Vance Bedford

Last year, our secondary was supposed to be awful. We were all shitting our pants at the prospect of starting Jamar Adams and Stevie Brown at safety. Also, that scrub who got abused against Ohio State was supposed to be taking over 1st round pick Leon Hall at starting CB, and most likely our other CB would be a true freshman.

Somehow though, the secondary turned into a bright spot. Morgan Trent went from goat to potential first round pick. Jamar Adams and Brandent Englemon went above and beyond all expectations to the point that we all wondered what we'd do without them. These guys weren't expected to do jack shit last year, yet they surpassed all expectations and Michigan finished with one of the best pass defenses in the country. 

This year, Morgan Trent has pretty much regressed to where he was at when Tedd Ginn Jr was depantsing him, Donovan Warren no longer looks like he's the next great one, and I don't want to waste my breath talking about the safeties.

Why was Vance Bedford let go? This is the guy who coached Charles Woodson and over one season, made what was supposed to be a major weakness into a major strength for our team. Now he's at Florida and I see no way he's coming back unless we offer him the position of DC (pretty sure if he was good at anything but coaching the secondary he'd have had a shot at DC somewhere by now so I doubt that's going to happen and it probably shouldn't). Still, I can't help but think that Rich Rod really dropped the ball in not retaining this guy. Seemingly, here's a guy who did what we all wish Shafer could do, which is really 'coach up' a group of players who look awful on paper in pretty much one season.

I understand I'm posting this on the heals of our D getting ragdolled by a former RB and I seem to be kicking Rich Rod and Co when they're down. But I really would like to know if anyone can fill me in on any inside info as to why Bedford was let go, or if he had less to do with our success on D last year than I think.