Previously: The Offense

Resources: My charting, RU game notes, RU roster, CFBstats, Last Year

Rutgers isn't terrible at defense anymore. I don't have S&P+ handy but in yards per play Rutgers currently sits at 49th. For reference, Iowa is 47th, Northwestern 46th, and Michigan 44th (Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd—yay). On film it does appear they've fixed some of the linebacker issues that made them so atrocious against the run in previous years. Pass rush is still mostly broken, depth everywhere but linebacker is a major issue, and with a lot of turnover in the secondary there have been a lot more breakdowns in coverage.

This is all kind of expected: Chris Ash is a defensive guy who brought Quarters to Ohio State for a time, and that kind of coverage takes a lot of time for defensive backs to get good at it. Also it leaves those guys on an island. With bad pass rush.

The film: Iowa, which they kept to 20 points until the 4th quarter by backing them up with punts because Korsak is a punt god.

Personnel: My diagram:

PDF Version, full-size version (or click on the image)

I got to move a lot of last year's rotational backups into starter roles when editing this. Rutgers is taking an interesting approach to their defensive line, rotating all three guys between the positions. I think this is to keep the nose from getting too worn down because backups are not great. Far and away the best player on this defense, Willington Previlon is listed at the 3-tech position but spent the most time rotated to nose, for quite obvious reasons. Nominal NT Julius Turner and his backup Jaohne Duggan are zero-pass-rush guys liable to get blown off the line. Turner in particular is a Kempish sort who will occasionally get into the backfield on a loop but won't stand up on a regular basis. I might have been too harsh on DE Mike Tverdov because he was going against Tristan Wirfs, but once we got to –10 in my charting I had to throw up the cyan circle.

The "JACK" position is a hybrid DE/OLB that's usually outside the tight end, like what Zach Baun was doing for Wisconsin last week. He'll back into coverage sometimes, be their main edge rusher, and always at least chip the tight end. Elorm Lumor was the primary backup last year and is the more responsible but boring one. When they get to a passing down they replace him with CJ Onyechi, a Josh Uche-alike and the only good pass rusher on this team, though even he's often too late:

Chuck it to Collins please.

After graduating two of the worst starters I've ever charted, the ILB room got a big boost this year from the immediate eligibility of Michigan transfer Drew Singleton, who looks, well, like a Don Brown linebacker. Though the official depth chart doesn't reflect this yet, Singleton recently beat out smallish junior Olakunle Fatukasi, and the film makes you wonder why it took so long (again, I'm not a fan of the Rutgers LB coach). The MLB job is Tyshon Fogg, the lost puppy who used to rotate with the old confused dogs. He is extremely hesitant this year, a reversal from the runs-at-shiny-things sophomore he was last year. What's the same is he's still ending up under a tight end all the dang time. He didn't make the chart but #6 Rashawn Battle is the same guy who was running the wrong way wearing #56 last year; the brand change hasn't done any more for his game than "Xfinity" did for Comcast's customer service. Still, Singleton is such an upgrade the overall play of the group has gone up noticeably. Adding a Michigan guy to your organization remains undefeated (except at Michigan).

[After THE JUMP: About that secondary]

Strongside linebacker in this defense is a hybrid job that's returned the very hybrid Tyreek Maddox-Williams, a very good straight-line runner who's starting to become quite good at this system. He has good straight-line speed they use often as an extra blitzer. SS Malik Dixon is a decent box safety who has to play on the edge because he really should be a hybrid linebacker—he was responsible for the one long touchdown when he took a bad step and got smoked by Ihmir Smith-Marsette, whom I'll be comparing to Jehu Chesson in a week. FS Jarrett Paul surprisingly won the job over Tim Barrow this fall and I kinda see it: Paul plays with a recklessness this team needs when other guys are tiptoeing to gaps or getting sat on, and while that cost them a couple of times, it also paid off just as much. Barrow is a year older, and a lot smaller, but clearly more athletic and better in coverage. Little RS freshman Christian Izien was the spring hype leader, and subs for Dixon when a tight end comes off for a slot receiver. He's also clearly not yet playable (#12, the guy who fell down):

Did I post that already? Oh. Chuck it to Collins.

The cornerbacks are both returning starters, although longtime third banana Damon Hayes was starting at strong safety last year since Wharton and Austin were both healthy. Iowa started trying Hayes over the top late in the game—for practice probably since they already had a lead Rutgers wasn't coming back from—and got nothing but some very bad flags. In contrast Ferentz picked on Avery Young all day. I don't think the guy was bad enough that he's going to be a cyan every week, but he was clearly the goat of this game, getting flat burned for Iowa's first long TD. Speed and athleticism might be problems. They're not issues for Ohio State transfer Tre Avery (his name was Kareem Felder when he was in Columbus) but something must be because they'll rotate the safeties but not the corners.

Base Set:

This is a Buck 4-3 that completed its natural evolution back to a 3-4 while retaining the 4-3-ness. They shift between a lot of different fronts while moving around the linemen and changing up where the pressure comes from to try to hide where the weak players are going to be defending. The interesting thing is how they play the overhang guy. While the linemen can have interior gaps they almost never have the edge. That's up to either the hybrid DE/LB or the hybrid LB/S:

Since they almost never change the personnel except to rotate through backups there's no use showing the usual chart with "here's how often they're in a 3-4." They're in a 3-4. The shifts were fascinating. Note this is just the first three quarters, IE before wholesale backups came in.

2019 Rutgers vs Iowa (3Qs)	D Shift					Safeties			Rushers
Situation	3-4/Tite	Over	Under	Eagle		1-high	2-high		3	4	5	6+
Normal Downs	15	12	8	4		9	30		4	21	9	3
Passing Downs	5	4	2	6		2	15		1	11	3	1
Total	36%	29%	18%	18%		20%	80%		9%	60%	23%	8%

As best as I can tell these fronts were pairings based on the offensive personnel and formation, keeping the strongside linebacker always to the field and adjusting based on how many TEs are in the formation. For example they might come out in their standard 3-4 but shift to something like a 404 Tite if the offense goes to a spread.

What shall we call the hybrid today?: Strongside linebacker. I promise the fun names that inspired me to add this section are coming.

Man or zone coverage: Quarters, with a little bit of Cover 3.

This style of defense is still one of the best against the spread but since Dantonio unleashed it on a spread-loving populace its weaknesses have been explored. The big thing is the safeties have to be involved in run fits because the front is concerned with interior gaps. That's a great thing to have if you're stopping spread to run games because those guys are always facing the play, but it also puts them in some run/pass dilemmas that athletic teams have learned to punish with deep routes from very fast slots. This means a team with multiple tall and fast athletes who's willing to send them deep and able to hit them there can do some real damage if the pass rush doesn't get there, and with Rutgers the pass rush doesn't get there.

...

Why are you looking at me like that?

Pressure: GERG or GREG: I got them at 4.32, which is on the GERG side. They do rush three sometimes, usually get four, and change up who that is. As you see above they're not afraid to go up to six, but this is at its heart a zone defense about on par with Penn State in willingness to rush. Usually blitzes are from the strongside linebacker, with or without the Jack dropping out. However sometimes they will bring down that hybrid safety, especially when they smell a run coming.

They can't do it too often because they're not really built to play Cover 1. The last thing they want to do is leave one of those cornerbacks in a position where he has to cover a big striding long-armed fast freaky wide receiver one-on-one downfield.

Ahem.

When they do go cover 3 it's pretty soft and you can see it coming from a mile away.

Dangerman: I got one clip of Damon Hayes doing his thing.

Big Ten refs then flagged this and another play this drive where the coverage was better. So chuck it to Collins.

This is out of respect for the format and the vast gap between the level he's playing at and nine of the other guys on the field with him. Also the way they talk about him like he's the star of the defense. He's absolutely not.

Willington Previlon has taken another step from last year, when I said he was awesome and scrumptious and probably would make a very fine addition to some Michigan graduate program's sitting club. We didn't listen.

The tend to move him all over the line so you can't just playcall runs to where he's not, but he's most effective as a single-gapping nose tackle:

Like some hellacious DTs we've faced in the past, Previlon's an accomplished snap-timer. He nearly stuffed a sneak with it in this one:

Iowa was trying all sorts of games to get him to move out of the way, but the way their line shifts or slants with everything there's no controlling where he's going to pop up.

The one saving grace is he needs to save himself because he can't come off the field. So on pass rushes Previlon will often just occupy some guys and temp you to scramble into a row of linebackers.

Do not do this (chuck it to Nico Collins instead).

OVERVIEW:

I would never presume to tell Michigan's coaches how to do their jobs.