Says 5 and 5 with 2 toss-ups (UCONN and MSU).  Blah blah blah.

 

http://cfn.scout.com/2/973653.html

The 2010 Michigan Defense will be quite young and inexperienced. But how do they compare to the rest of the Big Ten? Finding depth charts was more difficult that I imagined and I was not able to find all of them. [The only one I could not find was for Minnesota.  If someone finds a link I"ll add the Gophers in.]

Obviously depth charts change constantly but these are all finalized after the team's respective spring game, so its the best we got. I did a simple breakdown between upperclassman (Jr. - Rs Sr.) and underclassman.

Teams are listed from weakest to strongest based on 2009 Total Defense.

 

Indiana

(courtesy of Scout)

Starters

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 3

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 14

Underclassman: 8

 

Illinois

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 7

Underclassman: 4

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 12

Underclassman: 10

 

Michigan State

(courtesy of The Only Colors)

Starters

Upperclassman: 5

Underclassman: 6

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 14

 

Northwestern

(courtesy of Northwestern Football Blog)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 15

Underclassman: 7

 

Purdue

(courtesy of Bing)

Starters

Upperclassman: 7

Underclassman: 4

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 14

 

Wisconsin

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 12

Underclassman: 10

 

Penn State

(courtesy of The Penn State Examiner)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 12

Underclassman: 10

 

Iowa

(courtesy of National Champs)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

 

Ohio State

(courtesy of Brutus Report)

Starters

Upperclassman: 9

Underclassman: 2

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 11

Underclassman: 11

 

On first glance these breakdowns make sense.  Penn State, Iowa, and Ohio State usually field excellent defenses year after year.  These programs have (obviously) been able to build up depth allowing them to field experinced players.  Wisconsin and Northwestern also return mostly upperclassman and were ranked higher last year than I intially thought.

Michigan State and Purdue are more evenly split.  Both schools field relatively new coaches compared to these other schools.

 

Big Ten Averages

Starters

Upperclassman: 7.6

Underclassman: 3.4

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 10.2

Underclassman: 11.8

Michigan

Starters

Upperclassman: 6

Underclassman: 5

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 14

 

Clearly the Wolverines are short on experience in the starting lineup, but they are not far off from the other B10 schools.  However these numbers could tip even younger if Obi Ezeh loses his spot and Will Campbell becomes a starter.

The two-deep is even more skewed toward younger players.  In a word: brutal.

---

Not All B10 Defenses Are Created Equal

After looking at the B10 Total Defense rankings from 2009 there appeared to be 3 fairly seperate categories of defensive quailty.

Craptastic: 404.0 yds/game (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, MSU, Minnesota)

Decent: 354.1 yds/game (Purdue & Northwestern)

Great: 295.3 yds/game (Wisconsin, PSU, Iowa, OSU)

 

Which category most closely matches one of the above?

Starters	Craptastic	Decent	Great	Michigan
Upperclassman	6.7	8.5	9.8	6
Underclassman	4.3	2.5	1.2	5
Two-Deep	Craptastic	Decent	Great	Michigan
Upperclassman	11.3	11.5	11.7	8
Underclassman	10.7	10.5	10.3	14

I don't think any further analysis is needed here.  Michigan is significantly inexperienced compared to their BIg Ten foes, especiallly when compared to the good and elite teams. The two-deep is just scary to look at and there is no surgarcoating that situation.  Michigan needs health as much (if not more) than any other B10 team this year. 

The silver lining here is Michigan matches up fairly closely to Purdue, ranked 5th in Total Big Ten Defense.  Hopefully our superior talent will also allow Michigan to finish as somewhat of an outliner in 2010.

---

Michigan Defense: 2009 vs 2010

Starters	2009	2010
Upperclassman	6	6
Underclassman	5	5

 

Two-Deep	2009	2010
Upperclassman	8	8
Underclassman	14	14

 

What does this all mean?

Looking at the Michigan Two-Deep I am surprised that we field the same experience-level defense.  This gives me more hope that the 2010 Defense as an overall unit can be better than the one we saw in 2009.

 

GO BLUE!

Hey guys, I'm 18 and looking to go to my first Michigan game this fall. I was just wondering if you guys could tell me some of the good sections at the Big House to make my first experience a great one. Thanks and Go Blue!

I'm sorry if this has already been posted but when do the 2010 student season shirts go on sale? I didn't have a chance to make it up to the spring game if they were sold there. Does anybody know when they get released to public?

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5234097

Didn't see this anywhere, so I figured I'd put it up.

131 years ago today Michigan took the field for the first time against Racine and won by a score of 1-0.