Shafer

Submitted by IA-Maize on

I thought Shafer worked wonders with Stanford's D last year.  Stanford greatly improved in both rush and pass defense.

Question:  How in the world can our secondary be as bad as this?  Trent and Warren are not improving.  The safeties are a joke.  Can anyone with better knowledge than I explain why this is going on?

MGoBoard

Magnus

October 26th, 2008 at 12:24 PM ^

I am thoroughly confused by Shafer's defense this year.  The three-man fronts have been ridiculously ineffective against both the run and the pass.  When arguably your four best defensive players are the defensive linemen AND you have a burgeoning star in backup DT Mike Martin, there's no need to have only three linemen in the game.

Regarding yesterday's game, though, Shafer finally went back to using 4 defensive linemen on almost every play and we got 5 sacks on Hoyer.  That's how it should be played for the rest of the year.  But I can't explain the poor defensive backs.  It doesn't make sense to me that Brown still sucks and Trent has regressed.

I'm hoping Michigan follows the lead of other schools and recruits corners to play safety, safeties to play linebacker, etc.  The safety play at Michigan has been bad for too long.  Hopefully Rodriguez's foray into Florida will help with this, and I hope Justin Turner moves to FS.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166007

GeoTracker

October 26th, 2008 at 3:20 PM ^

I don't think he has regressed. I think he was never that good to begin with. His deficiencies have been masked by the play of the other players around him and now it's starting to show as our entire defense is weak at the moment.

Joined: 09/14/2008

MGoPoints: 945

Sean@MATW

October 26th, 2008 at 6:11 PM ^

It does at least appear that the secondary has regressed.  But then again, when your D-line is so good, it's natural that opposing teams will try to attack the weaker part of the defense.  So of course the worst plays will be in the secondary.

 But still...Ron English had less to work with in 2007 and the secondary SEEMED better.  I don't know how true that observation is, though.

Joined: 10/17/2008

MGoPoints: 43

gsimmons85

October 26th, 2008 at 7:10 PM ^

no way shafer has the secondary that english had last year...    englemon was one of the most underrated safties in the big ten,  and adams was one of the more decorated safties in recent michigan history.  Shafer actually needs safties this year to make up for the lack of cover ability by the lbs.   None of the safties michigan is playign with this year have proven itself at this level yet.  50% of the problems with the plays over th middle are the rsult of bad lb play.   SO their is even MORE preasure on bad safties. Not to mention that trent was never good bt was ok last yast year much to eveyones suprise, and warren has been beaten up..  

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 261

goblue02

October 26th, 2008 at 8:44 PM ^

Is there anywhere that has stats for 40+ yard plays this year from all the teams in college football?  I'm curious where we would rank in that kind of stat.  Also how that compares to previous Michigan teams.

Joined: 10/18/2008

MGoPoints: 6