Mailbag question: Regarding our defense

Mailbag question: Regarding our defense

I do not want to sound too harsh on our defense, but I was not impressed on Saturday, especially in the first half.

Also Boo Boo got blown more than Britney Spears on a Saturday night.

On last thing Obi Ezeh did not do much to make me think he is a good linebacker

Your thoughts guys.

Gene F

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Thanks for the question.

Notre Dame's strong running game caused (absolutely necessitated) Coach Robinson to leave the Michigan cornerbacks on an island. Playing man as a corner on an island is one of the toughest assignments in all of sports. Players who demonstrate they can accomplish this task consistently are first round selections.

Michigan crowded the safeties closer to the line of scrimmage to support against the run. The Notre Dame ground attack was eating up big chunks and controlling the game. A look back at the game shows that UM absolutely could not stop Notre Dame’s running attack early on. . So, UM had a choice of two tough decisions. Let the game go on and hope the score remained close enough for UM to hang in or bring the safeties up, cut down the run production, but place the corners in perilous positions.

Boo Boo and D. Warren were forced to play more man than usual against two very good wide receivers. We do agree the ND game was not Boo Boo's best, in-fact except for two drops by Notre Dame’s wide receivers he might have become the "GOAT".

Every spring we have watched Michigan and we say the same thing about Obi Ezeh. He is a very good athlete, hard worker, great kid, but is better suited to play defensive end or outside linebacker, in our opinion, over inside linebacker.

Obi Ezeh has improved in coverage and does a nice job of helping on the edge. He still does not fill as well as we would like. Bottom line with Ezeh is despite his problems and shortcomings in the middle, he is still Michigan 's best option at inside linebacker right now.

That is why we have said for many moons that UM need’s to pick up on the defensive recruiting and not only get recruits that will develop in a few years, but recruits that can come in and play right away.

We have seen these type of kids do it at places like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, LSU, Ohio State, and even teams that are not as good as the previously mentioned programs.

We believe Coach Barwis will get players ready and make them the best they can be along in the player development component of the strength and conditioning program. Please remember a comment from the past: Coach Barwis has told us many time he would rather get the elite level talent and build them up because their ceilings are so much higher than the lower rated kids.

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