ANN ARBOR >> Linebacker Ernest Hausmann arrived at Michigan just more than a year ago, after a promising freshman season at Nebraska. After spending last season sponging knowledge from starting linebackers Junior Colson and Mike Barrett, he knows it’s his time to lead the position.

Hausmann, a 6-foot-2, 237-pound junior, had 46 tackles for the Wolverines, ranking third on the team, and as a backup to Colson and Barrett, he gained multiple layers to his game, playing inside and outside.

“Last year’s experience paid a lot of dividends for myself, being able to play both positions,” Hausmann said Thursday during a break in spring practice. “Being able to play both made me more versatile. We’ll see what position and how often I’ll be switching (this season), but the plan and goal is for me to play at one position going into a game. But obviously, being versatile allows you to have more options.”

He knows what it’s like to transfer into the program and is helping Jaishawn Barham, who joined Michigan from Maryland, navigate the move. He’s also learning from a new position coach, Brian Jean-Mary, Hausmann’s third position coach in a year. Actually, George Helow recruited him from Nebraska, but he was first coached at Michigan by Chris Partridge, then Rick Minter later in the season, following Partridge’s firing, and now Jean-Mary is his coach.

“It’s definitely not an ideal position coming into a program that you hope and dream of when you come to a school,” Hausmann said. “But at the end of the day, you have two options, really. You can look at it as an opportunity or you can look at it as a downfall. For me, I look at it as an opportunity because with that, you can see different perspectives because each coach brings something different to the table.

“For me, it’s a blessing to be able to see each coach and how they’ve been throughout the years coaching other players,” Hausmann said. “You get these tidbits from each coach because, obviously, you’re never going to lose what you’ve been coached from the other position coaches. Adding more tools to the toolbox, because at the end of the day, when you’re out there on the field and it’s game time, you’re going to be the one that’s going to be able to control what you do. More tools are always better.”

He said he appreciates the way Jean-Mary sees the game and having that ringside seat to a different perspective of how the position should be played and what he can learn.

“I’ve had a point of emphasis in being able to be more productive in the pass game, in terms of being more ball-disruptive,” Hausmann said. “He’s going to add a key component to that because that’s an area of my game I want to improve in.”

Hausmann said he absorbed plenty from Colson and Barrett. Barrett spent six seasons at Michigan, went through position changes — starting, not starting, starting again — and stuck it out.

“And ended up being a national champion,” he said.

Colson famously played the last several games of Michigan’s national championship season with a broken left hand suffered in early November against Purdue. He stayed in that game and went for X-rays later and then played with a club on the hand. Later in the season, he had a cast on the right hand, too.

“Junior, when he came in, he got a lot of playing time early in his career and seeing him develop through each of those years, just his mentality through it all,” Hausmann said. “His way of battling through injuries, being that leader for the defense and knowing that no matter how he’s feeling whatever injury, he’s going to be risking it all on the field. Each player has individual things that you can learn from and take from. Obviously, for myself, I was put in special opportunities to be able to play behind them and see and learn from them. It’s going to pay dividends for me in the long run.”

When Jean-Mary took over the position group, Hausmann said he was brought quickly up to speed on the standards that were set and that they want to maintain and surpass. The junior also said it takes time for trust to develop on both sides, coach and player, and that’s there now with Jean-Mary and the players. For Jean-Mary, it’s clear with whom the linebacker room starts.

“The main guy has been Ernest Hausmann who has kind of taken over that leadership role,” said Jean-Mary, who praised the group as a whole. “The one thing that I was always appreciative of watching as a linebacker coach, their ability to make adjustments and coming here and watching their actual games, the way that they played the game. Obviously, very physical and productive, but their ability to adjust to things on the fly was as good as any group I’ve ever seen, both coaching and evaluating as a coach. I think that’s the challenge that these guys have.

“Ernest Hausmann has been great so far and we gotta get a couple of other guys in the room to reach that level.”