those categories.

Bush's ability to impact the game in the trenches and passing lanes is one of the reasons he was announced Monday (Nov. 20) as one of five finalists for the Butkus Award given to the nation's top linebacker.

He's the only sophomore in the group that includes three juniors and one redshirt senior. Every finalist has between 60 and 93 tackles, but Wisconsin's T.J. Edwards (60 tackles, six pass breakups) is the only other one who has broken up more than three passes. Rounding out the talented group are Virginia Tech's Tremaine Edmunds, Clemson's Dorian O'Daniel and Georgia's Roquan Smith.

Bush, also tied for third on the Wolverines with five sacks, is the complete package in every way.

"To talk about the mental side of what Devin Bush brings -- he's outstanding," said Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh. "He's a product of a football family, both his dad and mom. And his sister (Deja) is a heck of an athlete, a softball player at Florida State.

"He's blessed by Mom, Dad and God with good athletic ability and strength, and also a pretty good mind. He's book smart. He's football smart."

His father, Devin Bush Sr., started as a sophomore safety on Florida State's 1993 national champions and played for the St. Louis Rams when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. He also was the head coach of the 2015 Florida state championship team at Pembroke Pines Flanagan that his son starred for while becoming a semi-finalist for the high school Butkus Award.

He was a reserve linebacker and special-teams standout as a freshman and now, as a 19-year-old sophomore, is considered one of the nation's top linebackers.

When Bush makes contact with a ball carrier, the end of the line arrives. He squares up and denies so much as an extra foot to the opponent with a combination of strength, technique and grit.

"He gets balance, position, strength and flexibility -- a lot of things," said Harbaugh.

Bush, 5-foot-11, 232 pounds, said he's "always been a linebacker" but also played running back for Flanagan High.

"At the position I play," said Bush, "you've got to focus a lot on upper-body and lower-body strength. That lower body work gives you the explosiveness, speed and quickness. It's about how much power you put into a hit from your legs. But you also want to develop your traps and neck, your shoulders and your chest. Your upper body maintains what you do on the field.

"I learned a lot of techniques once I got here -- power footing and hand placement and head placement -- and different techniques of tackling and blocking. So, I've just learned a whole lot of football in my time here. I learn something new every day."

Bush credits defensive coordinator Don Brown and special teams coordinator Chris Partridge, both of whom work with linebackers.

Still, where have his pass defense skills come from, since he's never played in the secondary?

"It's mostly my dad," said Bush, "and the way he trained me. My uncle, Davin Bush, was a corner for UCF and played a long time in the Canadian Football League. He's a personal trainer, too.

"But the way my dad trained me, he always taught me to be a cover guy. He stressed all my movements -- hip movement and foot placement and explosion. So, that's where I get all of that from."

Bush wears No. 10 to honor both his father and uncle. Both wore No. 11 in college, but that's retired at Michigan for the three Wistert brothers. So, he took "the closest thing to 11" he could find.

Devin Jr. loved football before he even went to kindergarten. He begged his father to play when he was 4 years old, and was finally allowed to do so at age 7.

What about the game has such a strong attraction for him?

"Once I got to play, it just became infectious," said Bush, "and I wanted to play so bad. I always loved football. I played baseball, basketball and did wrestling. But football was it for me."

Devin Sr. retired when his namesake was 4, and I asked Devin Jr. if he remembered anything from Dad's final season with the Cleveland Browns in 2002. He didn't recall anything specifically, but has vivid memories of being with his father at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Jan. 30, 2000, after the Rams' dramatic 23-16 Super Bowl victory over the Tennessee Titans.

"The one thing I do remember is asking to go on the field with him after games," said Devin Jr. "And I do remember the Super Bowl with the Rams because there was so much confetti in the air and a whole bunch of noise."

Wolverines center Patrick Kugler says people doubt Devin Bush's size, but "he brings a pop more than you would think."

He was only 18 months old, but the eye- and ear-popping celebration has stayed with him.

"It's funny," said Bush, "but growing up, I thought everybody's dad was a football player."

Mickey Andrews, the Florida State defensive coordinator, 1984-2009, was quoted as saying Devin Sr. "was the most complete player he had ever coached" among numerous elite talents he mentored for Bobby Bowden's powerhouse teams.

So, his son truly is a chip off the not-so-old block. His father, 44, saw to it that Devin Jr. was a "complete player," capable of much more than the crunching hits he supplies.

Bush anticipated Badger quarterback Alex Hornibrook's pass to tight end Troy Fumagalli and was in perfect position to make a big play last Saturday (Nov. 18). Bush jumped up and got the fingertips of both hands on the ball, briefly batting it up before grabbing it as he fell backward for an interception.

"It was one of those plays where you kind of get a little key," said Bush. "So, I knew he was trigger-happy over the middle, and I saw him run out to his right side. Then I saw his eyes, and I gave it that much more depth, and he threw it."

Brown was so happy that he tackled his middle linebacker in a joyful sideline moment.

"Having someone like Devin Bush playing beside me makes my job easier," said defensive end Rashan Gary. "Sometimes, we call blitzes with him coming off my back, and it's a fun time, getting where I need to be so he can hit the hole, and cause some havoc.

"So, you know, seeing him out there batting down passes and flying around making tackles, you know it's a fun sight to see, and I love playing with him."

Gary and Bush are roommates, but even Gary realizes that on game days Bush needs to be left alone. He enters his own world.

"He's one of those guys that you just walk by him," said Gary. "'I'm not talking to you today.'"

Safety Josh Metellus and linebacker Devin Gil, his classmates at Flanagan, are roommates just down the hall in the dorm from Bush and Gary. They all shared a house in Ann Arbor during the summer.

"Those are two of my brothers," said Bush. "They know and understand me, and I can talk about anything with those two. It just means everything to go through another whole chapter with these guys.

"Rashan and I clicked off the bat here. We're always together and talking with each other. Me, Josh, Gil and Rashan do everything together. We've got a little brotherhood going there. It's tight."

Bush just missed playing at Michigan with his brother, Wayne Lyons, a graduate transfer in 2015 who previously played cornerback for Stanford. But now he has the support of the "brotherhood," his parents and the panel that determined Butkus finalists.

Devin Jr. hits with a wallop that Butkus would be proud of, and he drops into pass coverage like a safety. He lines up in the traditional middle linebacker spot well off the line of scrimmage, steps up into gaps at the line and even splits wide to cover receivers.

Wolverines center Patrick Kugler prepares to counter Bush daily in practices, and has to be aware of where he's lining up in order to make calls on the offensive line.

"He's very athletic," said Kugler, "and people kind of doubt his size and everything. But I think his size gives him an advantage. You can't see him sometimes, and he brings a pop more than you would think. He's definitely one of our more physical linebackers, and definitely our most athletic one. So, he's very difficult to block."

No. 10 in the maize and blue makes an instant impression on opposing offensive coordinators watching videotape and scheming to move the ball. Bush seems to be everywhere, and there is no greater compliment for a defensive player.