It’s a goofy thing, but, yeah. I had the exact same thought for an unpleasant half-second before “paywall” kicked in.

Its right next to South Detroit

As someone born in Henry Ford Hospital, and raised in the shadows of Wayne State, I can't tell you how many little suburban white boys I've had the pleasure of bringing up short when they announced they were from Detroit. Now Hamtramck, maybe I cut you some slack. 

Maybe you're just snarking, but the "Deep Detroit" reference was to Deon Johnson being involved in SMSB, which was/is very definitely a Detroit thing.

We have a lot of raw talent that needs a ton of refinement. I think Green and Gray are fine starters (I like Green more than Gray), but the players behind them like DJ Turner, Seldon, and DGW may have higher upside. Dennis and G. Johnson probably have another year to convert their athletic potential into playable corners. 

I'm hoping that whatever system Macdonald brings in, he places these players in a system to succeed and not just on an island to sink or swim.

It's a youth issue, but it sure does seem like we also lack depth. And speed. Other than Seldon, the scouting report on even the highly rated guys like DGW is lack of high end speed. Perhaps that will be less of an issue in the new defensive system as it was in Don Brown's system.

If the existing young CBs who are starting and playing can be qualified as very bad, then yes, things are dire.  With every new CB you recruit and get on the roster, there's a chance they are better than what you already have.

Yes. As you mentioned, the CBs were very bad. There's no guarantee any of those other guys will pan out. And if Michigan is going to beat OSU they need 3 good CBs. I'm not at all saying the young guys won't be very good in the future, but guys who are guaranteed to be good probably would have broken into the rotation last year given how bad the play was. Would a RS freshman or even true freshman Jourdan Lewis have become a starter on last year's team? Probably. I was excited about Seldon because speed matters more than size in today's game. There did seem to be hints that he had COVID and/or was injured last season though.

Sure, bringing in more guys is going to result in some guys being deep down on the roster, but then they can transfer to greener pastures if they want. It's going to take a couple years for all the COVID roster issues to shake out. I'm still convinced people are more optimistic than they should be because I think OSU literally could have put 100 on us last year if we had played. I think Green will be good, he was well regarded and improved a lot, but I would not be optimistic about Gray starting next year.

I've hammered on this a couple of times, but Michigan took two top-14 corners two years ago and have 9 guys currently on scholarship, all with 2+ years of eligibility.  They don't have top-5, no-doubt guys in the group, but I thought both Gray and Green improved as the year progressed and were let down by the poor safety play late in the season.  They'll obviously need to get up to speed with the defensive changes like everyone else, and they aren't likely to be able to run with OSU's cadre of 5* rockets, but I am less worried about CB this year than other spots on the team.  

We will figure out the answer to this question very quickly if suddenly we land a bunch of DT recruits in the 2022 class. I'm a bit skeptical of this as well since even though if he can't recruit the people he wants, he still has to close on the recruits he has been recruiting. Rooks is a great start and getting Ike or Benny would be excellent. I do blame Brown for not expanding our DT board a long time ago. There are a bunch of prospects in the east coast that ended up committing to Maryland or BC and getting them would have been better than getting nobody.

I also want to see how the DL develops this offseason. I think Paye showed some new moves this year but I want to see what Nua can do to develop the talent we already have. The 2021 class also has some raw prospects in Guy, Giudice, and Bennett. Nua will be essential in making sure that they become contributors by their 3rd year

I think we are gonna have to give it some time to figure out who was the cause of the issues. I do know we have progressively gotten smaller on the line year after year under Brown and most of that was not with Nua. My guess is that it was Brown’s philosophy of trying to get quicker on the line and we ended up getting ran all over and couldn’t get to the qb anyway. 

I noticed that random note too.. Never occurred to me that maybe the issues with recruiting on defense were the fault of Brown.  I mean...it makes some sense because talent dropped on defense every year he was in charge of it. 

But I just can't imagine after having and using all of that talent he had on hand in 2016, he plotted a course in recruiting that lead them to having Ben Mason play DT.

Well Brown has been gone for like 3 weeks and Michigan has already picked up 2 DT recruits since then.

Is Sam the guy who stated Milton flat beat out McCaffrey and was lighting it up?  Sounds like typical propaganda talk when the proof is months away.  Hope he's right though.

Signed on to the say the same thing - color me skeptical on this narrative too.  And, once again, if Brown was holding the defense back in this way it’s up to his superior (Harbaugh) to intervene.

Yeah, I feel like some of this is blaming the guy who isn't around anymore; Michigan took two top-11 DTs under Brown in 2019 (before Nua showed up), and while Brown likely preferred guys who were a bit more nimble Nua also didn't bring in anyone for basically 2 years until Rooks came on board.  And Rooks isn't a space-eater either.  If Nua couldn't convince Don Brown that a guy he was going after could work in the defense then that's sort of an indictment of Nua as much as Brown.  

I'm willing to give Nua another chance but the narrative being pushed around him now feels a bit like a smoke screen for the guy who's still around versus the guy who isn't around to defend himself/blame anymore.

I saw this too.  Obviously calling BS on this, but while we are at it, remember how Don Brown was also tying Gattis’ hands with speed in space?  So Brown was fired like, awhile ago.  What the hell has Nua been doing for over a month while other teams were shopping the portal?  What the hell were any of them doing?!  So frustrating.

I’ll go with that narrative with the caveat that Mazi and Hinton are highly rated physical beasts that should be scaring the fuck out of QBs.

Both are athletic 300lb plus guys. They should be ready now. Somebody needs to get them there. 

Also, how does someone coach the 2016 and 2017 defenses and not realize that having big beef machines on the DL is important?

I loved the fire and personality of Brown but I got a little feeling that he had a bit of a need to be "the smartest guy in the room"....  There were no Iowa/Wisconsin comps in the ACC and nobody "prepped 10 minutes every practice" for the BC game each year.

DB seemed so set on his scheme despite personnel deficiencies and thought he could find the CB/DT equivalent of the skinny HS TE/OT that becomes Mayfield or Hayes in college instead of changing course.

Also with his NE recruit chasing.  We have signed some great kids but there are only so many Kwity Payes out there - and once you gain a rep for finding gems (see also Dantonio, Mark) other programs take note and those kids are no longer uncontested on the recruiting trail.  As an example, I am excited to see what Guidice can do in this class but would we have taken him - or at least so early in the cycle - other than for DB to prove that he could find a kid where nobody else could?

All that said - as much as I like Sam Webb - one must consider that he is basically the "Baghdad Bob" of Michigan reporting.  He is definitely putting this Nua info in the most positive light possible.  I hope he is correct.

You didn’t get the memo?  Don Brown is the official scapegoat of the Harbaugh tenure.  Remember that shitty clock management when we had the ball?  Yup, Don Brown’s fault.