New defensive front 4?

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Noticed for most of the game that Beyer was in at D-end and Black moved over to DT.

The lineup was DE-DT-NT-DE= Beyer-Black-Washington-Roh

Has Beyer been doing good in practice?

NorthwesternFan

October 28th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^

I heard that Mattison lets the DEs rotate in and out of the game themselves.  He believes that a couple guys (Beyer, Black, Roh, Clark) are good enough to start, so he lets them all play equally.

Maizenblueball

October 28th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^

Yeah, when the game first started, I was surprised to see that Big Will Campbell wasn't in the starting lineup.  Not so much surprised, as disappointed that BWC isn't better at this point in his career.  Although I think I saw BWC later in the game....I was too focused on our Offense, which was down right offensive.  It should have come with an R rating-- content not suitable for minors.

Sione's Flow

October 28th, 2012 at 1:30 PM ^

Beyer has really added some mass since last season and he's one of the guys in the spring, who said we needed to be more physical.  I think he's going to be a tough customer over the next couple of years.

LSAClassOf2000

October 28th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^

Until the Purdue or Illinois game anyway, I think Black had been third on the depth chart behind Brink (before his injury) and Campbell, and one DE spot had basically been between Black and Clark. Beyer was in there because of Clark's injury, of course, but as others here were, I was a little surprised that Campbell was not starting. The front four for the two games prior was Clark-Campbel-Washington-Roh, and before that Black-Campbell-Washington-Roh. As for Campbell specifically, I think he only has five tackles (3 solo, 2 assisted by my count) in conference play, but I don't know if the coaches thought production was the issue out there or if it was perhaps going a bit smaller against Nebraska to create matchups. That being said, that unit has been pretty good this year statistically - they are still the part of the 9th best defense in the FBS. 

Sione's Flow

October 28th, 2012 at 7:52 PM ^

I know Mattison and Hoke have done some great things on defense, but I still believe we haven't seen the best from this team yet. I think we'll continue improving, but next year and the year after could be reminiscent of 2006

WolverineFanatic6

October 29th, 2012 at 2:10 AM ^

I thought Black played well on Saturday.  I guess we will wait for the UFR but none the less the more qualified trenchmen the better, right?  I gotta admit that when we knew the starting tackles would be BWC and Quinton Washington I thought it was going to be a long year.  Gotta give a lot of credit to the defensive staff and Coach Hoke for developing those young men into quality defenders that appear to be getting better every game together. 

Blue in Yarmouth

October 29th, 2012 at 9:13 AM ^

I also should point out that I agree with what you are saying as well...that the coaches deserve credit for how well the defense has performed. 

What I find funny is that in another thread a couple people suggested Al shouldn't get blamed for the way the offense has underperformed and people were saying he shouldn't, becuase they aren't his guys and it isn't his fault he doesn't know how to use Denard etc etc etc in essence saying it is the players fault they are not performing well. .Many, however, will heap credit on the coaches when players do well so I guess you are screwed as a player both ways: Do something good, it was the coach, do something bad, it was your damn fault.

What I think is interesting is this coaching staff took over one hell of an offense and an abysmal defense. Say what you want about RR but this O had all the tools necessary to be one of the nations best. This staff took that horriblke defense and turned it into what we see today, which is a very good B1G defense. It also took over a damn good offense (a cadillac let's say) and turned it into a damn pinto. 

I agree the defensive staff should get huge props for what they have done with this group of players, but at the same time think the offensive staff should be highly scrutinized after what has taken place with this group since the endo fthe regular season last year. They haven't really got on track since they beat OSU last year if I'm being honest.