The Electric Kool-Aid Defense Test: What Do I Make of the 2010 Michigan Defense - Part I, Coaches
by Maize n Brew Dave on Aug 6, 2010 9:34 AM CDT
in Michigan Football
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Coaching in Action: Photo Courtesy Gregory Shamus/Getty Images Sport
Originally I wanted to go with "Dr. GERGlove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Suspect 2010 Michigan Defense." But all those Dr. Strangelove titles are overdone, don'tyouthink? Still, the MSPaint possibilities are awesome....
But I digress. This isn't about Peter Sellers or the height of the cold war, this is about football. Michigan football. In particular the 2010 Michigan Football defense, and why, oh why, we should or shouldn't get our hopes up.
As fans, I think we're predisposed to go one way or another leading up to a season. You're either an optimist and see 8 returning starters on defense and say to yourself, "We've got some experience, fewer young guys, there's potential here to be decent." Or you're a pessimist and see the loss of Brandon Graham, Donovan Warren, and Stevie Brown and say, "Oh Christ, were screwed. We lost our three best players to the NFL. Actually, Graham counts as six players because he single handedly carried that defense last year. Hand me that cup of Drano, I'm taking the easy way out." One or the other. Don't sit there and tell me you're in the middle, you're not. You either think the defense will be passable or not. Kool Aid or Drano. The choice is yours.
But before you yell "Hey! KOOOO-LAID!" or reach for that bottle of drain opener, we should probably sit down and look at what we lost, what we've kept, and what we're gaining this season.
The 2010 Michigan Defensive Coaching Staff
Out Going:Jay Hopson, Linebackers Coach - I don't mean to dance on a grave or start singing "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead", but good luck in Middle Back of Some Guy's House Technical State University, Jay. I'm sure he was a nice guy and a dedicated coach, but the results on-field were disastrous. As a recruiter he was never able to deliver on his promised recruiting area (Mississippi) and as a coach he was never able to give us a linebacker that could find his ass with two hands and a GPS. Both Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton have talent, they just to have been coached to bury it in the forest before showing up for football games. If you're asking for a point of comparison, I have two words: "Stevie Brown." If Brown, who was an unqualified disaster at safety, can learn the linebacker position as a seniorand put up an honorable mention Big Ten performance under a different linebacker coach (GERG!), then you know someone was asleep at the wheel. Or a drunk baby. One of the two.
Incoming:With Hopson gone, Adam Brathwaite, a long time Rodriguez assistant takes over the safeties. He won't have any influence on the linebackers, but he does have the responsibility for coaching one of the most critical aspects of Michigan's defense. Brathwaite's been in Rodriguez' hopper for a while and he does have some legitimate playing chops to fall back on ( four-year letterman at defensive back for William & Mary [1997-2001]). But whether he's a good coach or not will have to be determined over the next two years. Keep that Drano handy.
Staying the Same:The Rest of the Coaching Staff. The biggest, and perhaps most important coaching change on the squad is at linebacker. GERG!... er... Coach Robinson takes over the linebackers in their entirety. Robinson worked nothing short of a miracle with Stevie Brown last year and this year gets linebackers as well as his responsibility as the head signal caller for the defense. Everyone points to Robinson's EPIC HEADCOACHING FAIL at Syracuse, but the guy was a monster of a coordinator at Texas and in the NFL. He's got the defensive chops you want, and let's face it there are plenty of guys that are just better coordinators than head coaches. Bruce Tall remains the defensive line coach, and I couldn't be happier. I would like to remind people that as good as Graham was in his senior season, he was Tall's pupil for the last two years at Michigan. You know, the two years when he just wrecked shop. Tony Gibson stays with the corners, which I'm still kind of "meh" about, but Warren was pretty good last year and I think Woolfolk performed better than Trent did in the No. 2 slot, so we'll see. If the secondary slides further, I'll change my tune, but West Virginia's DB's were generally pretty damn good so I'm going with track record over the last two personnel deficient years. Like I said tho, three down years makes a pattern for any coach so this season has to show improvement.
Rainbows or Liquid Plumber?To me, this is mostly WIN with some Clorox mixed in. Gibson was just god awful, at least from the results I saw on field. His "accepting a new position" and Robinson taking over the linebackers will make a huge difference for the team. Why? Even an improvement to "somewhat competent" out of the linebackers probably nets Michigan another win last year and willbe the ultimate determiner of how this team performs. You can't have two senior three year starters suck at linebacker and have any hope of being .500. You just can't. I've got my concerns with the secondary, mostly because of the youth and inexperience, but coaches have make do with what they've got and I'm hoping Gibson and Brathwaite find a way to make these guys appear competent this season.
Overall, there's some consistency here for the first time in three years. All the players know their coaches and the scheme seems to be a streamlined version of what they played last season. No new terminology, fewer complex sets, more time to actually retain and process the information they took in last year and refine it this year. The coaching staff is in pretty good shape, defensively, for the first time in a while. Now they have to prove this optimism is warranted.
I'm breathing a little easier because we're not changing everything, again. What's your take on the defensive coaching staff?
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There has to be improvement...right?
I say Gibson having 6 all conference DB’s at WVU in 3 seasons, only one of which played in the NFL tells of his coaching ability.
Hoping you're right
WVU wasn’t getting high level DB recruits and the fact that he coached some excellent pass defenses speaks to his ability. However, he’s got to start having something to show for his efforts at Michigan. It sucks because the deck, at least interms of experience, is stacked against him this year.
Maize n Brew
Because Football is Better with Beer
by Maize n Brew Dave on Aug 6, 2010 12:44 PM CDT up reply actions
The Defense ......
The biggest improvement on D is going to come from coaching continuity and the transition to what ever it is that you want to call GRob’s defensive scheme. I don’t think it is a 3-3-5 or a 30 stack. If it is anything it is more like Bud Foster’s defense at VaTech and that’s a stretch b/c Robinson is probably going to simply that concept a bit.
But it’s still going to look a lot like VaTech’s 4-4 G (modified). The “modified” uses hybrid LBs to fill S roles and play “quarters” zone pass coverage against spread looks from the O. This gives a D a 4-2-5 appearance. Foster named one of his OLB/S types a “Rover” and implemented the “quarters” pass coverage. Its not a “Nickle.” Its more like a 2 deep shell. Roh is that guy in GRob’s D (sort of). Stevie Brown was and Hawthorne will be. Look familiar??? (scroll down to the first Pic …. I couldn’t embed it because its protected):
On run plays, the hybrids easily shift moving up to the LOS to give the appearance of an 8 man front. This defense also is able to bring blitz pressure through the A, B or C gaps alternatively or at the same time, using any combo of Ss or LBs, making it very difficult for an opposing QB and OL to identify who is coming and when. It is a very aggressive D up front and more passive (zone) behind that front. Man can be played but M won’t do that a lot unless both Woolfolk and Turner turn out to be much better than I expect they will be in coverage. The ability to blitz the gaps from the middel of the field is what makes people think this is a “stack” defense and it has those characteristics but this is NOT VWU’s 3-3-5 Stack.
From a personnel standpoint, this defense optimizes the types of bodies and skill sets the players on the roster have and explains defensive recruiting (lots of hybrid type DTs/LBs/Ss). Roh and Van Bergen (DTs) can give a 50 look look to the DL (hand down) or a 30 look (back and hand up). Look for OLB Brandon Hawthorn to replace Stevie Brown at the spinner position and Jonas Mouton will play the other OLB spot. Both of these players have a good combination of coverage skills against the run or the pass. That GRob was able to make SB an All Big Ten Player after his disastrous years under Shafer/Hopson bodes well for Hawthorne. OLB Kevin Leach may be undersized but he’s very smart, very athletic and has a nose for the ball. He’s the kind of player GRob wants to have at OLB. Everyone is hoping Obi has a good year. This D scheme should help him as he has the physical tools to be a good run stopper (if he can choose the right gap to hit!). Fitzgerald and Demens are going to push him though and that’s a good thing. M probably has the potential of being better at the LB position (which was horrible in 2009) than any other group.
Despite Woolfolk’s mouth (The Forcier comments), I like his potential at CB. He has speed and moxie. Opposite him is going to be JT Floyd. I expect Turner and Christian to see playing time at CB. You can be assured that Jordan Kovacs will play at box S. He’s very good there, not so good if he’s expected to cover WRs outside of the box. Cam Gordon at S is untested (but hyped) so is Emillien. There’s no telling whether teams will be able to go up top at will on M’s deep men as one opposing B10 player commented about M’s 2009 defense. But it will be a better run stopping D and that’s what GRob was looking for when he did what he did (tried to do) in 2009 but the LBs just didn’t “get it.” That will change in 2010.
The bottom line is that you can’t pigeon hole defenses any more. They are very complicated schematically and coaching staffs don’t want you or anybody else to know what they are doing. That is why terminology is so confusing and most DCs won’t identify their schemes as 3-4, 4-3 or 5-2 anymore. They aren’t any of those.
by jbuch02 on Aug 8, 2010 8:12 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Great stuff!
Like you said, I don’t think we’re going to see a 3-3-5. I think that’s something that’s been brought up a lot by the press in a way to “easily” explain that it’s a different defense than the traditional 4-3. It’s all crap. What Moundros and Woolfolk indicated is that there are going to be a lot of different fronts and allignments out of this defense, so we really won’t know what’s happening until they line up on each particular play.
Love the breakdown of the positions. Great work.
Maize n Brew
Because Football is Better with Beer
by Maize n Brew Dave on Aug 9, 2010 2:18 PM CDT up reply actions
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