Jourdan Lewis admitted he watched the NFL draft without reflection or concern over not declaring early. And he had no thoughts about next year, when Lewis could be a first- or second-round pick.
"Not really," he said last week. "I've got to take it one day at a time. I'm really excited if I get drafted next year, but the next day is never promised. I've got to keep working. I have another year, my senior year to experience, so this year we'll see what happens."
Lewis is projected as one of the top cornerbacks in the 2017 draft class _ NFLDraftscout.com has him No. 4.
"You have to try to concentrate on what you're doing right now, you've got to focus on what you're doing right now in the present instead of focusing on the future," he said.
The second-team All-American is one of the most prominent players and team leaders on U-M's squad. While the summer 7-on-7 work is still some time away _ after finals a number of players went home for a bit _ he's trying to keep the cornerbacks sharp, given that spring practice ended six weeks ago.
"I've had some of the guys come in and work on the discretionary week," he said, adding Jeremy Clark and Channing Stribling have been in with him. "Just trying to get everybody in and just get the rust off. Not (just) legs or technique. Just making sure we'll be ready to go in the summer. That's just the role I play."
It's not difficult to get players to want to do the unsupervised summer workouts. They understand this team's potential.
"It's an upbeat, positive sense about it," Lewis said. "Everybody wants to work. That's what the difference was. They know if we do work, we can become something. We can become like the best team in the nation or something."
In Year 2 under coach Jim Harbaugh, the players know what the coaches expect from them when they begin fall camp.
"It started last year from seeing our progression from five wins, six wins to 10 wins and seeing how good we can be and that work actually does work," Lewis said.
As for who will be the quarterback _ Lewis didn't offer any hints.
Wilton Speight took the first-team snaps near the end of spring and was pushed by John O'Korn and Shane Morris.
"All of them compete," Lewis said. "It's so good that we haven't seen anybody separate yet. Everybody competes, everybody wants that job. It's always a good thing."
What are the differences?
"I just see if the receiver catches the ball or not," he said.
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