Rivals LB Breakdown
I thought this breakdown of our linebacker group was a great off-season read: http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=958229
I share the author's strange fascination and excitement about Stevie Brown at his new position. Anyone who watched a game near me last year can attest that I have not historically been a Brown fan. At all. But he is fast, strong, and when left without much time to think (or choose an angle) he has made great plays on the attack. I think taking him out of centerfield will remove the "fear of the next big play" that seems to have hung over him like an evil residue since App. State. Here's hoping.
With the experience they've got, they ought to be really good this year. They need to be.
No mention of Brandon Smith??? I realize he moved near the end of spring, but he's a very talented player.
Smith is a long way from playing linebacker.
I would not be shocked if Brandon Smith were somebody who might consider transferring after the season.
Isn't brandon smith a safety and redshirt freshman? Why would he transfer?
He WAS a safety. He has been moved to linebacker. That is why I think there's a chance that he transfers after this season.
well i hope they decide soon move him back to safety. we heard good things about him at that position and besides, we need more bodies/talent at safety right now than LB, right?
The coaches know we're thin on safeties. They saw what most of us knew when Smith came out of high school - he's too slow and lacks the agility to play safety. He's a liability in pass coverage. He's at linebacker to stay.
Yeah he was trying to keep his weight down last year so he could stay at safety, but he might just be too big now. He looked pretty big to me at the spring game. I think he could turn out to be a good LB in a year.
I was hearing good things about Brandon Smith before spring, about him being a solid safety, then they said he would be switched to LB and he dropped off the earth. I haven't heard anything about him, what have you guys heard that make you think he won't see the field?
No inside info or anything. It's just that he was a safety until a couple months ago. With redshirt juniors Mouton and Ezeh ahead of him, he won't play WILL or MIKE this year (he probably won't play MIKE at any point, obviously) and Brown seems to be entrenched at the Spinner.
I don't think he'll even sniff the field this year, unless it's on special teams.
I heard they moved him to WILL, not Spinner. So he'll probably have to bide his time until Mouton is gone.
I hope not, I hope he takes over the spinner position after Stevie the "big play" is gone and keep Marvin at SS. I was real excited about this kids I think he's a beast and can make a huge impact in 2010.
Ok. I'm a little confused about what the difference between a normal Will linebacker and a spinner is. It seems to me that by using a safety at the position, they have him do similar things but call it something else. Isn't it just as easy as moving Brown to the Will spot? Don't OLB's cover TE's, slot recievers, and an occasional back out of the backfield? At first I thought it was like a Rover, but it seems like they will focus more on sending him/blitzing to create havok. Does someone have a concrete definition that will help me understand what the difference is? Does this mean that UM doesn't need as many OLB's as a result?
I'm with you, I thought the "spinner" was going to be basically a combination of how Lloyd Carr used Shawn Crable/Ernest Shazor.
It might just be me, but it made more sense to me that the Will and Sam would be more like the OLBs in a 34, the Mike should be a traditional Mike, and the spinner be somewhere in between. I'd be worried that when the spinner lines up at end for a 43 look that they might easily be overpowered by a combo block.
That or I just have this misconception that Stevie Brown would be the ideal spinner type.
...isn't going to be lining up as an end very often, if ever. He's a combo safety/linebacker.
Screw you, GERG, for rendering my knowledge about 34 and 43 defenses obsolete with your fancy terms.
Now as I understand it, we have 3 DL, a Mike, a Will, a faster, more coverage oriented Will, and a 34 style Sam.
Screw it, I'm going to give up on this until I can see it deployed in a game.
Your current understanding is a pretty good one, I think.
people on this board were calling the OLB/DE hybrid the spinner. I believe it originated from an article on Craig Roh saying that he was recruited to play the spinner.
However, I have now heard the OLB/DE position called the "Quick" or Deathbacker on here and the OLB/S hybrid called the spin.
I am still slightly confused to be honest. I know OLB/DE is called the "Quick" and fairly certain the hybrid safety spot is called the Spinner or Spin.
I like the name "Wolfman" from Bo's defense. The specifics of Bo's D is still a little before my time. I know of course it was fundamentally sound but not completely aware of the names or specfics.
If the "Wolfman" position of Bo's D really is pretty similar to the OLB/S of this defense I would love to call it the Wolfman in a Deathbacker style nickname. Mostly because I think Michael J Fox and then of course Jason Bateman would look great in maize and blue.
How about Wolfbacker?
I really like that. I will from now on call the OLB/S spot the Wolfbacker even if it is only in my own head.
Wolvebacker?
I'd love to hear someone (either coach or announcer) call the position one of these on national TV.
I'm not gsimmons, who I'm sure can explain this better, but, the Quick is the DE/OLB hybrid that defines the difference between a 4-3 and a 4-3 under. The position is consistent across these schemes if the name of it is not.
Michigan is then doing something a little different with its LBs. In addition to the quick, Michigan will have a Mike (middle LB) and a Will (weakside LB, lined up on the opposite side of the field as the offense's TE). Ezeh has and likely will play Mike and Mouton has and will play Will. Standard so far.
Now, where Michigan looks like it will differ a little, is what it's doing with it's seventh guy of the front seven. A team running a 4-3 under could employ a 'typical' strongside LB, a SAM, a la Sean Crable, but, instead, Michigan has decided to use a safety/LB hybrid to play this role, which it calls Spinner. This role will likely be played by Steve Brown this year.
The Sam is the player typically taken off the field when a team goes to 5 DBs, so this is both an effort to defend spread teams better and to theoretically minimize substitutions needed on a play-by-play basis. Against many formations, the Spinner will need to perform like a traditional SAM, so this is not just another SS; but, often will be employed more like a traditional nickelback, a la Brandon Harrison when the 2006 team (frequently) went with 5 DBs.
gsimmons, and those who understand better should correct anything I said that was wrong or otherwise misleading.
Pretty good, rose colored write up. I hope these LBs end up playing to the potential that the author lays out.
That said, statements such as, "This fall, Ezeh is slimmer and faster, having lost about 10 pounds..." are pretty ridiculous.
1. Saying a guy is 10 pounds lighter three months from now messes up the whole space/time continuum. (see Dr. Emmett Brown)
2. Pretending 10 lbs. is going to make Obi as fast as he needs to be is wrong and misleading.
Although I was pretty impressed with him at the end of his frosh and a bit of his soph season he seems to have peaked. He will probably the LB core's weakest link this year. I hope that I'm wrong. Althought if I'm wrong that just means that the two guys around him have great seasons....
Ezeh is plenty fast. He's just a split second slow on diagnosing plays and he wasn't the greatest tackler last year. He has some weaknesses, but speed isn't one of them.
Ezeh = Thundercat fast?
I really liked how Crable introduced Ezeh at the beginning of the Capital One bowl - Young Thundercat. I want to think he used that sort of name, as opposed to "young smurf" or "young puddy tat", for a reason. We saw flashes of his thundercat ability last year. I hope we will see it consistently this year.
Early last year, Ezeh had a couple plays where he instantly reacted and blew the play up fast, causing me to text "Ezeh = David Harris" to Matt K. Then he spent the rest of the year on his heels. Dammit.
You jinxed him.
Jerkoff.
j/k
Ezeh was a RB coming out of HS right? I think that's what rivals listed him as.
lead a group of good experienced linebackers coming into this year.
Yeah this should be the best group of linebackers since 2006. I hope the DL can make enough plays for them to get into the backfield.
Great article. I'm still worried about the defense having three systems in three years.
From what I'm hearing of GERG, hes simplifying the D schemes and putting people in position to attack the football to the best of their ability. I'm much more worried about depth if one of our starters go down because we have in experienced players that make up the 2 deep. Them seeing alot of time this year could be a disaster.
I agree that our LB corps is a little light on experienced depth. That said, how strong will this group be next year? We lose only Stevie Brown, and we have a number of young guys on that 2-deep that although they are inexperienced now, they have a lot of talent and not only will the group be very talented, but it will be quite deep and experienced as well. 2010 is going to be a good year for Michigan football.
My only concern is that it feels like we've been saying "next year is the year" forever. People transfer, or we switch coordinators, or we shit the bed against an FCS team seemingly every year since 2003. Something happens that makes us go "Wait until we figure this out, then we'll be kickin'," but then doesn't come.
I hope that GERG is the answer, that nobody significant transfers, and that we beat Western Michigan and Delaware State this fall, but if one of or all of those things falls out of place, and when 2010 comes around we're all saying "2011 will be a good year for Michigan football," it really wouldn't surprise me. This is all probably 3-9 pessimism talking, but I hope like hell that, for first time in a while, "next year" really is a good year for Michigan football.
I completely agree with you.
Your comments also brought back a wonderful memory for me. I remember the opener in 1997, our offensive line was so young, so green, and such a huge question mark that I recall saying out loud to my brother "This team is close, maybe NEXT year we will be really good."
Then our Defense exploded in the Buffs face like a booby-trapped war souvenir. Coach Rick Nozzle was coming unglued and poor Hessler was near tears. It was then I thought 'THIS year we might be really, really good.'
I also remember feeling bad for that kid Hessler. Nobody knew yet that Woodson was ten foot tall and bulletproof. Hessler was simply the first of many to find out.
/end memory sequence
what your expectations of a good year this year is.
For me, I am hoping for a 7-6 year this year with a win in a mediocre bowl game.
In 2010, I am hoping to challenge for the big 10 title and have a shot at a BCS bowl and hopefully be in a much more respectable bowl. Maybe go 9-3 or 10-2
In 2011 and beyond I am hoping to be a top 10 team again and hopefully be in the mix for some National Title chances.
Although a 7-6 team would be good for this year, it would not be good in general for Michigan football. That is why WolvinLA suggests that 2010 will be the year that we can finally raise our expectations back up to what we are use to them being.
2010 is the season I'm referencing when I say "next year," I probably should have made that more clear. I guess a good year is one that either lives up to or exceeds rational expectations, like the 08-09 basketball season, or the beginning (but certainly not the end) of the 2006 football season. It just seems like every year we think that the next year is the one where everything will finally come together, and before we know it, we're left regrouping and pointing to the season after that as the one where expectations will finally be met.
I think that things like Appalachian State and losing five straight to Ohio State and going 3-9 have shown a lot of us that maybe our previous expectations were too high, but dammit, I want to win lots, and no amount of 3-9 seasons is going to change that mentality. I'm hoping for 7 wins in 2009, and hoping we can compete for the Big Ten title and win 10 games in 2010. Of course, I'm also hoping that we beat Ohio State. If those three things happen in 2010, it will be one hell of a good season for Michigan football
WOLFMAN!
but isn't the SAM (now Spinner) meant to be a bigger, stronger LB who stands tall against the run? It seems that if we've got 215 lbs Stevie Brown lining up against the opposing team's TE, we're gonna have some trouble stopping a strong running game.
Add into it that we've got 3 true lineman and a hybrid passrusher (Quick), does it not seem like we'll be vulnerable against a good running team?
btw, Deathbacker and Wolfbacker > Quick and Spinner.
So, for those who know more about this than me, I beg to know:
What are the strengths of GERG's new defensive system relative to the strengths of Lloyd's average defensive system?
What are the weaknesses of GERG's new defensive system relative to the weaknesses of Lloyd's average defensive system?
That is to correlatively ask: Against which offensive types/sets should we be most scared, most confident?
Well, here's just about everything you need to know about Greg's defense: The 4-3 Under written by Pete Carroll:
http://www.trojanfootballanalysis.com/43_under_blitz_schemes.html
I think Ezeh and Brown will have breakout years this year.
Why's that? I sure as hell hope they do... however I'm just not sure this spinner thing is gonna work against running teams.
I think Ezeh will do well, but I fear Brown will get runover a lot by Wisconsin/Iowa/MSU/OSU Tight Ends. Because they'll be blocking him, and they'll be much, much larger than he is.
It's called moving. When you use your legs and feet you actually change your position. If you can do this fast enough and often enough, you'll actually be able to shed a block and make a tackle. Now, that last part is the key here. First move, then tackle.
Did you play football?
We'll see how it works, and I trust it will because Greg Robinson knows a hell of a lot more about football than any of us, but if Stevie Brown is constantly asked to take on lead blockers or blocking TE's, he probably is't going to be making many tackles.
From what I understand, the Spinner position was 'created' to counter spread teams who would pass Or run with 3-4 wides in, so you'd have a guy who could play against the run without being a coverage liability. It was Not designed to take on 240+ TEs or fullbacks with a head of steam.