The Michigan football team has plenty of immediate playing time available on defense for its 2010 recruiting class, but linebacker commitment Antonio Kinard is in no rush to see the field.

“I’m actually trying to get redshirted,” Kinard said. “I’m not trying to start my freshman year, if possible. If I am to play my freshman year, then by all means that’s what I’m going to do. But I kind of want to get redshirted, get as big as possible and then walk on to the field.”

The 6-foot-4, 202-pound Kinard, a three-year starter at Youngstown (Ohio) Liberty, said Michigan coaches want him to add 10 to 15 pounds before he graduates this spring.

“I’m steady trying to gain weight,” he said. “It’s hard. My mom’s been feeding me pretty good. I’m not doing any sports to where I have to run or do anything like that, I’m just more of a tiger. I’m just lifting weights and eating, just trying to pack on weight.”

If he redshirts next year, Kinard said he’d bulk up to 230 pounds and compete for the weak inside linebacker spot currently manned by Jonas Mouton in 2011.

“A lot of high school kids are not realistic in the college process,” Liberty coach Jeff Whittaker said. “They’re the star of their high-school team, they’re the star of the area, they’re a big name, and all of a sudden they’re thrown into it and they become a little fish in a big pond again. They don’t realize the significance in having to go in and learn a new system. They forget the significance of going away from home and being in a new environment and dealing with new personalities.

“Antonio’s realistic in the fact that there is a growing process, and for him it’s not just a social and emotional process, but it’s a physical process because he needs to get some weight on.”

When that happens, Whittaker said Kinard should have the same impact at Michigan he did at the high school level, where he was a ball-hawking menace who drew interest from nearly every school in the Big Ten.

Kinard committed to Michigan at the Wolverines’ junior recruiting day last spring, and never seriously entertained offers from Penn State, Illinois, Michigan State and others.

“Michigan State was on it to the fullest,” Kinard said. “They would not give up. They would call me on my cell phone and be like, ‘Hey, are you going to come down here to visit? It’s only like a half-hour more away, 50-something miles away from Michigan.’ And it was just like, ‘Give it up. I’m not going to y’all’s school.’

“They would keep nagging. They would send letters to the school, to my house. It would get nuts to the point where I was like, ‘Please, just give up. I’m a Wolverine.’”

Kinard, who grew up a Clemson fan in South Carolina before moving to Ohio in the eighth grade, said his commitment to Michigan was fortified by the fact that former high-school teammates Isaiah Bell and Fitzgerald Toussaint now play for the Wolverines.

Both Bell and Toussaint redshirted last season, though Toussaint would have played if not for the broken collarbone he suffered in August. He’s expected to compete for the starting running back job next year.

“I know for a fact Fitz is definitely going to play next year,” Kinard said. “That came from Coach (Rich Rodriguez) himself. He’s definitely going to play next year.”

Though he would prefer to sit, Kinard might end up seeing the field, too. Michigan is thin at linebacker, and both Mouton and Obi Ezeh were benched for parts of last year.

Kinard said he’s anxious to “get back in that equipment again and start hitting,” and anxious to get to know his new position coach. Linebackers coach Jay Hopson left to become defensive coordinator at Memphis last month, a change Kinard didn’t know about until a reporter told him Monday night.

“That kind of hit hard just now,” Kinard said. “I was actually looking forward to him working with me or whatever. He always talked to me when I was there. He was like, ‘I can’t wait to get you up here.’

“I was actually looking forward to working with him, but you know, life goes on. I was about to find out one day.”

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.