Given the opportunity to speak to reporters for the first time since the season began, Jordan Glasgow wanted to set the record straight: He is not a serial killer.
The redshirt freshman safety was forced to take a defensive stance a day after fifth-year senior offensive lineman Kyle Kalis was asked to compare Glasgow to his older brothers and fellow Wolverines Ryan and Graham — the former, a standout fifth-year senior defensive lineman, and the latter, an offensive lineman who now plays for the NFL’s Detroit Lions.
“So Jordan kind of reminds me of like a serial killer,” Kalis said. “Because he’s like really quiet, like has that side of Graham, but also on the field, like crazy. Like I’ve been playing before and all of a sudden, Jordan will come hit me in my back, and you’re like, ‘What the hell?’ ”
That intensity has come out for Glasgow on special teams, where he has become what Ryan called a “heat-seeking missile.” After an exceptionally strong performance against Rutgers, he was named Michigan’s special teams player of the week.
Like his older brothers, Glasgow joined the Wolverines as a preferred walk-on with few expectations. But as they did before him, Glasgow has had no trouble finding playing time early in his career.
Does he really have a serial killer mentality, though?
“I wouldn’t use those choice words to describe me, primarily, but I guess other people describe you better than you describe yourself,” Glasgow said. “I don’t know if Kyle’s words are the best — maybe you can ask someone else. And hopefully you’ll ask someone else.”
Ryan Glasgow admitted that his brother does come off a little quiet at first, but he hasn’t always been that way. Though the youngest Glasgow has always been significantly smaller than his brothers — even now, he stands 100 pounds lighter than both of them and has teammates joking that he must have been adopted — he always wanted to be in the middle of things.
The result, of course, was a fairly typical brotherly relationship, with the elder brothers prone to picking on and roughhousing with Jordan. The worst incident, which Ryan still feels bad about to this day, was a backyard footrace that ended with Ryan tripping Jordan, causing the youngest Glasgow (who was around six years old at the time) to break his hand.
Around the same time, a bike race between the two ended with Ryan flying over Jordan’s bike, landing on his face and knocking out one of his front teeth.
Though Jordan took the brunt of the usually-friendly punishment growing up, he feels like he came away better off for it.
“I endured some physical, some mental (abuse),” Glasgow said, smiling. “What they would always say, before I came to college, is it made me stronger. Maybe that’s an excuse that they made for doing it, but I genuinely believe that it made me stronger, and it not necessarily allowed me, but it aided me in becoming the person that I am now.”
It may not have been easy growing up as the youngest child with two linemen as older brothers, but Glasgow certainly seems to have adopted the same work ethic. Despite having to deal with all the rigors of playing and studying at a Big Ten university without a scholarship to show for it, Glasgow has found a way to make himself stand out.
Of course, it’s helped having Ryan on campus, who has learned a thing or two from Graham about how to make it as a walk-on.
“The best advice I got from Graham was (to) just keep pushing,” Ryan said. “The chips might not fall your way, you might have a bad day now and then, but keep pushing, keep going. As a walk-on, you get treated pretty similarly, but sometimes you might feel as if you’re slighted.
“So, ‘Make it so they can’t ignore you’ is the biggest thing Graham said to me. And I told Jordan that — just keep performing every day and do your job, and good things will happen.”
So far, good things are happening for Jordan rather quickly. If he maintains his current level of production, he just might be the third straight Glasgow to earn a Michigan scholarship despite entering school a walk-on. Considering the example his brothers have set, it might be more surprising if he didn’t.
“I always laughed,” Ryan started, “and said, ‘When will college coaches learn?’ ”