dele harding

Previously: The Offense

Resources: My charting, UI game notes, UI roster, CFBstats, Tampa 2 primer

In the late '90s Lovie Smith, along with Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy, helped develop the Tampa 2 defense, a Cover 2 variant that uses the middle linebacker as a quasi-safety, and finally forced the West Coast offense to get dinky. This (and Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Hardy Nickerson, John Lynch, Simeon Rice, Ronde Barber, Donnie Abraham…) earned Lovie a head coaching job with the Bears for the meatiest part of Brian Urlacher's career. On the strength of that defense the Bears went 13-3 in 2006, losing to Dungy in the Super Bowl. The NFL quickly adapted, attacking the seams with power forwards they called "flex tight ends" for lack of a better name, putting those MLBs in run-pass conflicts, and option-routing the poor OLBs to death.

By March 2016 Lovie was coming off two losing seasons in Tampa Bay and hadn't taken a team to the playoffs since the 2010 Bears, but to Illinois and their new AD, that was infinitely preferable to rolling with the post-Beckman interim Bill Cubit. The hope was Smith could fix the defense enough that their explosive offenses could do more than lose 67-65. Lovie brought in his longtime associates, including Hardy Nickerson as DC, and Donnie Abraham to coach the DBs.

Abraham suddenly quit in August 2018, followed in mid-season by Nickerson, who cited health reasons. Lovie raised his son from OLBs grad assistant to DBs coach, named himself acting DC, and spent the winter of 2018 searching high and low for a defensive coordinator. Instead, he found a bag coordinator type who'd followed Lane Kiffin to various places and knew how to recruit USC, moved his son to linebackers, named himself the DC, and grew a beard.

The beard is amazing. The rest is a comprehensive disaster. Longtime starters who weren't that good in the first place have regressed. The transfers who replaced them have no idea what the defense is trying to accomplish. Even the guy PFF thinks is the #2 linebacker in the conference right now graded out with double-digit negatives when faced with something more terrifying than Akron or UConn. I know you're all gonna BPONE this with "Just like our offense [clapx5]." That's because you've forgotten what the end of 2010 was like.

The film: Illinois was super-lucky to be in this game due to some Minnesota drops and weather stuff.

Personnel: My diagram: 

PDF Version, full-size version (or click on the image)

[After THE JUMP: Beard game is strong]

Visit Reaction: M Leads For Jackson

While the game itself didn't have the desired outcome, last weekend proved to be a good one for Michigan's recruiting efforts. Four big-time official visitors took in the game and the Wolverines look to have a great shot with at least three of them.

Top-100 CA ATH Lamar Jackson, who could be a corner or safety at Michigan, told 247's Steve Lorenz that the Wolverines now lead after his official ($):

"Yeah, I'd say Michigan leads," he said. "The Michigan experience kind of spoke for itself. The atmosphere at the game was incredible, the academics at Michigan are great and I learned a lot about the program, the players and the leadership of Coach Harbaugh was really impressive to me. I wasn't sure heading into the visit because it's a long ways away and I was not familiar with the weather, but the visit definitely changed my mind on things."

Michigan is clearly in great shape. This was Jackson's fourth official and he hasn't scheduled his fifth; while many considered USC the odds-on favorite, he has no plans to see them on an unofficial before announcing his decision at the Under Armour game.

Five-star GA TE Isaac Nauta is right up there with Rashan Gary as the top overall target on the board, and he told Scout's Chad Simmons he was "very surprised" by how much he liked Michigan ($):

"Coach Harbaugh told me and showed me that there is a both, a need for me, and a want for me at Michigan.  We looked at film, we had a talk, and I saw a lot.  at the end of the visit, I was just surprised more than anything else.  

"I just did not expect it to be that way.  My mind about Michigan has definitely been changed."

Lorenz chatted with us on MGoRadio yesterday and said the visit couldn't have gone much better; that said, he also thinks Nauta still ends up at Georgia, though Michigan has made this a tough decision. Nauta plans to announce at the Army All-American Game.

Top-100 WR Dylan Crawford spoke to Rivals' Adam Gorney after his official visit and discussed his potential role at Michigan ($):

"I really like how it went," Crawford said. "I could see myself fitting in there. I feel like I could play there. I like the coaching staff and obviously the Michigan education is solid and the networking there is unreal. "They don't really have a slot player who could take the fly sweep. They were showing me all the footage about how they have to bring Jabrill (Peppers) on offense to do the bubble screen routes and stuff like that. They said if I was there they wouldn't need to do that."

After talking to a couple sources close to Crawford's recruitment, Lorenz put in a Crystal Ball pick for Michigan ($). One team to watch is Oregon; they haven't offered Crawford yet and could become a major factor if they do.

Finally, after taking officials to both Notre Dame and Michigan, top-100 CB David Long told Scout's Greg Biggins he isn't certain about his Stanford commitment:

"I think there's still some question if they want me more  for receiver or corner," Long said. "Notre Dame and Michigan both are recruiting me 100% for corner but I think that's still in question a little with Stanford.

"I'm still committed but I'm also thinking about maybe opening things up a little to make sure I'm doing the right thing. It's such a huge decision and I want to make sure I'm 100% comfortable with it. You can't go wrong with Stanford and I know that but I just want to be totally sure about this."

Long said he "got a little better vibe and felt more comfortable at Michigan" compared to Notre Dame. He's still a Stanford commit and the other California schools will be in the mix as well.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]