Great stuff gsimms as usual..agree 100%! keep it up!

Straight from the horses mouth you are defending.I give you this. Shafer explained his defensive philosophy this way: "Scheme is overrated, I've always believed that. What's not overrated is getting your kids to play with great effort, great attitude and great enthusiasm. Those are things we can control on a daily basis, and that will be my primary goal. . . . The philosophy of our defense is attack-oriented, attack and react. We want to be a defense this is multiple, that is always putting pressure and forcing the hand of the offense. We want to be a penetrating defense. If you're going to (ask) what our objectives are? The one thing we want to do is stop the run, force them to throw the ball on first down, create negative plays on first down . . . and get ourselves in position to force them to throw the ball. Get them one-dimensional. We don't want to be a defense that sits back. We want to be a defense that creates turnovers and scores touchdowns."[11] Similarly, he told the Detroit Free Press: "We're an attack defense; scheme is overrated. All schemes can work if you tackle and keep the ball in front. We're an aggressive defense, force the offense's hand. We're going to stop the run on early downs and force the pass. We'll get situations where when we are forcing the pass, we hit the quarterback, forcing him to throw the ball into coverage."[14] Speaking to the Toledo Blade, Shafer said three goals are paramount in his defensive game plan: stopping the run, pressuring the quarterback and "creating on defense." Shafer said: "Our primary goal is always stop the run, lead the conference in sacks, lead the conference in interceptions and defensive scores. That's the way it's always been everywhere I've been, and that's the way it'll be here at Michigan."[13] Sounds to me like he is a Turnover, Sack, TD guy. He doesn't care about okie, nickel,4-3,3-4,3-3-5 orany other Scheme. "We don't want to be a defense that sits back" WE DID. Cushion after Cushion on third down. When he was hired thats all I read, was his blitz mentality, I didn't see the aggressive "attack" mode he wants. I saw more of a bend, but don't break mentality. In all sincerity, You DO know your stuff Gsimmons, and sound like a damn good Defensive coach, but to Shafer, all that is overated. You keep typing stuff like this and my next Diary will be... MY THOUGHTS ON GSIMMONS FOR DC.

First, great post, and I always enjoy your input. Interesting theory re: why we went so much 3-3-5 v purdue, that it wasn’t the product of discord within the coaching staff but rather (what was perceived at the time as) a low risk experiment. I have read all your posts on Shafer’s defense. I was more excited about the Shafer hire than RR, as I’m of the school that would prefer to see M’s identity be built around defense. Shafer’s resume speaks for itself and if given time, he likely build an aggressive, attacking defense that great athletes will want to play in and which he will make successful. I also loved the fact that RR seemingly handed the reigns to Shaf. I think a common denominator among great defensive teams and consistently great defensive programs is a D coordinator who has a lot of freedom and runs his defense almost as a 1a. head coach (or the HC is a defensive guy who leads the D and allows his OC to handle lots of the O). You don’t want a fractured team, but defense is a different breed and different mentality, and I don’t think its an accident that many great defenses are like a team unto themselves. I also agree that Shaf didn’t have ideal personal for his system, and that defensive systems take time. But let me make the following observations: 1. Most DC’s may use a variation of the nickle against spread teams, as we should have. Where I disagree with Shaf is that given our personal where M’s 5 man DL rotation contained arguably 5 of our top 7 defenders, I don’t think you lift a DL for an extra man in the secondary. You lift a LB and go 4-2-5. This limits your blitz options on third and long and from what you have said, Shaf loves the blitz. But again, you have to face facts about your personal. The only two players who could reg blitz worth a crap were Harrison and Mouton, and Mouton didn’t emerge until 1/3 of the way in. 2. I don’t “blame” our poor third down D on the 3-3-5. Theoretically, any defense which is executed will stop the play. But I think UFR demonstrated that 3 DL in those situations made it too easy for a spread team to execute in 3rd and short, and that we couldn’t generate much pass rush out of it in 3rd and long. Had our LB’s picked the correct gaps more often and maintained leverage, and had our secondary covered better and been more sure tacklers, there would have been more success in stopping 3rd down. That is on the players. But there comes a point where a coach must recognize that while a certain scheme is better against a certain offense, that if the players aren’t executing the scheme, they’re better off playing a scheme not as well suited but which can be executed better. 3. The best way to blitz may be out of a 3 man front, but blitzing is not always the best way to get pressure. Mouton certainly improved as the season went on as a blitzer, and Harrison has long been a great blitzer for a secondary guy. But aside from those guys, there are no two players on M’s team who I would trade blitzing for either a Jamison or Graham with single blocking on the outside. It’s a misconception that rushing three automatically means that both outside DE’s get doubled, usually its only one guy. But I’d have rather forced OL’s pre-snap forced to figure out how the 5 of them would handle the 4 of Jamison-Martin-Taylor-Graham, then have to watch out for one of Mouton/Harrison coming on the blitz. I would guess that most OL’s M faced would tell you there were more comfortable lining up against M’s 3 man front and then dealing with the blitz. All that being said, these criticisms are leveled and the defense as a whole, not Shaf exclusively. As you point out, M ran a ton of different schemes and coverages this season trying to find something. While they spent all this time searching, the fundamentals never improved. There was a lot of pressure on Shaf and the defense to carry a situation they were not equipt to carry. I have a feeling that if you asked him, Shaf would say his biggest regret was not simply sticking to his guns and what he knows, and taking his lumps along the way. I just hope M gives him an opportunity to learn from this year.