ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines offensive and defensive coordinators Jason Beck and Jay Hill opened fall camp media availabilities on Wednesday to discuss several topics. Among them were some of the freshmen generating buzz ahead of their first seasons in Ann Arbor.

That topic has revolved around the arrival of tailback Savion Hiter, who joined the program as a five-star signee back in the winter. He’s positioned himself for an early role in a backfield tandem with junior Jordan Marshall, and his OC thinks all of the hype is warranted.

“There’s been a lot of buzz around Savion and deservedly so,” Beck said Wednesday. “And a lot of times you can get the buzz in the recruitment, but he showed up here and is what stands out. He has talent. When you meet him and see him, he’s an impressive-looking kid physically. But what stands out about Savion is he just works so hard all the time. Like there’s no such thing as not full speed with that kid. I mean, it’s just full-speed effort all the time.

“He makes a splash from day one because he’s in there; he’s in his way. He’s not like dipping the toe in and taking one step in the pool. He just cannonballs in, and it’s full go. And my experience is when you have freshmen that are that way, they have a chance to play early. Whereas some freshmen are, they’ve got to find themselves and how this whole college football thing works. So he’s been, yeah, been impressive.”

Hiter is not the only potential freshman contributor on offense for the Michigan program. A pair of first-year players could also affect the depth chart at wide receiver – and tight end – behind sophomores Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan.

“Other freshmen that are standing out in the receiver room, there’s some competition going on there,” Beck said. “Travis Johnson, Salesi Moa… [Jaylen] Pile was out. He’s been working, but he’s a little more limited today. But those guys stand out as they could have a chance to play this year. [Tight end] Mason Bonner and a couple of our O-linemen just showed up this summer. So we’re still trying to get our first look at those guys. So it’s really early to tell with them. But JJ was that way at Utah for us. He showed up in the summer and didn’t work with him until fall camp. That was the first time we saw him. He just made some plays early on and started at UCLA, first game at the Rose Bowl, week one, started.

“So that can happen. But if you show up, mindset, aggressive, making plays, then there’s a place for you on the field.”

Michigan’s potential freshman contributors extend beyond the offensive side of the ball. Hill sees a path to the field for all four defensive linemen in the 2026 class, including five-star freshman EDGE Carter Meadows.

The other three: Alister Valejo, Titan Davis and Tariq Boney, have a shot, too.

“There are four freshman D-linemen who joined us,” Hill said. “… Those four guys have very bright futures. We’re going to try to get them on the field right away. They’ve got a lot to learn about our defense, about techniques and schemes and all that stuff. But those are four good gets that we’re glad we have, and they’re going to have very bright futures at Michigan.”