Who will emerge as our top players on Defense this year?

Submitted by artds on

Last year, Brandon and Donovan turned out to be the #1 and #2 players on our defense, respectively. This was hardly a surprise since both were expected to be among the top players on the team before the season started.

This year, the front runners are less clear and there’s an opportunity for a handful of guys to step up and be the leaders of the Michigan defense.

Who do you predict will emerge as the anchor(s) of our D this year?

Blazefire

August 12th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^

everyone has a different opinion? You know what that means? That our defense is NOT made of swiss cheese, but actually has a lot of very, very good players. We should be juuuuuust fine.

PeterKlima

August 12th, 2010 at 12:59 PM ^

Not so sure that Warren was the #2 guy last year. 

Basically, the whole D stunk it up and only BG was a star.  I think Warren (who got torched in the Wisco game) was pretty much tied with Roh, Martin, and RVB.

Anyway, with defense, I just want them all to be solid.  No need for a superstar like BG if everyone else plays decent.  I think Mouton, RVB, Martin, Roh, Woolfolk, Vlad, etc... could all be "top performers."

Kennyvr1

August 12th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

i would feel more comfortable with warren on the corner if he had stayed like he should have but i think people have been confused about him for quite some time....he got burned constantly, not just that wisco game.

estarr01

August 12th, 2010 at 1:07 PM ^

How is S. Brown left out of the #2 defensive player from last years squad...he played well enough to get drafted...

 

As far as this year below is my top 5

1) martin - hard to argue this one

2) Van Bergen - it will help that he's playing on the DL with Martin.  He's not the most talented player, but he'll never give up.

3) Roh - He was a good pash rusher as a true freshman, but to be considered to be in the top 2 he'd have to improve his pass rushing skills and be more of an all around player.  Should help that our DL is solid this year. 

4) Woolfork - He's a best player in the secondary, my only concern will be him against the #1 WR's on other teams...

5) Mouton? - Gets a litte sketchy here, this is more of a hope than reality...just depends if our LB's are allowed to attack or react.

PhillipFulmersPants

August 12th, 2010 at 4:28 PM ^

Guys like Mike Heart, Brian Greasy, Jack Long, Chad Henney, Brandon Miner, Adrian Harrington, David Boss, Jammer Adams, Jimbo Elliot, Bubby Paris, John Jensen, Renny Hamilton, Greg McMurray, Jared Bunch, Chez Foster, Lloyd Car, Don Deirdorf, Gary Molar, Harlan Huckleberry, Marcus Night, Charles Woodley, Elvis Gerback, Larry Foot, Jeremy LaSewer, Tim Masakoi, Shantee Oar, Jay Fealy, Tie Streets, Paul Yokish, JB Askew, LaMarr Woodson, Aaron Gold, Anthony Thompson, Tom Biakabatuka, Tyrone Wheaties, John Rangler, Bernie Joppru, Kato June, Tommy Hendrix, Mike Hammerstine, Rob Sweat, Jeremy Tooman, Greg Matthews, Glen Steel, and John Cola-Czar all agree with you.

Poor T-Wolf. Has there ever been a Michigan player whose name has been more butchered on the internets?

Blue in Yarmouth

August 12th, 2010 at 5:18 PM ^

I can tell you with absolute certainty that I thought S Brown was the better player last year and new he would get drafted before Warren. I said from the time he said he was leaving that he was going in the fifth round or perhaps not at all. You can call BS all you like but most here on this blog would not agree with your position that Warren was our second best player last year. He simply wasn't.

bacon1431

August 12th, 2010 at 1:09 PM ^

RVB. Love the kid's work ethic and leadership. He's never going to be flashy, but I think he will always be dependable. He's always going to be my favorite player on this D. Death Roh is a close second though.

Don

August 12th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^

Only partially kidding... if he can consistently put our opponents deep in their own end of the field, it will help us on defense immensely.

jrt336

August 12th, 2010 at 1:29 PM ^

We don't have a monster like BG this year, but we have a lot of solid guys. Martin, RVB, Roh, Ezeh, Mouton, Kovacs, and Woolfolk should all be at least serviceable. It's the other guys I'm worried about. Hopefully Floyd plays better like he reportedly did in spring. And then the rest of our safeties are ? marks. If C. Gordon and Floyd play well, we will actually have a decent D.

BleedingBlue

August 12th, 2010 at 6:13 PM ^

JFK FTW!

Also Hulk, Death Roh, and My name is J8NAS

and I better throw RVB and T-wolf in there....oh and what the hell can't forget about The Otter akaThor aka Big Will...anyone with three nicknames has to start wrecking shop at some point in the near future.

SirJack

August 12th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^

Anyone else find it deeply troubling that the defensive staff has only just now begun to use the same terminology. Sometimes it feels like our defense is a rudderless ship. From the beginning it's weirded me out how RR, aside from fighting with Schafer to run a schizophrenic defense in '08, doesn't even pay attention to that half of football.

SirJack

August 13th, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^

I'm basing this on everything RR has said about the defense publicly, which could be dramatized as follows:

RR to D coordinator: "Take care of this, will ya. Make sure you become buddies with all the WVU staff. Speak their language. Make sure our opponents score less than 40 points. Okay. See you in the fall."

Foote Fetish

August 12th, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^

Call me crazy (YOU'RE CRAZY!) but I believe Obi Ezeh makes a Stevie Brown sized leap in competence.

Looking for Woolfolk to be a great leader if just a competent corner (although I would sure as hell take that), and I think we'll have a good D-line.

ituralde

August 12th, 2010 at 2:25 PM ^

If it's not them, this season is gonna suck.

Also, all the LBs need to play like champs.

That's what I'd *expect* to see. Anyone playing well in the secondary would be cool too, but I consider that to be a luxury.

stillMichigan

August 12th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^

I think players have more insight than me and the fact neither senior LB was picked as D captain is a bad sign for Obi and Mouton. Having said that, we must have big time improvement from that group- the LB's.  GERG even calls it the glue to his D - recently. If  someone can step up and make an impact - we can be good. Im gonna go with Mouton. Ezeh gained 10 lbs since spring. Not good in my eyes.   Would love to see Demens beat him out and maybe he's the guy.

justthinking

August 12th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^

....was awarded the Iron Wolverine before the spring game. He knows he needs to step up his game this year and worked hard to get his body in top shape to perform at a higher level this season. I can't see those being 10 bad pounds since spring. He looks pretty good in the few clips he was in in the Day 24 Countdown video. Hope he really takes his game to a new level this season.