Mailbag question: J.B Fitzgerald at the MIKE position

Mailbag question: J.B Fitzgerald at the MIKE position

Hey Gents,

Great Blog.

How much of a drop off would it be to insert J.B Fitzgerald at the MIKE position instead of Obi? It just seems Obi is much more a difference maker when he is rushing the passer and would be better suited at the quick position. I believe this would also add some much needed meat up front. One additional thought is inserting Will or Rendalo at nose and moving Mike to the 3-tech. I truly believe this puts the "best athletes" on the field. This also helps our depth on the d-line, with Roh and Van Bergen coming off the bench instead of the walk-ons (though God Bless their effort).

Thanks in advance for the response.

Joey P.

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Thanks for the question and the comments.

The problem with playing Renaldo Sagesse, or Mike Martin, at Ryan Van Bergen's position is neither has the athletic ability to play contain or generate edge pass rush when Michigan stays in the three front.

The strong defensive end has to able to play contain and rush the passer as well. The strong position needs to be able to also stem down and handle the heavy work inside. This takes a special player.

Will Campbell has the skills to eventually handle this in our opinion, but obviously does not yet have the technique; essentially he is raw but very talented. Situational substitution is an option, but that would give the offense a heads-up as to what the Michigan defensive intentions. At a place like Ohio State Will probably would have red-shirted this year, but at Michigan, with the lack of depth creating a necessity for Will playing, the team had an obvious need to have Will get on the job training, so to speak.

Linebacker play is another matter. As of this spring, J.B. Fitzgerald was not ready to step in and play the inside linebacker position yet. Obi Ezeh, although not a perfect fit by any means, was much better in the spring and so far this year then any of the alternatives

Also, please consider that linebackers will only look/play as well as the defensive line in front of them. Eastern Michigan was able to continually get offensive linemen on Michigan’s linebackers because the defensive line did a less than stellar job of holding the point of attack and thereby not keeping the linemen off the linebackers.

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