Defense: Looking forward
I would like to focus on the future of Michigan's defense without blaming anyone (i.e. Carr, RichRod, Shafer, GERG, Bill Martin, etc.) for why it's so bad this year. I would simply like to look forward and ask:
Is Rich Rodriguez (with or without Greg Robinson) capable of fielding a competent defense next year? By competent, I mean lower than 60th in the nation in total defense).
I've been a big supporter of RR and have spent countless hours defending him to relatives and friends that don't want to hear any of it. I keep telling them to wait and be patient. Today, one of these friends asked if I thought the defense would be even decent next year. I didn't have an answer.
Any thoughts? Will Woolfolk make enough of a difference? Is there an underclassman likely to make a big improvement next year? To fill in for Mouton? Are there any OMG shirtless defensive recruits seriously considering UM? I'd like to offer comforting news to the doubters, but it's hard to do when it seems like the D could actually be worse next year.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:52 PM ^
When your the 111th ranked defense out of 120 teams in yards allowed, things can only go up. To answer your questions, the defense seems like it will still be really young next year, so slightly improved may be the optomisitc look, considering the biggest jump most players make is from freshman to sophomore year. The defense this year isn't going to get better because honestly there isn't anything you can do to tweak it drastically at this point with the guys we have. Woolfolk will likely make a difference, as it cannot hurt to have him, and Avery Walls is probably the biggest defensive recruit to look out for. By no means do I think the defense will be worse next year, and to cheer you up a little, think about this...The offense will almost surely be even better.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
Just having a years expierence will make a big difference as we saw with the offense this year. Way to many freshmen had to start this year to make a big jump but the conditioning is better at least for most . The ones who need to work on that are not playing much and hopefully learned that to play for RR you will work on your own through the summer. DBs will be better just from being in second year and we will have one or two starters from this recruiting class. The 4 and 5 stars will start comitting over the next few months and we are in on a good share of them. Double figure win total is a for sure next year. I am cheap but I would take you for dinner and brew if wrong or my name isn't uferfan1
October 10th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
unless Michigan can miraculously discover competent linebackers their defense will not improve much. There also seems to be a shortage of speed in the secondary. But I will continue to be positive.....I ain't got nothin better to do.
October 11th, 2010 at 9:51 AM ^
There also seems to be a shortage of speed in the secondary.
do you mean raw speed or slow reaction time?
kovacs has no raw speed, but he reacts quickly so he can at least hide it on most plays, I think most of the recruits are fast enough, but just slow to react
October 11th, 2010 at 12:01 AM ^
1st we are going to blame G Rob.
2nd we are going to switch to a 4-3-4, no a 4-2-5..wait no a 5-2, hmm 6-1-4? There will be some combination of 11 players out there.
3rd we are going to blame Tony Gibson
4th we blame the players.
5th we are going to blame Rich Rodriguez
Anything after this involves running in circles, waving hands in the air and shouting doom alot.
I know you didn't want to blame anyone, but from all the "defense" threads on this board and others this is what I've gathered.
Not a lot of hope from the Michigan fan base...
October 11th, 2010 at 12:04 AM ^
Yes, we'll be better.
In the secondary, we'll have Woolfolk back, plus Floyd (with more experience) plus this year's freshman backing them up, with a year's experience under their belt. In other words, more talent, and more depth....and depth that is also more experienced at that.
At LB, finally we will be rid of Ezeh. As with the secondary, more talent/depth/experience. Furman should be ready to contribute. We'll have freshman Kellen Moore at MLB who should be ready to contribute immediately.
On the line, Martin, RVB, hopefully a more experienced/developed Will Campbell, and hopefully Craig Roh will be back at DE.
Next year there's real potential for our D to be competent, maybe even slightly more than competent.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:19 AM ^
Here's some reason for optimism:
Jibreel Black is already creating pressure on passing downs, given time I think he'll be a real great player (fights temptation to compare him to BG).
I think T. Gordon and Carvin are showing promise at the hybrid spot and both are freshman.
Our trio of true freshman corners (Avery, Christian, Talbott) are getting invaluable experience that they would not get if on a team with normal circumstances, and while they aren't performing great right now, I'm sure this experience will cause at least one of them to become a good corner.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:25 AM ^
Doesn't Kellen Jones weigh like 215??
I don't see a true freshmen at MLB making the D better. Then again there isn't much to pick from. I'd love to see Jake Ryan jump up and snag the spot but that's going on absolutely nothing aside from he redshirted and should be physically ready more than Jones who is just coming in. I don't know maybe Kinard projects in the middle that would be cool too.
The 4 or 5 stars will be committing? To Michigan?? Who??
I don't need the list, I just don't see any locks from any high profile guys that plays MLB or DL for that matter.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:27 AM ^
...If you look at the volume of young players getting significant playing time this year it can only benefit the team next season and beyond. Currently, players like C. Johnson, Terrence Talbott, C. Avery, Gordon, Jibreel Black and to a lesser degree Cullen Christian are all seeing the sort of playing time and game situations you can't teach outside of real games. I think we can hope that Big Will improves over the next year (he's still only a sophomore) along with Richard Ash and the defense will make significant gains.
You can't teach in game experience. The problem is that we're relying on very young players right now.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:40 AM ^
Fire Gibson and hire a competent DB coach, maybe then yeah. And hope Karlos Williams decides to come play deep safety for us too.
It's not going to be a one year thing fellas. We've got coaching deficiencies matched with youth and inexperience and players out of position. If and when Woofolk does come back, I'd like to see him at deep safety.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:51 AM ^
Chew on the fact that we'll lose Mouton who I saw rated higher than Greg Jones in a draft projection the other day.
Linebacker in 11' scares me way worse than this year.
Sorry that I didn't really give an answer. Sure the coaches are more aware of the problem then the fans are. Maybe we'll see some things in the rotations the last half of the regular season that will clue us about who is emerging for the future.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:20 AM ^
Thank you for changing your avatar.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:57 AM ^
This link shows some of the WVU defense's rankings while Rich Rod was at WVU:
I particularly like these national stats from 2005 and 2007, his BCS bowl winning years:
Rush defense/ 109.67 (19th)
Pass defense/ 201.08 (34th)
Total defense/ 310.75 (15th)
Scoring defense/ 17.83 (13th)
Turnover margin/ 1.17 (7th)
Rush defense/ 112.92 (18th)
Pass defense/ 188.77 (14th)
Total defense/ 301.69 (7th)
Scoring defense/ 18.08 (8th)
Turnover Margin/ 1.00 (9th)
There's a reason we hired this guy. He can coach. (Notice I didn't say "he can coach offense." I believe he can coach, period.) My feeling has always been, if he can do that at WVU, imagine what he can do with the advantages of Michigan. West Virginia's helmets don't have wings. Just give him a little more time.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^
this post but I just can't get excited about the teams WVU played in those two seasons.
2005 was in general an awfully easy schedule. They played 3 good teams that year and gave up 34, 35 and 44 points.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:57 AM ^
Coach Gibson is RR good friend and he fired one of the best coaches in the game in Vance Bedford (Louisville DC) to bring in Gibby! I agree fully, i wanted Rich to let Gerg bring in his own D staff...but RR evidently wanted his WVU to stay on board. I just hope he focuses on offense and lets Gerg decide which scheme he wants to run, have a feeling this 3-3-5 bs is all RR idea. Go Blue!
October 11th, 2010 at 1:01 AM ^
the pain of watching this years defense before thinking about the pain of next years defense.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:26 AM ^
Pray that a couple of redshirt Freshmen pan out as Linebackers. Or that the light bulb comes on for other players. Otherwise, we will be wishing for the days of Ezeh and Mouton. I have heard Brian say that in the 3-3-5, you can get away with an undersized MLB. Out of necessity, we may have to find out.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:41 AM ^
Greg Robinson's flowing, silver locks to land the starting MLB job next year.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^
What if all our first year players in the DB improve 50 percent as much as Denard did this offseason? Or even improve as much?
Florida 2007 went to a youth movement in the secondary in 2007 and got torched all season long. Kinda worked out for them in the long run back there
Players get better. But a DB filled with true and redshirt freshmen are just going to get worked time and time again that first year.
Be Patient
October 11th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
Well, I would hope to see improvement - we'll be returning eight starters (counting Woolfolk). But are we still going to have a hole in the middle of the defense? I think we have to try Demens or Fitzgerald out there for at least part of the time.