"Exit Interview" is a feature at WolverineNation where we chat with departing seniors from the Michigan football and men's basketball programs about their time in Ann Arbor in a Q&A format.
Previous Exit Interviews: FB John McColgan, CB Tony Anderson, DL Will Heininger, LB Brandon Herron, WR Jordan Barpal, TE Kevin Koger, WR Martavious Odoms, DT Mike Martin, DL Alex Schwab, OL Mark Huyge; DB Troy Woolfolk
Jared Van Slyke, the son of former major-league outfielder Andy Van Slyke, spent four seasons at Michigan, played two, almost had a chance to start but struggled throughout with injuries. In his career he made four tackles and broke up one pass. He got into some multiple defensive back sets for the Wolverines but mostly played on special teams.
The St. Louis native discussed his career, Michigan's resurgence, his injuries and what's next for him in a WolverineNation exit interview.
WolverineNation: When you look back at your Michigan career, what was your favorite moment?
Jared Van Slyke: “I think that’s pretty easy. My favorite moment has to be the Sugar Bowl win. When you’ve gone through as much as we’ve gone through for four or five seasons at Michigan, it was the greatest moment since we’ve been there. Going through difficult times, it made it that much sweeter.”
WN: Was there a point where you thought you wouldn’t get there?
JVS: “We had our doubts. Anybody who said they didn’t is lying. When you lose as bad as we did for as long as we did for two or three years and 7-6 isn’t winning, it’s certainly not winning at Michigan, it’s frustrating. After coach Rod’s third year, they hired a new coaching staff. It was a little nerve-racking but we believed in the new coaching staff and start of spring ball, summer, early in the season, you kind of got that feeling we’d be a good team and that’s when you started to have hopes again.”
WN: What gave you that feeling?
JVS: “When we played well in the spring game last year it kind of resonated with us, that we could be a good team this year if we could play some defense because we hadn’t played defense in a few years. So when you know that your team is going to play good defense, you know you have a chance to win every game. That gave the entire team, not just the defense, the confidence going into this year.”
WN: You say you haven’t played defense for four years. How bad was it? Would you wonder what you were doing?
JVS: “When you try to be a good teammate and try to be a good kid, you just put all your trust in your coaches and that’s what we did for two years. That’s what we did with (Scott) Shafer and Coach (Greg) Robinson. We put our trust in them and they were good coaches but things just weren’t panning out. I’ve been on teams where kids just complain and 'this isn’t working and this coach sucks.' Instead of complaining, we just looked at each other and said, ‘The coaches aren’t playing, we have to go out there and play.’ Our scheme wasn’t what we liked it to be, but we just had to go play. When Coach (Greg) Mattison came in, we had that mindset that we were going to put our faith in and that’s what turned us around. We finally had a scheme that suited our personnel a lot more than it had in the past.”
WN: Flipping things, what was your toughest moment at Michigan?
JVS: “When I got hurt last year. I don’t like to make it sound it worse than it was, but there was a pretty good chance I was going to start against UConn in the first game, the opener. I spent two years battling my way up the depth chart, got in there battling with the ones and we come in on Monday and coach (Tony) Gibson said, it was game week of UConn and says, ‘You keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll have a good chance to start this weekend because we feel comfortable with you.’ The next day, full pad practice, I break my collarbone and had to have surgery. Not only was that probably the lowest moment of my career, but it was the most frustrating moment of my life.”
WN: Did you feel like your chance of playing evaporated at that point?
JVS: “I didn’t want to believe it but being realistic with myself, coming into this year having to sit all of last year, if I was a coach I would be thinking to myself, ‘This kid hasn’t started a game, he’s been hurt a couple times since he’s been here, we have all this great young talent coming in and (Jordan) Kovacs, who is sturdy, and Tom (Gordon) and Carvin (Johnson) and Marvin (Robinson), all these guys who can play a little bit. I didn’t let my confidence waver because I knew I had the talent and the work ethic and I played as hard as I could, as well as I could. I’m not going to sit here and complain. Tom and Jordan played well and Troy (Woolfolk) did a great job back there."
WN: What’s next for you?
JVS: “I want to be a coach. I’ve been in touch with Coach Rod, been in touch with Coach Hoke. We’re going to try and find me a GA spot somewhere good and move on for good. I am meeting with Coach Hoke about maybe coaching this spring, being a student assistant. That’s the direction right now. I’m not going to say that’s 100 percent what I’m going to do, but it is something I can start.”
WN: Did you always want to coach?
JVS: “When my football playing career didn’t pan out as I dreamed it would, maybe playing in the NFL or pros after college, I just thought it was a great alternative. Something I would be fairly good at, passionate about. I just couldn’t see myself getting away from football just yet. It lingered over me for a few years and later in my career I started thinking more about it and thought it would be a good place to start after school.”
WN: When you look at your career personally, were you happy with the way it turned out?
JVS: “Personally, no. I don’t care who it is, what school they went to. Every kid is a competitor and wants to play a lot. I got to play in special teams and in dime package every now and again but what it comes down to is I had to sit out my first year, sit out my second year because I was hurt. I played my redshirt sophomore year. Then I break my collarbone and got to play this year. So I look back on my career and I played two years and both years I didn’t really crack into the lineup as much as I would like to. As much as I would have liked to play a lot more, I wouldn’t trade my experience at Michigan for anything because of where we started and where we finished. That’s an accomplishment that seniors at Michigan, it’s a standard now and it’s going to be hard to top that, hard to top what we did as a senior class. I’m proud to be a part of that.”