Thursday brought promise, frustration, and excitement to Michigan fans during a 24-17 loss to Utah in the Wolverine's first game of the 2015 football season. Not many brought excitement like sophomore safety Jabrill Peppers.

Peppers can be defined by one word: badass. Whether it be on kick off returns shedding tackles easily, or on defense recording tackles, Peppers is the brightest spot in an upcoming Michigan defense.

You may be asking, like many were before Thursday night, who is Jabrill Peppers? In his freshman year, Jabrill Peppers made three starts that were average. In a rematch with Appalachian State, he recorded 2 tackles and returned a punt for 6 yards. Against Miami of Ohio, he made 3 tackles, and against Utah last season, he recorded 3 tackles. Last season, everyone overlooked this kid. Now, you can't get enough.

Jabrill started Thursday at Utah, and played out of his mind. Peppers recorded 8 tackles, 7 of them solo, and 2 of them for a loss. Peppers is an incredibly quick player, and stops people dead when he makes contact. On defense, he blitzed 6 or 7 times, and while not making many plays on those blitzes, he impacted the play via forced direction change, a solid showing of team defense.

Peppers also did kick returns, and broke tackles on those, extending the yardage gains and giving Jake Rudock and the Michigan offense good field position.

Here we can see new head football coach Jim Harbaugh smile as Peppers runs by on a kick return, an expression many imitated while watching our resident badass play a great game.