"Quietly ascending" = solid player.
Against ND, Michigan learned that Dwumfour was pass rush only, pancake city versus the run, and started Marshall and Mone who were a major downgrade from our preseason expectations of the DTs (Solomon + an imaginary version of Dwumfour we were tricked into thinking was Hurstian).
Against ND, Kemp got almost no time. Since then, he's stolen the starting spot from Marshall and Mone has upped his game. Which means Michigan has gone from C- to B/B+ at DT as the season has progressed. The opponents have been worse, but some of these improvements are opponent-invariant.
That's enormous.
No, Kemp will never be a star. But he's really damn important right now. Had he not "quietly ascended," Michigan would be in a lot of trouble. And wouldn't be able to keep *anyone* under 100y passing and under 50y rushing.