Michigan Defensive End Craig Roh On the Rise, Gaining Weight For the Season

Michigan junior defensive end Craig Roh started his career in the Maize and Blue as a 225 pound “tweener” who played something of a hybrid position for the Wolverines. Now, he is getting into a groove this offseason, and is up to 266 pounds from his 250 last season, and he wants to reach 270 pounds to improve as a strict power defensive end.

Roh had a paltry 2.5 sacks last season, but that number figures to skyrocket in 2011 as he is working extremely hard this offseason to improve his craft, both on and off the field.

Apparently Roh is eating five meals a day at a rough average of 1,000 calories apiece in order to increase his weight, and he says he’s gone a bit overboard at times:

“I’m eating 5,000 calories right now, which is like five 1,000-calorie meals,” he said. “It’s terrible. A couple nights ago, I actually threw up because I ate a 2,000-calorie meal. It was just way too much.”

With Roh going up against a ton of blue-collar, hard nosed offensive lines and dropping into coverage far less than he ever has before, it should be a huge advantage for him to have the extra weight:

“I think I’m going to be more of the D-line, rush position,” he said. “I’m (still) going to be dropping back some. You’re in the Big Ten, you need a little bit of weight to throw around. I still feel pretty good.”

Roh is currently ranked pretty low on our defensive end rankings, and as an underclassmen, he won’t have a ton of film for us to evaluate as far as the draft goes, so this season could be critical for him, and if he breaks out, he might consider leaving school early for a shot at the NFL. If not, he might be one of the top ranked defensive ends for the senior class of 2013.