Michigan’s secondary may have found a new difference-maker in Chris Bracy, and the buzz around the transfer safety has only grown louder through fall camp.
Bracy, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound defensive back who arrived in Ann Arbor from Memphis in January, has quickly made himself impossible to ignore. Coaches and teammates have been talking him up all summer, and the expectation now is that he’ll open the season as a starter next to Rod Moore.
Bracy knows exactly what kind of impact he wants to make.
“I just try to be around the ball a lot. I’m trying to be a playmaker on this defense,” Bracy said.
“I want to be the guy that this defense looks to make plays. My coverage skills are pretty good as well.
I’m just trying to perfect my craft.”
That mentality has shown up in camp. Michigan wide receiver JJ Buchanan said Bracy keeps finding the football, no matter where it goes.
“(Bracy) just always ends up with the ball in his hands,” Buchanan said. “I swear, he has to have like four or five interceptions in fall camp, which is pretty crazy. He’s just a ballhawk out there.”
The production isn’t just a camp storyline, either. Bracy’s track record already shows a player who can affect the game in multiple ways.
Last season at Memphis, he flashed a versatile skill set, working sideline to sideline and consistently making plays on the ball. He also built a reputation as one of the country’s better open-field tacklers.
According to Pro Football Focus, Bracy posted a 91.5 run defense grade at Memphis, which ranked third among all safeties nationally. In his career, which also included two years at UAB before his one season with the Tigers, he has logged 116 total tackles, 11 pass deflections and two interceptions across 28 appearances.
That kind of experience is exactly why Michigan believes Bracy can fit so cleanly into the back end of its defense. Pairing him with Moore gives the Wolverines a safety tandem loaded with production and maturity.
“Chris just wants to play. He has a knack for the ball.
He’s always around the ball,” Moore said of Bracy. “He’s an older guy in the room.
He played at two other schools so that experience and leadership is what we needed.”
With the regular season approaching, Bracy has gone from transfer addition to one of the most talked-about names in camp. The next step is turning all that practice noise into results when it counts.
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Michigans New Passing Buzz Is Starting A Real Fall Camp Debate
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Buchanans optimism has fit neatly with the broader mood around camp, where Michigan has been drawing notice for the talent on hand and the energy around the new group. He has been quick to credit the coaching staff as well, another sign that the early impressions have been positive on both sides of the ball. The bigger question, of course, is how all of that translates once the real games begin, and whether the buzz around the passing attack turns into something the Wolverines can count on when the season starts. [Read more 🡒]