Jake Ryan (American football)

Jacob William "Jake" Ryan (born February 27, 1992) is an American football linebacker who is currently in his redshirt sophomore season in 2012 for the Michigan Wolverines football team. He was a 2011 ESPN.com and BTN.com Big Ten All-Freshman selection as well as a 2011 College Football News All-Freshman honorable mention for the 2011 team. As a sophomore, he was a 2012 All-Big Ten second team selection.

High school
In high school, Ryan was rated as the 30th best high school football inside linebacker in the country by Rivals.com. He was rated as the 60th and 81st best outside linebacker in the national class of 2010 by ESPN.com and Scout.com, respectively. He was regarded as the 34th best player in the state of Ohio by Rivals. Ryan was a participant in the Ohio North-South All-Star game. He recovered the onside kick to secure the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) championship as a junior. Ryan had offers from Ball State, Toledo and a number of other Mid-American Conference, but he grew 2 in and 20 lbs prior to his senior year. Since Saint Ignatius High School has many Michigan Wolverine alumni, Ryan suspects that sudden late interest from Michigan was prompted by one of them.

College
Ryan redshirted his freshman year for the 2010 Michigan Wolverines football team. As a redshirt freshman, he started in the September 3 opener for the 2011 team against Western Michigan as a result of a back injury to Cam Gordon. In the game, Ryan deflected a pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. He went on to start 11 games and play in all 13. On September 24, 2011 against new head coach Brady Hoke's former team, San Diego State, Ryan had two fumble recoveries. His first career quarterback sack came on October 1 in the Little Brown Jug rivalry game against Minnesota. It was his only sack that year until the final game of the season. In the January 3, 2012 Sugar Bowl 23–20 overtime victory against Virginia Tech, Ryan had 4 tackles for a loss, including one sack and one 22-yard loss by David Wilson. During the game, he had his season-high 7 tackles (6 solo). For the season, he earned 2011 Big Ten All-Freshman team recognition from both ESPN.com and BTN.com as well as 2011 Rivals.com 2nd team All-Freshman and College Football News All-Freshman honorable mention honors. Ryan finished among the conference leaders in tackles for a loss/game (.85, t-15th).

Prior to the second game of the 2012 season against Air Force Ryan's number was changed from 90 to 47 following a ceremony for Bennie Oosterbaan in which his retired number was placed back into circulation as a Michigan Football Legend jersey. On October 13, Ryan was selected as Big Ten Defensive player of the week when he posted a career-high 11 tackles (3.5 for a loss and 1.5 sacks). Ryan was named an All-Big Ten second team selection by the media and an honorable mention selection by the coaches. There is no official diagnosis of when his return to football is expected, but ACL injuries typically require a year to fully heal, suggesting that his chances of playing football in 2013 are very slim.

During Spring practice in 2013, Ryan torn his anterior cruciate ligament.

Personal
He comes from a family of football players: brothers, Connor wide receiver and Zack Linebacker play for Ball State; father, Tim, was also a wide receiver at Wake Forest (1980–84); grandfather, Francis E. Sweeney, American politician and jurist, played defensive tackle for Xavier as well as in the Canadian Football League. Ryan is a Catholic.