What do you think Don Brown's "significant changes" are?

Submitted by BornSinner on

I remember the on-field guy sharing some of Don Brown's thoughts during the game, and he mentioned Brown saying significant changes would be coming soon. 

Anybody wanna guess as to what they might be? 

I'm sure he looked at our linebacker play and cried a bit deep down. Idk what else can improve that other than better recruiting tho. 

 

 

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megaswami

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:07 PM ^

What's amazing is how schools with less recruiting chops have been able to consistently get good LBers while we struggle to put together a competent unit. Some think this LB corp is good, I'm not one of those. Need some more athletic guys with greater speed.



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Blau

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:40 PM ^

His ability to catch sky high INTs by dropping into pass coverage for a LB makes me question your analysis. He's done that on a number occasions with a lot of PBUs and almost-INTs throughout his career. 

* I will say this year I've caught him (and Bolden) out of position numerous times while having tackling issues. Those are pre-snap fundamentals and have little to do with how athletic a player is.

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Cope

January 2nd, 2016 at 10:05 PM ^

Those who are complaining about our linebackers not being athletic enough or fast enough don't understand how the linebacker position works. Linebackers need to be smart and insanely violent. They need an uncanny ability to diagnose a play, know exactly what gap to fire, and kill, kill, kill. You can have a 5.5 40 linebacker who knows exactly the right place to put himself and he's much better than a 4.4 40 linebacker who runs into the wrong hole and out of the play. Most of what our linebackers have failed at is knowing where to be to dismantle the play before and as it develops.

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TheCool

January 2nd, 2016 at 10:48 PM ^

Both sets of skills that you mention are important. Our LBs lack athleticism which is why so many tackles were missed, lack of explosion and ability to change direction quickly. Instincts definitely complete the picture, but athleticism can cover mistakes.

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Champeen

January 3rd, 2016 at 8:00 PM ^

Morgan is a good player.  Bolden is a good player.  Ross is a good player.

Morgan just lacks sideline to sideline speed.  Bolden has it, but just gets lost, eats blocks or overpursues. They all have flaws.

I was not overly estatic with Gedeon's extended playing time in the bowl game either.  

Getting off tangent here, but RJS had a hell of a game again.  He really really played well.  

Watching the 2nd time, i focused on the OL more and even though the entire unit played probably their best game, Ben Braden played fairly poorly. Smith, of all people, made some great cuts to hide some potential TFL's.

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Gentleman Squirrels

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:18 PM ^

Our linebackers the past few years have been recruited with the purpose of hitting hard. Speed was not emphasized in the previous administration so yeah we need a major upgrade on that regards. That being said, we saw this year that solid D line play can make up for that a bit. Our linebackers got exposed when our D line got injured



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bamf16

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:55 PM ^

That the DL deserves as much (if not more) blame in those two games.

 

I'm not blaming those guys individually; injuries forced a lot of guys into positions that didn't give them the best chances of success.

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Danwillhor

January 2nd, 2016 at 11:17 PM ^

most programs honestly can't or don't recruit guys that are "only" LBs. Major programs can and with that comes the usual hit or miss rate but once you get down around the mid-level P5 schools you see a lot of conversion. Those programs tend to look for HBs that have adequate LB speed and strength, get then to change their bodies and it's a big boom or bust situation. When they hit they hit and you can up those odds by finding guys that love contact. There are DBs, WRs and QBs in HS that has successfully become LBs but they need time. The top half of the programs in the country recruit guys that can only play LB or possibly DE/TE if that fails. The best tend to be more pure at the position but the lower skilled guys are nothing special and your almost better off having gone the "project" route.

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Albatross

January 3rd, 2016 at 7:25 PM ^

it wasn't so much a lack of athletism or speed. Where we came up deficent is in our ability to tackle. If you have linebackers that don't miss tackles, that goes a long way in shoring up your unit. Too often our LBs either missed tackles or allowed ballcarriers to push them back for 5 more yards.

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991GT3

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:13 PM ^

and less diciplined. Emphasis will be on storming the gates(blitzing) leaving the corners to fend for themselves. More of a high risk pressure defense as opposed to bend but not break approach. This will require speed and quickness which I am not as sure MIchigan has in on the defensive line and LB.

MY view is JH will have considerable input. I doubt he is willing to turn over the reins completely to Brown.

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Donnie Brasco

January 2nd, 2016 at 8:33 PM ^

probably took 3 years because they werent good. This defense has been pretty good with the last 2 defensive coordinators and we get our 2 nose tackles back from injury with majority of the defense coming back. Defense isnt as hard to learn as offense

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991GT3

January 3rd, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^

"significant" implying what Michigan is doing now needs to be changed. So what the present coaches have been doing is not good enough?  I don't believe JH wants "a bull in a china store" to manage his defense. Some changes need to be made but overall the defense was pretty good.

Regading my comment about "less diciplined" I believe Brown wants players to risk being out of position to make plays.Offenses cannot game scheme against an unpredictable defenses. This is how offenses are pressured. Not knowing what to expect.

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