I'd love to see us just find something and stick with it (a la Iowa and their boring but consistently good 4-3, two safeties deep).  Part of the problem though is that RR and GERG have been coaching for their lives the last month or so. 

If they stick with the same old, same old, everyone complains because they don't make adjustments and maybe they lose their jobs (although sticking with the same thing is probably better in the long term for a program).

If they throw something new out maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but at least they take the "you didn't make changes" part of the equation out.  Unfortunately, I think they're finding out that this young group would probably give up roughly the same number of pts if they're running a 4-3, 3-4, 3-3-5 or anything else.  I expect we'll see a big improvement next year and experience the Jim Hermann-1997 / Ron English-2006 effect you referenced a few weeks ago where the new D coordinator looks great because he's working with an older version of the guys the last D coordinator had to work with.

As others have pointed out, I noticed that the RPS on defense was a bit, um, skewed toward the negative.  Yes, the defense gave up a million yards and 10,000 points, but they still forced a number of punts and held Illinois to FG attempts on some short fields.  Nothing to write home about or evidence that GERG should stay, but there is some life on this defense.  Also, I'm not sure how much this team can do given the players available; I remember a similar situation in 2008 with the offense, when defections, injuries, and exploding elbows conspired to severely limit the playbook the coaching staff could implement.  The team definitely struggled at times and those wheels of doom were horrible, but given what the coaching staff has to work with I see this game as a real improvement over the PSU game when the defense could do nothing right. 

I don't know about everyone else, but, I prefer the "kitten sniper" vid for this play.  I find it hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

I'll stick with the Lambardi statement and the comments above about depleted personell for now.

But wait! There's more! I'm not exactly sure who this was on, but Roh kept shuffling down on Illinois's inside zone keepers and Scheelhaase pulled, finding tons of open space because Mouton was sitting on the interior again. Since Roh is younger and just moved back to DE I thought it was on him, but I'm not sure if Mouton should get the benefit of the doubt. He gives up contain a lot. Roh shuffled on the third drive of the game and led to a keeper that Kovacs had to deal with, and kept shuffling, and Mouton never, ever scraped. One of these two people must be told to do something differently.

I'm pretty sure Roh has to squeeze on this stuff and shuffle because ends are taught to squeeze when the Tackle disappears. If they were swapping with Mouton taking QB and Kovacs taking pitchman, that's doable.

I noticed a lot of the shuffling as well. If the DE does not have the QB, than someone else surely does (hello, Mouton?).

RR has hired 2 DC's in his tenure at M, both have fine reputations in the football world, both seem/seemed to be clueless at M. I don't know, but there very well could be something going on behind the scenes handcuffing the DC's and making their position untenable. Why should I believe that a 3rd DC is going to prove to be the charm?

On the first Wheel of Doom, the D gets lined up late but it appears to me that we are in a 3 deep (based on Avery turning inside as he makes his deep drop).  Frankly, this play is perfectly designed for burning a young/inexperienced defense.  There are a couple problems:

1. ( I think it's CGordon) he gets NO jam on either the slot or the RB coming out of the backfield.  Covering grass or letting receivers run freely by you is never a sound defensive strategy.
2. If we are cover 3, Avery cannot follow that post into the center of the field where the Safety is.  He's got to stay in his 1/3.  But again, he's young and the Illinois coaches know it, so you do things like that to young kids.  I do it all the time at the high school level if I know I've got a newb playing corner.
3. We are angling to (our) right.  Roh should disrupt that TB out of the backfield too.  I'm sure he immediately recognizes pass based on the block he's getting.

This wheel route and the triple option are things you have to work on during practice but more specifically, by watching film and familiarizing yourself with it.  To defend the option, everyone has to have an assignment and always do that assignment (if your job is to take the QB, then you always take the QB, no matter what else occurs).  The question is, are the kids watching enough film?  Are the coaches teaching assignments in film?  IS THERE any film review during the day?  So many questions and so few answers since we're not there to know.

Good job on the UFR Brian.  That's a giant task.

We have UFRs in three sizes: wee (2006), not so wee (2008), and FRIGGIN' HUGE (2010).

JB Fitzgerald wasn't shoe horned into a position he wasn't playing all year. He has been Roh's backup from the beginning. Roh moving to the DE in the three man lineup was the position switch.

But I totally agree, and said this in another thread, that we should allow Fitzgerald to play outside linebacker in a 3-4 and substitute Banks (or Sagesse) in for a 4 man front having Roh play DE in both situations. Roh is way too small to play DTin a four man front just like Fitzgerald is too small to play DE in that situation.

Finally, I think you should give Avery more credit for that open field tackle on Scheelhause that led to the missed field goal. That was a +3 tackle imhe.

A yoeman's effort here.

I always defend Mouton b/c I think he actually plays pretty well, and I'm not so sure those outside plays are on him.

1.  When Roh is shuffling down the line, he is shuffling b/c he is containing the QB on a keeper.  He shuffles so that he will be in better position to pursue in the event that the QB gives on the dive, but he can still contain the QB if the QB keeps.  If we wanted Roh to go after the RB on that play, we wouldn't have him shuffle, we would have him crash down hard on the RB.  This makes me believe that Mouton isn't supposed to scrape on these plays; his job is to tackle the RB if the QB hands off the ball, and Roh is supposed to contain the QB.  Maybe the breakdowns are because Roh is rusty at the DE position. 

2.  1st Imbedded Play: 

There is absolutely no reason for Mouton to be anywhere near the interior of the play. Kovacs has the QB. The line/DE/Demens has the dive. The secondary is in a three deep. He should be the force defender and is so far out of position that if Scheelhaase manages to make an accurate pitch this is at least ten yards and possibly another touchdown. Either this is his responsibility or GERG's scheme to defend the option literally cannot work.

Looking at pre-snap alignment, this is a 4-3 under with the strong side of the defense being called to the short side of the field.  The 4-3 under is very similar to a 5-2 in terms of alignment (it's basically a 5-2 that is shaded to the defense's strong side and one of the 5 down linemen is actually a standup LB).  This becomes apparent right before the play when Kovacs moves up to the line and you can basically see the semblance of a 5-2.  The reason this is pointed out is to show that Mouton is not an OLB; he is an ILB.   He cannot be the force defender on this play because he is too far inside based on alignment (he is flanked by the LT); he is exactly where the ILBs would be in a 5-2.  The force player on this is Kovacs; he's lined up on the edge and his job is to keep contain so that all action is funneled inside of him.  At the snap of the ball, it appears that Mouton and the DE (can't tell who it is) are running some sort of scrape play; the QB pulls the ball b/c the DE is crashing hard on the RB (notice how this is different from Roh's shuffle).  When the QB has the ball, I would assume it is Mouton's responsibility to tackle the QB, not Kovac's just based on the fact that he is scraping.  There is no way that Mouton based on his pre-snap alignment can get out to the pitchman without bailing to the outside on the snap of the ball; Kovacs based on alignment is in a much better position to handle the pitchman; also the force defender usually takes the pitchman.  If you look at how the play progresses, the crashing DE is in position to make a play on the RB, Kovacs could tackle/hold up the pitchman immediately at the snap of the ball (you're allowed to tackle the pitchman even if he doesn't have the ball) and Mouton is in perfect position to take the QB if he keeps the ball.  We got lucky in that Kovacs got there in a hurry and forced a bad pitch, but I would believe that Kovacs made the wrong read on this.  Another note on this play is that Illinois ran a different type of option on this play than they normally did in the game.  Usually the guy standing next to the QB would run the dive and the QB would then run the option with the RB aligned behind him being the pitchman.  They did the reverse on this play; the RB behind the QB ran the dive and the guy next to the QB was the pitchman.  Maybe this was why the assignments were confused.

3.  2nd Imbedded Play:

Vinopal comes up and lets the play outside of him but either way Michigan's giving up lots of yards here since Kovacs blitzed inside the tackle and Mouton never scraped.

The pre-snap alignment is interesting (our DTs are lined up over the guards (looks like on the guard's inside shoulders (2i techniques)) and our DEs are lined up over the tackles (looks like on the tackle's outside shoulders (5 techniques)).  This alignment either means we are saying our DL is better than your OL and individually our 4 guys will manhandle your 4 blockers, or we are running crazy stunts.  Since Martin left the game and one of our DEs was your pick of Fitz/Ezeh/Black/Banks, it was obvious we were planning to run a stunt.  Basically we are telling the offense we are going to do something that is either going to blow up what you're doing or you're going to burn us pretty bad - flip a coin to figure it out.  We run a "double-loop" stunt where the DTs first go to the outside and the DEs loop behind these DTs and crash to the inside.  Cam Gordon and Kovacs are then tasked with contain and Ezeh and Mouton are supposed to fill any holes that appear.  This play should actually be RPS +1 for GERG, as Roh gets free and will absolutely kill the dive if the QB hands it off (Gordon is in good position too).  The problem is that Kovacs has a mental breakdown (which is very un-Kovacsesque) and takes an inside angle on the blocker which lets the QB know that he can pull the ball for big yardage; otherwise the QB would have handed the ball off on the dive b/c he has no idea that Roh and Gordon are about to light the play up (notice at the meshpoint how the QB is looking right at Kovacs and has no idea what is going on at the frontside of the play).  The play is also predicated on either the CB getting off of the WR's block and taking the pitchman or Vinopal flying up to the play and taking the pitchman.  If Kovacs attacks the outside shoulder of his blocker, the QB either gives on the dive or he cuts it up inside of Kovacs where Mouton is pursuing for a tackle.  Instead, the QB breaks Kovac's contain, and Vinopal is basically screwed on the play as it is 1vs2.  If Mouton's injured pec is preventing his left arm from being effective in wrapping up a defender, then I will cut him some slack on the missed tackle downfield; otherwise neg away.  The missed tackle, however, shows why we will miss Mouton next year; there are very few LBs with the size/speed combination to run down the RB only 15 yards downfield on a play where they are as far apart as they were when Mouton started pursuing.

I will say this about our defense; we were a lot more aggressive this game with blitzes and stunts.  Some credit should go to GERG but I assume it is more along the lines of "our defense isn't stopping anybody anyways so we might as well go down with a fight".

So just to clarify but are Ezeh and Fitz at the postion that Roh vacated?