Tip of the hat to Scott Schafer?

Brian and some others here have been saying this for a while, but at least a portion of the responsibility for our defensive ineptitude might well rest in poor coaching of a couple of position groups. I'm not convinced that literally 100% of the "blame" can be placed on roster issues.

Don't these two really explain each other? Run Defense 102nd 6th Pass Defense 84th 115th

Give "Greggers" a few players to work with, then can the Michigan faithful see his true potential as a Defensive Coordinator.

but based on my recollection it seems Syracuse gave up a ton of points this year. Didn't UConn drop 40-something on them in their last game?

I was shocked that Shafer was fired. I have nothing against him. However, I would be careful about some of those stats when I see that huge swing in fumbles recovered. That is something that I do not consider repeateable and it is having a huge effect on some of those other stats.

Courtesy Rivals.com: Syracuse ranks (2009): avg pts allowed: 27.9 (82nd) avg total yds allowed: 337.0 (36th) avg rush yds allowed: 101.8 (14th) avg pass yds allowed: 235.2 (82nd) Syracuse ranks (2008) avg pts allowed: 32.7 (102nd) avg total yds allowed: 414.5 (101st) avg rush yds allowed: 189.4 (102nd) avg pass yds allowed: 225.1 (86th) I'm not sure if Shafer deserves the hat tip or not, but it's clear that the Orange's defense was better in 2009 than in 2008.

Uconn dropped 56 on them. The Big ten? Northwestern: 34 pts PSU: 28pts Minn: 23pts Also: WVU 34pts S Fla: 34pts Cincinatti: 34 pts Pitt: 37pts

I think Brian brought this up at one point earlier in the season, noting potential "noise" in the numbers. I can't remember where/when now, possibly in a UV? Edit: Found it.

But now that Shafer got to run his own D as was not interfered with by legacy asst coaches under RR, it appears he put together an improved D at 'Cuse this year. Brian has suggested as such for awhile now.....that our D position coaches may not be doing such a great job. My opinion is that outside of the D line coach (Tall), I think we need to replace all of them, including Singletary who is appears to be an unorganized recruiting coordinator. I have to believe Gerg is being forced to keep certain coaches on his staff because of their long term relationships with RR. If RR truly does delegate all the D tasks, which he has professed all season to be doing, then he needs to give Gerg the autonomy to build his own staff and make changes if he deems it necessary. I have harped on this in the past....i am a strong supporter of RR being successful, but I want progress and improvement, even if we are starting 5 walk-ons on D. I saw it from the D line this year. I did not see it from any other group on the defense (though the OSU game gave me hope). This is what is my biggest fear and concern for the future or our program. We all know D wins championships and shoot-outs are a 50/50 proposition each game. A good example is ND's predicament and we are eerily mirroring this trend. Nebraska did the same thing with Callahan, similar trend, all O, no D. Pelini finally builds a top15 D at Nebraska and now they are contending for conference championships. They still have a ways to go, but its on the right track. Same deal with Harbaugh at Stanford...they are 8-4, but would be 10-2 or 11-1 with some semblance of a D. Until they have a better D, this will be their fate 5-7 to 8-4 every year in a bunch of shoot-outs. Next year is going to prove very telling IMO, I sure hope we see the D improve throughout the course of the year....

or those numbers wouldn't have improved. I can't believe they even considered Hopson for a minute as DC.