Coaches Corner: The Defense, Part 3

Defense:

Defensive Line:
If B. Graham comes back as it has been hinted, this group can be very good. Martin has ability to be better than either of this year defensive tackles, and RVB is solid.

One of the young defensive tackles needs to step up for this group to shine and needs depth that can produce during the season to keep players fresh.

Linebackers:
If the young players do not step up this could be ugly. It is the #1 area of concern for next year. So many questions can Fitzgerald play middle linebacker so Ezeh can move outside linebacker or defensive end.

Can one of the freshmen step up and replace John Thompson. If they play as poorly, not sure how much worse they can be, as this years linebackers, Michigan will continue to give up big points no matter who coaches them, what scheme they use or who is out there. Would love to see S. Brown move to nickel the position that Harrison played this year at times.

Cornerbacks:
This area should be a big improvement. Boo Boo is far more natural cornerback than Morgan Trent ever was. Hopefully D. Warren gets stronger and starts to get back on track with this defense.

Much will depend on what happens with defense. If Michigan goes back to some sort of three deep coverage and man with cornerbacks, it will be huge help.

These players were not recruited to play what Michigan was playing in secondary this year. Expect this to be greatly improved area. Boo Boo is stronger and more physical than Warren and Morgan combined.

Safeties:
Nowhere to go but up. Will be interesting to se what Michigan does to improve this area. You cannot continue to give this number of big plays and poor positional play. Expect to see some shake up in secondary with Floyd or other freshmen safety getting a look at safety. If this does improve, Michigan will be hard pressed to show the improvement necessary. Look for B. Smith to be one of the safeties penciled in to see what he can do this spring.

Nickels:
Harrison and Williams were competent here this past year. However, expect to see Williams get serious look at safety as well. S. Brown could be natural here. Takeaway his deep responsibility and let him play closer to line of scrimmage. He does well when blitzing and when playing moving forward.

part 4 tomorrow morning will be special teams



written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine