Don Brown had a favorite joke he would tell Chris Hinton last year.
Michigan football's defensive coordinator would walk up to the then-freshman defensive tackle and ask: 'What would you rather be — a slug, or a bullet?'
The latter was the right answer in Brown's eyes.
"I want him to be a bullet," Brown said.
As it stands, Hinton is getting closer to fulfilling Brown's wish. Brown has seen Hinton improve his short-area quickness and change of direction. And he isn't the only defensive lineman to have made a notable improvement.
"We’re so much better up front in the front seven," Brown said Wednesday afternoon during a Zoom call.