jack campbell

Previously: Iowa Offense

We now shift gears to look at the Iowa defense, which in terms of the change in danger level, it is the equivalent of moving from a plastic spork to a chainsaw. Iowa's defense is currently ranked 1st in SP+ and this is coming off a year in which the Hawkeyes were 5th in SP+ defense. They returned most of the starters from last year's defense and have plugged in new pieces, most of whom have been successful. Through four weeks, the Hawkeyes have allowed just 23 points. The results are astounding, but what do we see under the hood? Let's take a look: 

The Film: Still rolling with the Rutgers footage. Yes, Iowa State is a better offense but there have been a couple changes in Iowa's personnel since then that made going with the most recent game a smarter decision in my mind. Plus, the Rutgers game showcased how Iowa can get you in ways that wasn't as clear with ISU, so it's a better showing of the Hawkeyes at their mightiest. 

Personnel: Click the picture for big, or here for the PDF. 

The defensive line features four down linemen who, in the game I saw, always rushed the passer. They have two starting DTs, the burly Noah Shannon and the lighter Logan Lee. Those guys play a lot, but so does Lukas Van Ness, the rare player to have his circle filled yet be in the "bench" column. Van Ness can play DT or DE, rotating in for starter-level snaps between the two positions. John Waggoner starts at one DE spot that we might describe as a SDE, with a hand in the dirt and a heavier weight, while Joe Evans is at the other DE spot, the one that sometimes rushes from a stand-up posture. Evans subs out for Van Ness, as well as Devontae Craig or Ethan Hurkett on some occasions. 

The linebacker level sees both Jack Campbell and Seth Benson return as rock-solid starters. Campbell, 1st team All-B1G and 2nd team All-America last season, is a star, while Benson ain't a bad player either. The Iowa Hawkeyes have recently transitioned the third LB role into being a hybrid space player, with Sebastian Castro playing the "CASH" while Logan Klemp plays the "LEO". The CASH is indistinguishable from a nickel corner, while the LEO is indistinguishable from a SAM linebacker. Klemp is now the LEO because of an injury to Jestin Jacobs during the Rutgers game, which is a noteworthy development as that's a significant downgrade in experience. Jay Higgins is next up at the LEO, meanwhile the backup at CASH can probably be found in the secondary paragraph. 

The secondary has returning star Riley Moss as the headliner of the positional group, an expert Cover 2 corner who knows how to hoover up interceptions. Opposite him is now first-time starter Cooper DeJean, who has been excellent this season and has already received the star designation. Those two players seldom leave the field, though the injury to Terry Roberts is a contributing factor to the shallow depth here. TJ Hall and Jamison Heinz are nominally the reserves at that position. Kaevon Merriweather returns at strong safety and is still a star in run defense, while Quinn Schulte has had few bumps thus far replacing Dane Belton at free safety, settling in comfortably in this system. Both Merriweather and Schulte leave the field so rarely that discussing the backups is not a productive use of time. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: defensive clips]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line 

We have just two pieces to go in 2022's edition of The Enemy series. This piece covers linebackers, which this year we will use to only refer to true LBs. We included EDGE OLBs in our last piece on the defensive line, so they are out of the picture for this, and I am classifying nickel-shaped spacebackers as DBs. As a result, only a few teams here will have more than two starting LBs, but I may mention who the SAM is for teams that shift between a true 4-3 and 4-2-5.  

12. Hawaii 

The Rainbow Warriors start at the bottom for the second straight defensive article, and that's in spite of having a returning starter at one of the two positions. Penei Pavihi is the returner and the leader of this group, someone who graded out extremely poorly in the PFF numbers, and he's joined by Isaiah Tufaga, a rotational piece from last season who is sliding in for the departing Darius Muasau. Tufaga didn't fare much better to PFF's data when he got on the field and both players have major athletic limitations. The depth is thin, as you'd expect for a team with as much turnover as Hawaii has endured... Logan Taylor redshirted last season and Noah Kema arrives as a JUCO guy. A pretty brutal situation. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Less depressing LB situations]

With little going on in Michigan athletics, I felt that now was a decent time to do a mailbag to see what our fine readers are curious about. I solicited questions Monday on the MGoBoard and on Twitter, and picked the ones I felt were most interesting to answer. I tried to select questions that were most frequently asked, and that covered the bases, giving different sports representation rather than just focusing on football. I also threw in a few silly questions and one on pro sports. 

[NOTE: I did not answer any NIL questions, despite there being many, because they would best be answered in a post dedicated to that topic. I am hoping that either I or Seth can get to that at some point soon]

Which non-conference game or series would you like to see for football, basketball, and hockey this upcoming season if you could schedule any opponent, and why? (-UMinCincy)

We'll start with a fun one, my favorite among the serious questions that I was asked. Here are my answers for each sport: 

- Football: non-conference games come with a pretty high risk when you play in a premier conference that regularly places teams in the playoff (like say, the B1G), so I'd want to schedule a game with some amount of upside, but one that limits the risk of losing and thus sinking your resume. In looking for a matchup that would be fun, likely to win, but still give you something to gain, I picked a home game against Miami. The 'Canes should be a solid team this year (hovering around 20th in early preseason polls), but don't represent the same threat that a Notre Dame would, especially if it's at the Big House and early in the year. This fulfills the goal of finding a team that would add to the resume but would not represent a titanic challenge. And in terms of the fun, there would be storylines galore given the messiness of the Gattis exit back in February, not to mention a new coach at The U in Mario Cristobal and two historic programs going at it. Sign me up. 

- Basketball: I'm all in favor of scheduling a slate of tough non-conference opponents in college hoops to bolster your tournament resume, so I looked for an opponent that would be tough and add intrigue. I rambled through different ideas and the best I could come up with was Gonzaga. They're a perennially great opponent, are always looking to schedule a tough non-conference, and Michigan and the Zags have surprisingly little history. They have met (1) time in history, and that was at the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis. I'm always in favor of branching out and trying to play more marquee teams beyond the typical Duke/Carolina types, and getting a little more familiarity with Gonzaga could be good for the program, plus it would provide the chance for a resume-boosting win. 

- Hockey: The B1G is a good conference, but not typically a great one, so scheduling a big dog has a lot of upside. Putting teams like Minnesota State on the schedule last year is what helped get the #1 overall seed, after all. With that in mind, I'd like to see a re-match with Denver. Both teams are coming off a bit of turnover following their Frozen Four appearances, but there should still be plenty of talent on both sides. We learned during the run up to the Frozen Four that there is surprisingly little history between these two legendary programs, but thanks to what happened in Boston, now there is a little bit of it. Why not make some more and try to build a rivalry of sorts, while having a chance to get a quality win in the process? 

Alex, if Jim Harbaugh could turn himself into any animal in the animal kingdom what animal would he choose and why? (-Darker Blue)

I thought about this one for all of a couple minutes and came to what I felt was an easy answer: a cow. We know Jim Harbaugh loves beef football, and all the meaty boys who get it done, the Zak Zinters and Ben Masons. We know that he doesn't like white meat (chicken), so we have to assume he likes beef. We also know he absolutely loves milk. What animal produces milk and beef? A cow. Easy answer. It channels his tastes and football ethos, building a team that doesn't budge and can trample you, with the collective weight on the lines of many cows. 

[Bryan Fuller]

Specifically, we have so much talent at the WR position, can we realistically expect to keep them intact through the summer? (-othernel) 

This question was about the "play now" mindset of recruits and how to avoid attrition, and I was interested in the second half here. The Wolverines have a ton of hungry mouths at the WR position, even with Mike Sainristil's move to defense. The list includes Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, AJ Henning, Andrel Anthony, Christian Dixon, and then the three freshmen, with Darrius Clemons likely ready for playing time.

Just speaking honestly, it's hard for me to see this whole group making it through the season intact. The advent of the portal has made it very hard to keep positional groups together, but the WR position I don't even think is too affected by the portal. This would be a tough group to keep together even if we were under old portal rules and that's a good thing. You'd always rather have too many good players than not enough. With Michigan looking to take in 2-3 receivers in the 2023 class, there is going to be some attrition. The question is just who and when. 

I wouldn't expect a ton of attrition in the summer, to be honest. It's an inconvenient time to bail because it's too late to join a team in time for the season. I suppose if someone realizes at the end of fall camp that there's no chance they will play (Dixon?) that they may say it makes no difference and leave then. But I would expect that most of this group goes into the season and then at the end of it there will be a good bit of attrition either from NFL declarations, running out of eligibility, or transfers. But the fact Michigan got through the spring (which is the optimal time to bail) with this group makes it seem to me that they will be together for at least the bulk of the 2022 season before splintering after.  

This might be hyper-niche but if M is looking to replace Hutch and/or Bakich, do you have any names you think they should look at?

— Alex Garbarino (he/him) (@DrGarbs) June 13, 2022

Well this one is pretty topical now that there are reports that Bakich is leaving for Clemson. On the softball end of things, I discussed this in my post-season column. Bonnie Tholl will be the in-house, odds on favorite, but my top candidate is Duke's Marissa Young. Young is a former player under Hutch who has coached in southeast Michigan at EMU/Concordia and has built Duke from the ground up into a quality program. She's also only 40 years old and would be the perfect coach to lead Michigan for decades. 

As for baseball, with Bakich likely out of the picture, I'll throw out a couple names but more will be in a coaching search piece. Chris Fetter is the first that comes to mind and apparently it's on Michigan's mind. It's hard to imagine he moves back from the MLB to the NCAA, but if there was one job that could make that happen, getting to be the head coach at his alma mater might be it. Fetter was a phenomenal NCAA pitching coach and has been stellar in the MLB as well, evidenced by the Tigers having one of the MLB's best bullpens despite it consisting of a bunch of relievers no one has ever heard of (who the hell is Will Vest? I don't even think his own family members have heard of Will Vest). Fetter is also only 36. 

In terms of more realistic options, Central Michigan's Jordan Bischel seems like an obvious name of interest. He was a highly successful coach at Northwood University in Midland, before coming to CMU in 2019. Since arriving in Mount Pleasant, Bischel has been named MAC Coach of the Year twice, and has taken the Chips to three straight NCAA Baseball Tournaments, with two MAC regular season titles and two MAC Tournament titles on the way. He's 41 years old, a native of the Midwest and familiar recruiting in this state and region, and would be a stellar hire.

This is where I'll leave the answer but will have more on it in the future. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Harbaugh... to the LAKERS??]