After spending two years with Michigan football, former five-star defensive lineman Aubrey Solomon has decided to transfer.
It’s been a tough year for Aubrey Solomon. He began the season as a favorite to start on the Michigan defensive line, but tore his meniscus just two games into the year.
The former five-star from Leesburg, Ga., was on track to be a star for Michigan’s vaunted defense, but played in just a couple of games as a sophomore. Still, the future seemed bright for a kid who was ranked No. 23 overall in his 2017 recruiting class.
However, the bright future will take place elsewhere as 247Sports‘ Steve Lorenz reported on Monday that the Wolverines had granted Solomon a release from the program as he will look to transfer. He becomes the eighth 2017 class member to leave the program due to transfer or retirement, which could raise some red flags.
What does this departure mean for Michigan’s defensive line, though?
Don Brown, assuming he remains at Michigan and doesn’t entertain other head coaching jobs, has done an excellent job with just about everyone thrown his way. Unfortunately, he’ll be losing Rashan Gary, Chase Winovich, Lawrence Marshall and Bryan Mone on top of Solomon.
This leaves the line as thin as it’s been in quite some time but Kwity Paye, Carlo Kemp and Michael Dumfour will be back.
The defensive end spots will be just fine with Paye, Kemp and even a young guy like Aidan Hutchinson competing for time, but the interior has taken a huge hit.
Solomon’s departure is big with all the departures already and the defensive tackles may be as thin as they’ve ever been under Brown and Jim Harbaugh.
Still, no one should ever bet against a Brown-led defense as he’s one of the best at what he does in college football.