Durkin: Lots of room for improvement on defense
Apparently Durkin won't be satisfied until we figure out a way to hold teams to negative points.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/09/dj_durkin_michigans_no_2-ranke.html#incart_river
"People can get caught up in statistics and obviously there were some good stats coming out of that last game, and the last couple, but we can make a lot of improvement,"
September 29th, 2015 at 10:03 AM ^
Which was great for the AD budget, since I'm pretty sure we're paying him minimum wage.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
I would be surprised if he left for anything other than a HC gig at this point. He already turned down A&M (and maybe other DC gigs) to come coach under Harbaugh here at Michigan. I assume he loves the guy and wants to work with him as much as possible before venturing out as a HC.
As a broader point, I'd be surprised to see Michigan lose assistants to equivalent jobs. I think a lot of coaches want to coach under Harbaugh and learn, and I think Michigan is finally willing to pay assistants whatever is necessary.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^
that he was coming back to the college game and UM, he loves working with and for Harbaugh because he knew he'd be on a team that had a chance to win a National Title, he isn't going to leave for another coordinator job.
He will, however, eventually be a very hot head coaching prospect if he keeps doing what he's been doing, and so I expect him to be gone within the next 3 or 4 yrs. But luckily, Harbaugh has shown to be extremely good at identifying good young coaching talent, so I think when that time comes he'll find a worthy replacement, still, it will suck to see Durkin go, as he appears to be a great D-Coordinator, and he also appears to be a phenominal recruiter.
September 29th, 2015 at 2:18 PM ^
I agree on all points but the last one. I'm not sure we've seen phenomenal recruiting out of Durkin yet.
Out all of our commitments in the 2016, we have exactly one 4 star recruit on the defensive side of the ball (DE Ron Johnson). All the other defensive remaining commits are 2 or 3 stars. I'm no stargazer, but that does not sound like an elite-level defensive haul. I do expect that to change as recruits take notice of the product on the field, but its a little early to claim Durkin is a recruiting whiz.
September 29th, 2015 at 7:15 PM ^
Personally, I wouldn't be so quick to give all of the credit to Durkin. I think Mattison is an amazing coach and our D-Line has looked phenomenal - more so than our LBs if I had to nitpick. Our anemic offense put our defense in very tough spots repeatedly last year and our defense nonetheless performed amazing prior to Durkin joining the crew.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
hunt best
September 29th, 2015 at 10:41 AM ^
It's a good thing all toddlers are made of rubber. That kid cried, got up, and did it three more times.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:53 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 10:55 AM ^
That was a double A gap blitz.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 7:27 PM ^
The kid on the right identified the wrong player on blitz.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
I love it. Just because we had a great team result doesn't mean there weren't plenty of fixable mistakes made by individuals.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 11:03 AM ^
The implications are tremendous - we rough the Terrapins up so bad that they are indeed knocked back to the previous week, only to lose to West Virginia again. Now, does West Virginia knock them back again to relive their triumph over South Florida or do we want to create a "Loop Of Misery" for Maryland somehow?
September 29th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
- Witty
- Inventive
- Pretends to be in the realm of possibility
- A trace of irony
- Reasonably brief
- Out-BiSB's BiSB
Nicely done.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^
There was at least one dropped interception..
But in general, of course he's right. It's only a few games into the season and this defense, like the rest of the team, can still improve a lot. Remember these are ~20 year olds in a brand-new system.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
One microscopic gripe: we had no takeaways. Stribling should have had one, obviously.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 9:58 AM ^
How could they have? We didn't have many PBUs, and our leading tackler was a CB with 5 if I remember correctly? BYU ran like 20 plays all game, didn't leave much time for anyone to do anything worthy of an award. Of course, I'm a bit sarcastic here, but that's the reality.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:23 AM ^
PBUs and ints were hard to come by mainly because Mangums throws were largely innaccurate, or he never threw the ball in the first place cause the coverage was so tight. He was running for his life or fumbling the entire time. The mistakes to clean up were whatever couple of plays led to the 100 yds they had.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:42 AM ^
I'm almost thinking the inaccuracies were a product of 2 things, pressure and extremely tight coverage. So unless they give points for either of those (which they won't) then we won't win anything. The teams that give up 50 points but have a couple INTs have a better chance of winning an award. Crazy to think of it that way but they look at stats more than the actual film.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:10 PM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
Perhaps negative points are not possible, but negative rushing yards certainly are.
See UM vs. MSU, 2013. Just appaling.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:55 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^
was just thinking this and defensive touchdowns. basically if our defense outscored the opponents offense that would essentially be negative points.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:46 AM ^
and Michigan continues its trajectory up this year with a surprising 9-3 or 10-2 season including a big win against OSU or MSU, my prediction is Jerry Jones is going to throw some T. Boone Pickens like cash at Durkin to come to Arkansas.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:12 AM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^
Also look at Tom Herman, the OSU OC last year. He was arguably the best coordinator in the country last year and only got a HC job from Houston. If Durkin leaves, I think it will be for a smaller school than Arkansas.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 11:36 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 2:20 PM ^
I hope not. I wanna beat him the next 5 years before he retires.
September 29th, 2015 at 11:43 AM ^
Coordinators are a gamble. They'll only do that if they've already missed out on their first few choices.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:49 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 9:52 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 9:54 AM ^
I have never, in my entire life, seen a single play perfectly executed from all accounts, let alone a series, or a quarter, or a half, or a game, or a season, or a career. You can always be more disruptive, you can always get off blocks better, you can always have guys in better positions to make a play on the ball, you can always finish tackles better, you can always do better staying in your rush lanes, you can always read/react quicker. I mean, those are issues Michigan had repeatedly on Saturday and throughout the year, that they them give up yards, and possibly more yards against better teams. Those are areas where Michigan can still improve significantly between where they are relative to perfect.
This is a very good defense. I've never seen a unit that didn't have tons of room for improvement. Satisfaction is the saddest fiction; you are getting better or you're setting yourself up for failure down the road. I expect nothing less to come out of the mouth of one of our coordinators.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^
Could not agree more, and very well said.
There will come a time when, in order to win, the defense will have to step up to a higher level of play, whether for a play, a series, or an entire game. Not only do the coaches strive for continued improvement, when they mouth it, they inspire confidence in their conviction and ability to tackle the job.
September 29th, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
While there is always room to improve, this is the kind of thing that can easily wear down a team, especially if they hit a rough patch. Motivation is a tough thing, but if all you're ever getting is the stick and not the carrot it's pretty easy to start to check out.
I think the message is awesome, I just think that sometimes people get caught up in that always be improving, never be happy mentality so much that it can be counterproductive.
September 29th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 9:52 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^
The defense is doing great. I think, as said above, that more takeaways, interceptions, etc., is the one area we could see more.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:57 AM ^
The comments by Peppers, in concert with the remarks posted elsewhere here by the BYU player, show the difference in coaching staffs...we can go on and on about execution, but this staff has figured out ways to prepare their players for what they'll face. The level of surprise that the players have in the ways that HARBAUGH and his staff prepare show that they didn't have this last year.
No wonder this team had no confidence last year. They were getting out-coached every week.
It's good to be on the other side of the out-coached...
September 29th, 2015 at 9:58 AM ^
Durkin is smart and I'm sure he probably realized that some of the domination is due to a true freshman QB. OTOH, I bet many would be hard pressed to find too many mistakes
September 29th, 2015 at 10:13 AM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^
/s? #Booned?
September 29th, 2015 at 11:28 AM ^