ZOMG MOAR PODCAST

(I'm only halfway through the offense, keep having to pause to cackle with maniacal glee)

Another gleeful drive in to work with an unexpected surprise!!

I will agree with Brian about Mazi - he was pretty good last year, but not someone anyone thought was best o' conference type.  Anyway, even if the defense isn't the offense, I think it'll be better than we think - especially later in the season after they get a chance to figure some things out.  Because this isn't Rich Rod, Michigan's defense is always decently good enough.  This year, with the cushions the offense should* provide, I think it'll be much better than it otherwise would be with a 'normal' offense.

* - The Harbaughffense often disappoints us in its variety, aggression, play calls, and pace.  We always expect it to be different this year...  Maybe it will be this year?

I could listen to these every day until kickoff. If only football teams had more position groups than offense, defense, and special teams.

I have a long drive next Friday. I’ve been saving season preview podcasts for this drive. I’m looking forward to the seven hour drive somehow. 

Freshmen CB will always struggle when they see a lot of PT. They tend to get picked on and will allow big catches. Will Johnson will be good in time but just don't expect him to be good out of the gate. Derrick Stingley is the exception to the rule when he played at an All-American level in his first year of starting. Chuck Woodson is the same way as well.

Plenty of NFL CBs has gotten burned in their freshman year. Joe Haden comes into mind. He could not cover Adrian Arrington, Mario Manningham in the Citrus Bowl game. 

My big preference is Germon Green will take the job and play at a steady level while giving Will Johnson some reps here and there. Next year is when I expect Will to establish himself as the top CB on the team. 

Brian to Alex Drain: "Get older!"

If that's within his control to do immediately, as Brian's comment suggests, perhaps it's possible to reverse the process.

Brian, please yell at me to "Get younger!"

Can't understate how important a good pass rush was to the team defense last year--disguised a lot of flaws that could have been exploited with more time.

I worry that this defense won't be able to get off the field on third down and will force the offense into more pressure situations. Even if the offense finds a replacement for Hassan Haskins, it won't be able to ground-and-pound if it's playing catch-up. Maybe that doesn't get exposed in the first half of the season--but by the time the competition ramps up with PSU, MSU, OSU, I really, really hope there's a consistent pass rush.

Good analysis.

They're going to have to find a pass rush from somewhere.  Mazi up front should help compress the pocket a bit but I'm not sure they have enough guys on the edges to really make that matter.  I do think they'll find a way to generate some pass rush via formation shifts; Georgia didn't have an elite edge rusher last year and generated top-10 pass rush numbers via their LBers and unique deployments.  Obviously this defense isn't at that level but the blueprint is there to make life difficult enough for offenses that the front 7 may be able to get some disruption.  But we'll see.

The secondary should be a strength and so that might also help in pass defense.  As for run blocking...we'll see.  Ross wasn't great last year but he knew what he was doing and Colson strikes me as still a bit of a wildman out there.  And Ojabo and particularly Hutchinson were great at sealing the edge and they'll have to replace that with guys like Morris.

Anyway, feels like a season where they'll struggle-ish early on but will hopefully round into shape and be a top-20 defensive unit overall by the end of the year.  My one fear is they don't ever get the rush figured out and they just get nickle-and-dimed down the field by better offenses.

Just a reminder that Ojabo took about 3-4 games for the blog to come around on him, and then go full speed ahead.  

https://www.mgoblog.com/content/upon-further-review-2021-defense-vs-wmu

Ojabo  3    10   -7     See the athlete, expectations scaled way back.

The “linebacker” who frustrated me the most was David Ojabo. His athleticism didn’t translate to pass rushing like Hutchinson’s, and meanwhile his rawness was very evident on a number of bounces to the edge that should have been TFLs. He was also getting held like a motha on most of those plays so I’ll reserve judgement. His athleticism also isn’t quite good enough to play linebacker.

It's unlikely that the DE's are able to match what we finished last season with, but we were skeptical on his ability until the Wisconsin or Rutgers game.  

Matching Aiden is of course a completely different story.

I have confidence in the staff that they will find / develop edge rushers -- we seem to have a knack for getting the most out of that position. Hutch was generational, but Ojabo was a huge surprise. I'm confident the staff can do that again. Linebackers...eh concerned. But the secondary should be fine. 

Overall, the defense takes a small-ish step back and the offense has to step up and become more prolific. That potential is there, which is why I expect us to be in position for the conference title if we can find a way to win at the Shoe.

I don't know how a fan of a team that has 2 of the most famous punt returns, made by 2 of the best players in program history doesn't want your best punt returner not to do it 🤷🤷

I think the blogmind and authors are generally being too optimistic about the offense and too pessimistic about the defense.  Under Harbaugh, the defense has almost always been better or as good as the sum of its parts (maybe 2020 excluded, but hard to say since there were so many holes from a personnel perspective).  Conversely, the offense tends to be worse than the sum of its parts (maybe 2021 excluded), particularly the stretch from 2017-19.

Last year we were terrified they were talking up Ivy League transfer DT's in the spring/fall, but the DE's and better than expected secondary/ DT's turned out a pretty good defense.  This year we have the DT's but not DE's and looks like the secondary will be strong again.  I think they will find a way to make it work - someone (or two) out of Guy/Welschoff/Bennett/Harrell/Upshaw will be better than expected.

Whether it was Harbaugh's or Gattis' direction, we now seem to have an OU/OSU style of personnel: the guards have lightened up which maybe means more of an inside/outside zone team, they have receivers coming out of their ears, and are basically starting Michigan JK Dobbins.  I want to believe, but I am highly dubious the offensive personnel will be anywhere near optimized this year and we'll still be running the ball 55-60% of the time with a top 5 in the country receiver/TE room.  This should be a spread 'em out and hit matchups/run into light boxes offense, but I'll believe it when I see it - it's just too different from what Harbaugh has clearly shown his MO to be for the last 7 years.

Last thing - the correct Hot Take on Kenneth Grant is "KENNETH GRANT WILL BE THE NEXT JORDAN DAVIS."  FFS, Mo Hurst?  Mo Hurst was like 6'2" 280.