Doctor Strange D; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 3-3-5

by Beauford on Dec 22, 2008 8:49 AM CST in Michigan Football

If this ship stays on course, Michigan is due to collide with the 3-3-5 iceberg in the form of Jay Hopson for the 2009 season. For many, this is seen as a problem, and their argument is a legitimate one (see SCM's post immediately below this one). For starters, the 3-3-5 does indeed take away a defensive lineman, which for this year's team was certainly our strength. Then there was that Purdue debacle, which we probably would have won if we would have just stayed with our crappy cover-2 4-3. There's also the fact that this is a new defense that the majority of people say just won't work. This is by far the dumbest of the reasons, but there it is anyways.

This is why I'm not afraid of the 3-3-5:

West Virginia	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
Scoring Defense	9th	8th	49th	13th	29th
Total Defense	35th	7th	62nd	15th	36th

Compare this to UM's defense over the same time period:

Michigan	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
Scoring Defense	81st	23rd	15th	24th	43rd
Total Defense	68th	24th	10th	36th	33rd

The majority of the time, West Virginia's 3-3-5 stack was statistically better than Michigan's defense. To add to that, they were doing it at West Virginia where 5 star linemen and cornerbacks don't play. I will admit that the Big East offenses don't exactly scare the daylights out of anyone, but um, which Big Ten offenses do (sit down, Penn State, we all freakin' see you).

This, to me, is the bottom line. The 3-3-5 defense will work and, given the time we're willing to give Rodriguez's offense to work, shouldn't we give him the fair shake on defense as well? (hint: yes)

This past year, our best unit was most certainly the defensive line, but what did that get us? A terrible defense because our linebackers and safeties couldn't be counted on. Sure, we were marginally better when we went to 4 down linemen, but it didn't exactly win us a ton of additional games. If, next year, we want to wholesale run the 3-3-5, how much worse could it be? If the linebackers have improved at all, my guess is it will be better. My point is this: no matter the scheme that you run, you'd better have the athletes to run it. If Rodriguez thinks he can get the athletes to run the 3-3-5 and that he will be most successful in that base defense, then he needs to do it. This scheme is new, but it is proven. It will work, provided the right personel run it.

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OK

I stopped worrying 2.

by ElnoJlewis on Dec 23, 2008 5:38 PM CST reply actions

the problem I see

Is that we currently 2 DT’s signed with Jones and Graves, and another regestered for classes under the name ‘William Campbell" so if we have 4 legit DT’s along with Mike Martin and Jason Kates who was a 4 star out of HS then running the 3-3-5 would only have 1 of the 4 in the game at 1 time. I think Campbell and Martin would be perfect in a 4-3 with LaLota and Roh complementing them on the outsides eventually, Graham this year. anyways I like the 4-3 better with the personel we have.

by maizenbluebp on Dec 24, 2008 8:55 PM CST reply actions

Not really...

if DT is our strength, there’s nothing in the 3-3-5 that says we couldn’t run 2 or even three DTs out there on first downs and other possible running downs. Not that we’d want to do it all the time, but it’s certainly possible.

I, too, am a 4-3 guy at heart, but I don’t like the Cover-2 with this team. If anything, a Cover-3 shell to hide our safeties would make the most sense, but if you are getting that far out there, trying the 3-3-5 first certainly can’t hurt.

Yay, sports.

by MDC on Jan 2, 2009 9:42 PM CST up reply actions